Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Journal editor defends pro-infanticide piece

LifeSiteNews: The editor of an ethics journal that recently published an article advocating infanticide (what the authors call “post-birth abortion”), has responded to widespread criticism by pointing out that promoting the killing of newborns is nothing new: in fact, in the Netherlands infant euthanasia is already legal and practiced.

Editor Julian Savulescu also criticizes what he calls the “hate speech” directed at the authors of the article, arguing that the public’s response to the piece shows that “proper academic discussion and freedom are under threat from fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society.”

In the journal article Alberto Giubilin, a philosopher from the University of Milan, and Francesca Minerva, an ethicist from the University of Melbourne, made the case that “after-birth abortion” should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is perfectly healthy. They base their argument on the premise that the unborn baby and the newborn do not have the moral status of actual persons and are consequently “morally irrelevant.”

Editor: I agree with Savulescu that abusive language is not helpful, but for a idfferent reason. It betrays our cause. "Academic freedom" aside, we can come up with arguments opposing infanticide, can't we? We don't need to resort to name-calling.  In fact, the Bible says "hate speech" is as destructive as murder (see Matthew 5:19-22 and James 3:8-10).

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Life, With Dementia

Dealing With Dementia Among Aging Criminals - NYTimes.com: Secel Montgomery Sr. stabbed a woman in the stomach, chest and throat so fiercely that he lost count of the wounds he inflicted. In the nearly 25 years he has been serving a life sentence, he has gotten into fights, threatened a prison official and been caught with marijuana.

Despite that, he has recently been entrusted with an extraordinary responsibility. He and other convicted killers at the California Men’s Colony help care for prisoners with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, assisting ailing inmates with the most intimate tasks: showering, shaving, applying deodorant, even changing adult diapers.

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A new purpose for tattoos: warning about important health conditions, end-of-life wishes

A new purpose for tattoos: warning about important health conditions, end-of-life wishes - The Washington Post: Medical tattoos don’t appear to carry much legal weight. It’s unclear whether an ambulance crew racing to treat a gravely ill patient could honor a request based on the tattoo alone. But the markings do offer a simple and permanent way to give rescuers important health details.

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Any Excuse for Euthanasia in the Netherlands

Euthanizing the Elderly With Macular Degeneration in the Netherlands » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Cases justifying euthanasia are spreading like wildfire in the Netherlands, to the point that visual impairment can become the primary reason to kill. The latest report from the Netherlands describes an elderly woman who was euthanized over macular degeneration and other often experienced symptoms of being elderly.

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Cancer and Travel Precautions

Cancer and Travel Precautions - CarePages.com: With proper planning, a cancer patient can travel and manage cancer treatment away from home. Consider these cancer travel tips for families.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

To love someone is to want to hear all their stories

Sharon Randall: To love someone is to want to hear all their stories: We all have stories that tell who we are, what we love and hate and fear and hope, things we're willing to live and die for. To love someone is to want to hear all their stories, and to be blessed to tell yours in return. Whose stories haven't you heard? Don't assume you know them. Keep asking questions. The answers may surprise you.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The number of assisted suicides in Switzerland rose 35 percent in 2011

The number of assisted suicides rose by around 35 per cent in 2011. - swissinfo: Exit, which caters to Swiss residents only, revealed on Monday it helped a total of 416 people to end their lives last year. Of those, 305 deaths occurred in the German-speaking part of the country, up from 257 in 2010, while 111 deaths took place in the French-speaking areas, up from 91 the previous year.

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Monday, February 20, 2012

Jail for helping friend suicide 'a savage first'

Jail for helping friend suicide 'a savage first' | The Australian: Merin Nielsen and Frank Ward had been friends for 30 years and Nielsen was the sole beneficiary of Ward's estate, the Supreme Court in Brisbane was told.

Judge Jean Dalton said Nielsen had deliberately defied the law and sentenced him to a three-year term. But the former teacher, now studying for a PhD in philosophy, would be released on parole on August 15, meaning he would serve only six months.He also said there was no evidence Ward had been seriously ill at the time he took the lethal dose obtained by Nielsen.

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Down Syndrome Advocates Call for HHS Mandate to Be Rescinded


Under the recently finalized Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations, private insurers will be required to provide no-cost prenatal genetic testing for all expectant mothers. As currently written, the HHS mandate for prenatal genetic testing is discriminatory and unethical. Unless revised to provide all of the needed information and support to expectant mothers undergoing prenatal testing, International Down Syndrome Coalition for Life (IDSC) calls for the mandate to be rescinded.

