29 October 2007
Portugal - Government Orders Doctors to Remove Anti-Abortion Restrictions from Code of Ethics
The Health Minister has ordered the Portuguese Medical Association to eliminate its ethical prohibition on performing abortions, sparking protests from physicians and legal experts. The decision appears to follow a recent strategy used by the abortion lobby and pro-abortion politicians in Latin America, which equates the decriminalization of abortion with a legal "right" to an abortion. Although criminal penalties have been eliminated from the Portuguese legal code, the Constitution of Portugal still states that "human life shall be inviolable" and "the death penalty shall not exist under any circumstances." The decision to force the changes drew a sharp denunciation from Daniel Serrao, a doctor who previously headed the Ethical Commission of the Portuguese Medical Association, who stated that "any type of interference is completely unacceptable, from whomever it comes outside of the profession, regarding the way that doctors think they should relate to each other." The Portuguese Bar Association also issued a statement denouncing the decision as "arrogant and overbearing". ...[more]
USA - Sharp Contrast Between the Number of Abortions and Adoptions
Data released by the Connecticut Department of Public Health indicates that in 2006 the number of abortions increased drastically over the previous year by 2,002 totaling 14,112 abortions in CT alone. The source, Fact Book 4 of the National Campaign for Adoption, sites the most recent adoption data from 2002, indicating that Connecticut had only 1,054 domestic adoptions with only 229 being infants, 804 were older children, 577 being special need children. Corinn Dahm, a spokesperson for 40 Days for Life, who herself was an adopted child, expressed concern that so few women choose adoption and stated that the question is “why do we have so many infertile couples going to foreign countries to adopt a baby when we have 1.2 million women choosing to abort their babies instead of offering them life to help 1.5 million infertile couples wanting to adopt and give these children a loving home”.
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Italy’s Terry Schiavo
34-year-old Eluana Englaro has been in a coma for 15 years following a car accident. Her father has been fighting to turn off her feeding tube because he feels she’s living in an ‘inhuman and degrading condition’. While the Milan Court refused to authorize the removal of nutrition and hydration, Italy’s highest appeals court has ordered a retrial after the Cessation Court declared that a person has the right to decide for medical treatment, even if doing so would cause death. While doctors say Eluana will never regain consciousness, she is healthy and has never required life-support systems. Her father has often compared her situation with Terry Schiavo. ...[more]
Japanese Medical Association Approves Euthanasia
The Japanese Association of Acute Medicine issued a statement approving euthanasia for terminally-ill patients using the following guidelines – if the patient or family asks for it in writing; if the patient’s wishes are unknown and the family is unable to decide, a panel of doctors will make the decision. Although current Japanese law is silent on the issue of euthanasia, it has been tolerated by some judges, although a doctor was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 2005 for having administered a lethal injection to a comatose patient. ...[more]
USA - Comatose Patient’s Tube Removed After One Week
A week after a car accident put Jesse Ramirez in a coma, doctors said he had a small chance of recovery and his wife removed his feeding tube. His parents fought the decision and the court decided to return the tube until legal issues were resolved. He was without food and water for almost six days. Within a short time, Jesse opened his eyes and could communicate with his family. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery. While it is obvious doctors were wrong about his chances, family aren’t sure why his wife decided to pull the feeding tube so soon. The police report for the accident said that the couple had been fighting just before the accident. ...[more]
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South Africa – Study Predicts Major Rise in XDR-TB
Without new interventions, cases of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in rural South Africa will increase dramatically over the next five years, according to a study published in The Lancet. The study, which modelled the effect of various infection control measures on the spread of XDR-TB in the rural community of Tugela Ferry in KwaZulu-Natal, suggests that infection rates will increase from 194 cases in 2007 to an estimated average of 234 cases a year by 2012. Multidrug-resistant TB will also increase from 352 cases in 2007 to 425 a year over the same period. They estimate that 72–96 % of all new XDR-TB cases in Tugela Ferry will occur in people infected with HIV. The scientists claim that more than half the airborne infections of XDR-TB — tuberculosis that is resistant to both first-line and specific second-line drugs — would occur within hospitals. ...[more]
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USA - Christian Foster Parents Condemn 'Homosexual Laws'
