In The News — December 19
December 19, 2005
Swiss Hospital to Allow Assisted Suicide
A Swiss hospital has agreed to let an assisted-suicide organization help terminally ill patients take their own lives on its premises.
(AP)
Alzheimer’s, Dementia Cases to Rise Drastically
The number of people suffering from dementia is expected to double every 20 years and could reach more than 81 million worldwide by 2040, health experts predicted.
(Reuters)
Seoul University Probes Stem Cell Research
A panel questioned stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk, sealed off his office and secured materials in his laboratory Sunday as it began a probe of allegations he falsified embryonic stem cells that he said he had created in a scientific breakthrough.
(AP)
NIH Uses Live Viruses for Bird Flu Vaccine
In an isolation ward of a Baltimore hospital, up to 30 volunteers will participate in a bold experiment: A vaccine made with a live version of the most notorious bird flu will be sprayed into their noses.
(AP)
N.J. Awards Grants for Stem Cell Research
A New Jersey commission on Friday awarded $5 million in grants for stem cell research, including what is expected to be the first disbursements from a state for experiments on human embryonic stem cells.
(AP)
Drugs Should Be Permitted in Sport, Professors Say
Professional athletes should be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision, three professors wrote in U.K. medical journal The Lancet.
(Bloomberg)
Lives Lost As Vaccine Programs Face Delays
Companies have developed two vaccines that theoretically could save the lives of several million children over the next decade, but efforts to get them to the poor countries that need them most are lagging.
(Washington Post)
Woman Meets Man who Received Her Son’s Heart
Two years after her son was shot to death, Mary Price listened to his beating heart.
(AP)
Radiologists Use Lights, Films to Soothe Children
Three-year old Jack Law used to be so nervous when he went to hospital for regular scans he had to be sedated, only coming round several hours later. This time it was different, and a lot quicker.
(Reuters)
Testing Drugs on India’s Poor
India has been the focus of medical research since the time when sunburned men with pith helmets and degrees from prestigious European medical schools came to catalog tropical illnesses. The days of the Raj are long gone, but multinational corporations are riding high on the trend toward globalization by taking advantage of India’s educated work force and deep poverty to turn South Asia into the world’s largest clinical-testing petri dish.
(Wired)
California: State Urged to Embrace the Tiniest Science — Nanotech
California must move fast if it is to be a world leader in exploiting the next Gold Rush — nanotechnology, the science of incredibly small machinery and molecules with a wide range of industrial, medical and environmental applications — according to a report to be made public.
(San Francisco Chronicle)
Health Care for All, Just a (Big) Step Away
YOU may find it shameful that some 45 million Americans lack health insurance. Well, by reallocating money already devoted to health insurance, the government could go along way toward solving the problem. But you may not like the solution.
(New York Times)