The mandate is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (PPACA) requirement for no-cost preventive care services for women. This is what makes the mandate especially objectionable. According to Mark Leach, Down Syndrome of Louiseville, (DSL) Board President, “DSL has counseled expectant mothers who have received a prenatal diagnosis and used that information to prepare for their child’s birth, to create an adoption plan, or to terminate their pregnancies. Nothing, however, about prenatal genetic testing prevented their unborn child from having Down syndrome.” Including prenatal genetic testing as a “preventive” service expresses a discriminatory view that the U.S. government believes unborn children with Down syndrome should be prevented.

This is our generation’s civil rights issue.

Grief: Normal, Not A Mental Illness

Grief Diagnosis - ABC News: Grief following the death of a loved one isn't a mental illness that requires psychiatrists and antidepressants, according to editors of The Lancet, who oppose "medicalizing" an often-healing response to overwhelming loss.

Routinely legitimizing the treatment of grief with antidepressants "is not only dangerously simplistic, but also flawed," says the unsigned lead editorial appearing in Friday's edition of the influential international medical journal. "Grief is not an illness; it is more usefully thought of as part of being human and a normal response to the death of a loved one."

In rare cases, a bereaved person will develop prolonged grief or major depression that may merit medical treatment "or sometimes more effective psychological interventions such as guided mourning may be needed," they wrote. However, they suggested that for the majority of the bereaved, "doctors would do better to offer time, compassion, remembrance and empathy, than pills."

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The Complexities Involved In End Of Life Care

The Complexities Involved In End Of Life Care: Researchers from Argentina, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland have assessed health workers care-giving activities other than providing medicines in the last days and hours of life for patients with cancer in palliative care settings. They observed that the majority of activities in caring for a dying individual involved bodily contact, like attending to diverse bodily needs in a comforting and dignified way.

Health workers also stated that other important aspects of their work consisted of closely communicating with the dying and their family whilst creating an attractive, safe and comforting environment, stating that just being present when a person is close to death is also very important.

The researchers found several areas in need of further investigation, for instance, new methods of improving a dying person's sensory and general environment. They also recommend developing a greater level of detail, such as improved terminology for end-of-life care would enrich appreciation of all the facets and complexities in caring for people during their last days of life and would also be of benefit for clinical practice, teaching and research.

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Friday, February 17, 2012

7 Lessons From The Community of Disability

Wrestling with an Angel: 7 Lessons From The Community of Disability: The tragedy of disability is not disability itself, but the isolation it often creates. This was one of the most important lessons our family had to learn. Sadly, we learned it the hard way. But hard lessons often lead to great insights and over the past few years we have had the wonderful opportunity to gain great wisdom from several families in many different communities.

While there are still many discoveries to be made along this journey, here are at least 7 helpful insights gleaned from the community of disability that have made a powerful difference in our family.

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Macomb Chiropractor wakes from 10-day coma just hours before plug to be pulled

Macomb Chiropractor wakes from 10-day coma just hours before plug to be pulled - Detroit Crime | Examiner.com: Dr. Jim Chism, a well-known chiropractor, was scheduled to have his feeding tube removed. His wife, Karen Chism, had instructed doctors to pull the tube after alleging that his mental and physical health had deteriorated since the onset of dementia beginning in November, followed by cardiac arrest on January 19th. Removing the tube would have meant swift, certain death.

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Would Baby Melinda Survive Under Obamacare?

Would Baby Melinda Have Survived Under Obamacare? » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: The odds of a favorable outcome were overwhelmingly against Melinda. her care was, to say the least, very expensive, and some of a utilitarian mindset might argue that her “quality of life” will likely be lower than the norm, thereby making the effort more a cruelty than a beneficence. Under such circumstances, I can absolutely foresee a situation in which the cost/benefit boards that are being established under Obamacare–using “evidence-based” coverage guidelines–would refuse to pay for such an extraordinary effort.

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Hospital Sorry For Handling Of Girl With Disability

Hospital Sorry For Handling Of Girl With Disability - Disability Scoop: A Philadelphia hospital is apologizing for how it handled the case of a 3-year-old who was reportedly denied a transplant because she has an intellectual disability. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia issued a statement Wednesday along with Joe and Chrissy Rivera, a New Jersey couple who went public last month saying they were told that their daughter could not receive a life-saving kidney transplant because of her disability.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Pray for the Farrans

Kyle and Heather Farran are missionaries in Richards Bay, South Africa, working with AIDS patients through the Calvary Care Center hospice. Please pray for Heather who is recovering from a bout of mononucleosis and for Kyle as he is suffering with severe headaches.

Monday, February 13, 2012

The euthanasia debate revived by French presidential candidate

The euthanasia debate revived by François Hollande - LeMonde.fr: The debate about "active" euthanasia is revived in France by the Socialist candidate for president, Francois Hollande, who advance a reform proposal for helping patients to die.