A Christian couple who have taken in 28 children have been forced to give up being foster parents after they refused to promote homosexuality. Vincent Matherick, 65, and his 61-year-old wife Pauline were told by social services that they had to comply with legislation requiring them to treat homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality. As a result, their 11-year-old foster son is being moved to a children's unit. A spokesman for the council's children's and young people's directorate said it was about "equality issues", not homosexuality. "It is not about promoting homosexuality, it is about foster carers being aware of equality issues," he said, adding that the council did not expect to lose any more carers as a result of the rules. David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, said: "It's absolutely horrendous that Christian men and women doing their bit for the community are being discriminated against because of their beliefs. I'm quite certain that social services would never dare to ask a member of any other established religion to agree to such a stance on homosexuality." ...[more]
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Europe - A New International Instrument to Protect Children
The new study estimates that between 10% and 20% of children in Europe are sexually assaulted during their childhood from incest to pornography. The ever growing use the of Internet has brought about new risks, and cyberspace is crawling with sexual predators “grooming” their potential victims. Tens of thousands of children suffer as victims of their tormentors, but also as victims of secrecy and denial. Parties to the new convention will be obliged to criminalise the use of Internet by adults to solicit contact with children with the intention of sexual exploitation and abuse. The so-called “grooming” is an extremely dangerous practice by which the abuser gradually overcomes the child’s resistance through a sequence of psychologically manipulating acts. It is often also used to silence the child after the abuse has taken place. ...[more]
United Kingdom - IWF Awareness Day Aims to Focus on Child Pornography Online
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has revealed that incidence of child porn is getting worse, with seven websites featuring child porn being reported to authorities every day. The charity said that child porn images shown over the Internet include those portraying rape, sadism and bestiality. To create awareness that such sites are illegal and to publicize the IWF Awareness Day, a 'Hotline' has been launched where users can report sites where child porn is shown. The Hotline is supported by leaders in the industry including Tiscali, Yahoo and MSN. The report issued by the charity said that over 1.5 million UK adults had been able to access child pornography this year. ...[more]
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USA - Teen Cigarette Smokers More Likely to Become Hard Drug Abusers
The nicotine in tobacco products poses a significant danger of structural and chemical changes in developing brains that can make teens more vulnerable to alcohol and other drug addiction as well as mental illness, according to Tobacco: The Smoking Gun, a new white paper released by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. It was commissioned by The Citizens' Commission to Protect the Truth, a group of all former U.S. Secretaries of Health, Education, and Welfare and of Health and Human Services, all former U.S. Surgeons General, and all former Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CASA's original analysis of data from the NSDUH finds that teens who smoke are nine times more likely to meet the medical criteria for past year alcohol abuse or dependence, and 13 times likelier to meet the medical criteria for abuse and dependence on an illegal drug than teens who don't smoke. ...[more]
United Kingdom - Mental Illness Rate Soars Among Users of Skunk Cannabis
A dramatic increase in cases of mental illness among cannabis users has intensified pressure on Labour to end its "soft" drugs policy. In some parts of the country, the number of people suffering from mental and behavioural disorders caused by cannabis use has risen tenfold. The number of adults admitted to hospital as a result of cannabis use is up by 73 %, from 430 a decade ago to 743 last year. In the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority area, cases of mental disorders due to use of cannabis have increased by more than 1,000 %. The increase is blamed on people smoking the highly potent "skunk" variety of the drug. ...[more]
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United Kingdom - First UK birth from lab-grown egg
A mother has given birth to twins using a revolutionary new fertility treatment for the first time. The fertility technique, called in vitro maturation (IVM), could be a good alternative to conventional IVF for some high-risk women. Under the process, women do not first need to take potentially risky fertility drugs as they do with IVF. The technique is also cheaper and faster - but its success rate is lower and it is not available on the NHS. For standard IVF treatment, a woman needs to take drugs to shut down her ovaries and then undergo two weeks of daily hormone injections so that mature eggs can be retrieved from her ovaries. With IVM the woman needs only one injection. The immature eggs are retrieved from a woman's unstimulated ovaries under ultrasound guidance and then matured in the laboratory for 1-2 days. Tim Child, consultant gynaecologist at the Oxford Fertility Clinic says IVM has clear benefits over IVF for some women, particularly those with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Not only does it reduce inconvenience and discomfort, it also removes the risk of a condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). ...[more]
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