July 1, 2008
Now Germany is surprised at the crassness of assisted suicide advocates. A German official assisted the suicide of an elderly woman–and a la Kevorkian, filmed it and then showed it on television. From the story: As nuanced as that debate … Read More
June 30, 2008
The AMA has officially supported palliative sedation. This should be able to go without saying. But due to assisted suicide advocates trying to turn palliative sedation into “terminal” sedation, confusion has arisen. In any event, from the story in the … Read More
June 26, 2008
Assemblypersons Patti Berg and Lloyd Levine’s attempt to institute backdoor assisted suicide via “palliative sedation” just hit a big bump in the road: To get it out of a California Senate committee–they had to consent to their pet bill being … Read More
June 26, 2008
The promoters of embryonic stem cell enterprises continue to tout soon to come “breakthroughs” accompanied by supine media coverage and inaccurate statements by “the scientists” who twist and distort scientific definitions to win a political debate. Such spin in the … Read More
June 25, 2008
To state the obvious, the USA is losing its common culture and moral values, creating an almost unbridgeable cultural chasm. This, in turn, is disintegrating our social cohesion and leading to the me-me/I-I consciousness of radical individualism. But radical individualism … Read More
June 25, 2008
The patient in the Winnipeg futile care lawsuit has died while on life support. From the story: In the end, it wasn’t a judge who decided Sam Golubchuk’s fate–time ran out for the 84-year-old and his family who challenged the … Read More
June 24, 2008
This is a crucial issue involving the assisted suicide debate. We have already seen in Oregon a woman denied coverage for chemotherapy to extend her life, but told that Medicaid will pay for her assisted suicide. Now, that scenario played … Read More
June 19, 2008
Good news and bad news. An Australian jury has convicted two women who killed an Alzheimer’s patient. From the story: The Sydney jury found Shirley Justins guilty of manslaughter and Caren Jenning guilty of being an accessory to manslaughter for … Read More
June 19, 2008
Little noted, but hopefully long remembered, the Congress passed and President Bush recently signed, the Genetic Information Non Discrimination Act of 2008. Given the ability now to quickly test the genetic makeup of each and every one of us–with or … Read More
June 18, 2008
The doctors in the Winnipeg Samuel Golubchuk case are intent on showing his family and society who is boss. Two more have resigned rather than provide care. From the story: CBC News has learned that two other doctors–Bojan Paunovic and … Read More
June 17, 2008
There is an old saying that may be a cliche`, but it is true nonetheless: Money talks. In ESCR and human cloning research, the silence has been deafening: Venture capitalists having done their due diligence, they have widely avoided the … Read More
June 17, 2008
Apparently many doctors don’t tell cancer patients when they enter the terminal stage of the disease. From the story: Only one-third of terminally ill cancer patients in a new, federally funded study said their doctors had discussed end-of-life care. Surprisingly, … Read More
June 15, 2008
A full one-quarter of NHS trust hospitals in the UK fail to meet minimum standards of cleanliness. From the story: The Healthcare Commission reports that no improvement has been made on a year ago. In total, 103 out of 391 … Read More
June 14, 2008
So much time is spent by the media (and SHS) arguing about technologies like cloning and ESCR, that I like to feature non-controversial biotech stories from time to time in order to help us all keep a proper perspective. This … Read More
June 13, 2008
Assisted suicide advocates pushing Washington’s I 1000 are resorting to coercion to pressure the media into using their advocacy phrases when describing the pro-assisted suicide initiative. From the Eye on Olympia blog : I-1000 proponents have been pressing news organizations … Read More
June 13, 2008
Whilst a woman in the UK with MS seeks the right to have her husband take her to Switzerland for assisted suicide to the cheers of euthanasia advocates and the media, other MS patients have been effectively treated with their … Read More
June 11, 2008
A Frenchman who suffered a severe heart attack has apparently spontaneously awakened after 1 1/2 hours without a normal heartbeat (but mechanical heart message). From the story: A man whose heart had stopped beating woke up just as surgeons were … Read More
June 4, 2008
When a story about worrying suicide rates in Oregon crossed my computer, I bet myself that the expert being interviewed and the reporter would ignore the obvious: Oregon officially sanctions some suicides and calls them “choice” if the suicidal person … Read More
June 4, 2008
This is great: A child with a fatal genetic disease has apparently been treated effectively with a combination of adult/umbilical cord blood stem cells. From the story: In October 2007, Nate Liao received marrow- and umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells … Read More
June 3, 2008
This is precisely the kind of experiment for which we were told that cloning was required; creating patient specific, tailor made stem cells for study. From the story: Researchers at Johns Hopkins have established a human cell-based system for studying … Read More
May 16, 2008
Advocates for an “anything goes” scientific sector often claim that attempts to place reasonable ethical parameters around biotechnology–say by outlawing all human cloning as has been urged by the UN General Assembly–is a war on science or the imposition of … Read More
May 15, 2008
I have a piece up on today’s First Things daily about assisted suicide and how it corrupts palliative care. From my column: For the past two decades, euthanasia/assisted-suicide ideologues have worked overtime to conflate palliative care–the medical alleviation of pain … Read More
May 14, 2008
I just read a ridiculous screed by Steven Pinker in the New Republic that is beyond ludicrous. His primary purpose seems to be to attack Leon Kass, who agree or disagree with him, is a very serious thinker. A secondary … Read More
May 14, 2008
Recent events have me recalling the best and most succinct description of why we are slowly succumbing to the culture of death. They are from Canadian journalist and commentator, Andrew Coyne, who, reacting to the widespread public support for Robert … Read More
May 14, 2008
We keep hearing that the Oregon law is working without a flaw. The media touts that party line in almost every story about the issue. Of course to do that, contrary information has to be ignored. For example, the Michael … Read More