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Mum, I love you: Paralysed man’s first words in 19 years

Mum, I love you: Paralysed man’s first words in 19 years | News | The Christian Institute: A 37-year-old paralysed man has spoken for the first time in nearly 20 years – and told his mum “I love you.” The news comes amidst pressure to change the law so that people in a similar position can have their lives ended by euthanasia.

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Euthanasia In Europe: from horror to hope

Euthanasia In Europe: from horror to hope | LifeSiteNews.com: The problems of euthanasia and end-of-life issues are extremely complicated ones, and trying to solve these problems through legislation is often difficult. While the intentional killing of an innocent human being is always morally wrong, one cannot deny that there are real-world cases where the line blurs between what is permitted and what is not.

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Simply abandon the ‘norm against killing’ to solve organ transplant problem: leading US bioethicists

Simply abandon the ‘norm against killing’ to solve organ transplant problem: leading US bioethicists | LifeSiteNews.com: The conundrum faced by the organ transplant industry, that the removal of vital organs kills the “donor,” can be “easily obviated by abandoning the norm against killing,” two leading U.S. bioethicists have said. In an article titled, “What Makes Killing Wrong?” appearing in last month’s Journal of Medical Ethics, the authors have moved the argument forward by admitting that the practice of vital organ donation ignores “traditional” medical ethics.

“Traditional medical ethics embraces the norm that doctors … must not kill their patients. This norm is often seen as absolute and universal. In contrast, we have argued that killing by itself is not morally wrong, although it is still morally wrong to cause total disability.”

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Archbishop warns of ‘disaster’ if assisted suicide is legalised

Archbishop warns of ‘disaster’ if assisted suicide is legalised | News | The Christian Institute: Weakening the law on assisted suicide would be a “disaster,” Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has cautioned this week.

The Archbishop commented: “To say that there are certain conditions in which life is legally declared to be not worth living is a major shift in the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which we live.” And Dr Williams said that any erosion of the protection of the vulnerable, or of medical practitioners, should be rejected by Christians.

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GMC release guidance on assisted suicide cases

GMC release guidance on assisted suicide cases | News | The Christian Institute: Assisted suicide “is illegal and doctors should have no part of it”, the leader of the General Medical Council (GMC) has said.

Niall Dickson’s comments came as the GMC, the regulatory authority for doctors, launched a consultation on its first ever guidance on assisted suicide.

The guidance, which is subject to a three month consultation, will help the GMC decide if doctors should face a disciplinary panel if they are accused of encouraging or assisting a suicide.

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Down syndrome association: Spain’s eugenic abortion law violates human rights of disabled

Down syndrome association: Spain’s eugenic abortion law violates human rights of disabled | LifeSiteNews.com: The Spanish Down syndrome association “Down Spain” (Down España) is petitioning the government to eliminate provisions in the current abortion law allowing children to be killed in the womb up til birth because of “serious abnormalities in the fetus.” Currently Spain’s abortion law allows women to abort their unborn babies up until 14 weeks on demand, but provides the sweeping exception for babies who suffer from an “extremely grave and incurable illness.”

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First mobile euthanasia unit 'to be launched next month'

First mobile euthanasia unit 'to be launched next month' - Telegraph: Plans for an on-call euthanasia team to help people to die at home have been given the go-ahead in Holland, it was reported.

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Monday, February 6, 2012

The Renew Conference

therenewconference.org | Blog | Joni and Friends: It's not too late to register for The Renew Conference to be held this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference will address how Christians should respond to suffering, and how to minister to others who are dealing with affliction. This important conference will be held at Community Bible Church in Nashville, February 10-12. The theme is “Our Affliction… His Grace.” Joni Eareckson Tada will be speaking, as well as Tullian Tchividjian and others who have wrestled with the subject of suffering and the goodness of God. Make plans to join Joni for this extraordinary conference – you will be inspired, equipped and refreshed! Get all the details.

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Ga. court overturns assisted suicide restrictions

AP: Georgia's top court struck down a state law that restricted assisted suicides, siding on Monday with four members of a suicide group who said the law violated their free speech rights. It means that four members of the Final Exit Network who were charged in February 2009 with helping a 58-year-old cancer-stricken man die won't have to stand trial, defense attorneys said.

Georgia law doesn't expressly forbid assisted suicide. But lawmakers in 1994 adopted a law that bans people from publicly advertising suicide, hoping to prevent assisted suicide from the likes of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the late physician who sparked the national right-to-die debate. The law makes it a felony for anyone who "publicly advertises, offers or holds himself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose." The court's opinion found that lawmakers could have imposed a ban on all assisted suicides with no restriction of free speech, or sought to prohibit all offers to assist in suicide that were followed by the act.

Life with Trig

Sarah Palin, Newsweek: Many everyday activities like doctor’s appointments and social gatherings and travel accommodations and even mealtimes and a solid night of sleep are that much more difficult, but at the end of the day I wouldn’t trade the relative difficulties for any convenience or absence of fear. God knew what he was doing when he blessed us with Trig. We went from fear of the unknown to proudly displaying a bumper sticker sent to us that reads: “My kid has more chromosomes than your kid!”

. . . Trig is almost 4 years old now, and every morning when he wakes up, he pulls himself up, rubs the sleep out of his eyes, looks around, and then starts applauding! He welcomes each day with thunderous applause and laughter. He looks around at creation and claps as if to say, “OK, world, what do you have for me today?”

Friday, February 3, 2012

100% Chance of Being Loved

100% Chance of Being Loved | NRL News Today: Despite being told Reid would “probably die within a year,” Marie said their goal was “to help Reid be as healthy as possible and live his life to the fullest in his home, surrounded by the people who love him.” They were told “phrases like ‘let nature take its course,’ and ‘we can put a DNR in his file before he goes home and then if something happens…’”

Marie added, “Now our sweet Reid is four years old. He may be differently-abled from healthy kids, but he is full of constant wonder and joy!”

When Marie was unexpectedly pregnant again, a geneticist encouraged them to have an amniocentesis because Marie carried the gene that could cause her baby to have MTM like his older brother, Reid. The geneticist suggested they could “keep their options open.”

Marie refused the amniocentesis and declared to all the people in that room, “Our son may have a 50 percent chance of having Myotubular Myopathy, but he has a 100 percent chance of being loved.”

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Assisted suicide should be illegal throughout Europe, human rights body rules

Assisted suicide should be illegal throughout Europe, human rights body rules - Telegraph: In a declaration that will have legal implications in its 47 member states, the Strasbourg-based organisation announced that such practices “must always be prohibited.”

The move will represent a significant setback to assisted dying campaigners who want Britain to follow Holland, Belgium and Switzerland in allowing doctors to help end the lives of their patients.

The explicit condemnation of euthanasia was inserted into a non-binding resolution entitled: “Protecting human rights and dignity by taking into account previously expressed wishes of patients.”

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

My Trisomy 18 son is not alive because of a miracle. He is alive because we chose life for him.

LifeSiteNews: It was a great surprise to everyone when a national review of pediatric cardiac surgeries in 2004 revealed that 35 children with Trisomy 13 and 18 had obtained cardiac surgery and survived - at a rate of 91%! So much for universally “lethal” and “incompatible with life”!

The internet has allowed parents of these relatively rare conditions to network like never before. . . . Many parents who receive such a diagnosis will search online for more information. It won’t take long before they discover that there are many happy living children who have families who love to care for them.

My son, Lane, was diagnosed with Full Trisomy 18 at three days old. Prior to getting the results of the FISH test, the hospital told me that Lane’s heart condition could be repaired. However, after the results came back, the hospital then informed me that there wasn’t anything more the hospital could do for my son. So I took Lane home at nine days old on hospice, but Lane had another plan. He continued to get stronger every day, and so as his strength and fight improved…so did my fight to do anything I could to give my son the best quality of life

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Joni's Remedy for Pain

A Verse for Pain | Radio | Joni and Friends: When you’re in pain and when you’re wanting to do everything to decrease anxious feelings or stress, God’s Word gives us good sound advice. Because when we are told to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, wonderful things happen. Like what? And what does it have to do with alleviating physical pain? Well, listen to what the prophet Isaiah said, “And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.” That’s from Isaiah 32:17 and don’t you love it?!

Mother of Mentally Disabled Girl Holds Hope for Kidney Transplant

Mother of Amelia Rivera, Mentally Disabled Girl, Holds Hope for Kidney Transplant at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - ABC News: Chrissy Rivera, the mother of the 3-year-old girl who was initially told by a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that he would not recommend a kidney transplant for her mentally disabled daughter, is "hopeful" the hospital will help after an outcry of indignation online.

More than 37,000 online supporters petitioned after Rivera had blogged about a doctor who called her daughter "mentally retarded" and said he would not recommend transplantation.

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IVF parents seeking payout for depression

IVF parents seeking payout for depression: Debbie and Lawrence Waller are suing the IVF specialist who oversaw the conception of their son Keeden, because he suffered a massive stroke four days after birth that caused severe brain damage.

Keeden, 11, cannot walk or talk, and suffers dangerous seizures on a regular basis. Mr and Mrs Waller say the stroke was the result of a rare blood clotting condition that Keeden inherited from his father. They say they told the specialist, Dr Christopher James, about the condition but he did not warn them of the 50 per cent risk that it would be passed on.

In addition to seeking compensation for Keeden's life-long care, the Wallers are suing for mental stress under the legal heading of ''nervous shock.''

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012