LifeEthics
autonomy
Conscience upheld in Arizona Courts
Without a conscience, what is a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist except a technician willing to follow the whims of law? (Again, this is not sound-bite material!) I received an e-mail from the American Defense Fund concerning the lawsuit against the State of Arizona by Planned Parenthood over a law to protect those of us in … Continue reading
Trust me, I don’t have a conscience, again
The Obama administration has released their new conscience regulations from the Health and Human Services dept. See this Adobe, pdf: http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2011-03993_PI.pdf There is now no protection for doctors who won’t council abortion, who refuse to prescribe contraception (including post-coital “contraception”) or those who don’t wish to perform fertility treatments for “certain groups of people.” Of … Continue reading
Upside down ethics
That last post definitely points out the mess of current bioethics: Autonomy as the first principle, before the more traditional “Heal when possible, but first do no harm.” Is the purpose of medicine to give the patient what he or she wants, or is it to save lives and restore or maintain health? As I’ve … Continue reading
How not to promote organ donation
Julian Savulescu, the British ethicist who opined that religious doctors should shut up and perform, is back. This time he’s advocating the donation of organs from people who are not dead or dying, but who have “suffered such severe injury that they would be permanently unconscious, like Terry Schiavo, who would be allowed to die … Continue reading
Camille Paglia: abortion is murder
Just, “Wow!” Ms. Paglia and I have many points of common ground. I’ve admired her honesty and linear logic, even though I most certainly disagree with some of her views that are (as she says in this column) informed by her atheism. Read the whole essay, when you can. But, for the moment, let’s look … Continue reading
Nature nurtures debate on namesake
Josh Carter, over at the Bioethics.com blog, comments on the editorial in the April 10th issue of Nature, (subscription only. Joe quoted some but let me know if you need the full text) which uses news of a transgendered (but not transexual) pregnant and bearded woman to ask the age-old question, what is “natural” and … Continue reading
Gynecology and Obstetrics Policy makers respond to doctors on conscience
It appears that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and ABOG (the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists may be about to abort their efforts to change laws concerning conscientious refusal in Washington. It remains to be seen whether they will deliver on their promise to support — without limits – the Conscientious Refusal … Continue reading
An Ethicist on Who Owns Your Body
For a look at the thinking behind the debate, work your way through Alta Charo’s essay and/or the audio interview in the New England Journal of Medicine. (free, online) (She’s the one who called Wesley Smith on his “human-centric” views and the rest of us in the right wing and pro-life community on our “endarkenment” … Continue reading
Review: Plan B, How It Works and Doesn’t Work
I’m convinced that Plan B does not block implantation. Because I keep getting emails, hearing radio personalities and reading posts on various forums claiming that Plan B is an abortifacient, here’s a review of information on the medical effects of the pills and on the other effects and lack of effects. The overwhelming evidence – … Continue reading
Judge stops forced treatment
16 yo Starchild Abraham Cherrix will not have to report for chemotherapy today for his Hodgkin’s lymphoma. (Earlier, I called the disease “Non-Hodgkin’s,” which is a different disease, with a worse prognosis that Hodgkin’s, which is actually several types of lymphoma (cancers of the lymph nodes and lymphatic system). Some types of Hodkin’s have up … Continue reading
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- Maternal Morbidity with Premature Rupture of Membranes August 29, 2022
- Counterintuitive abortion report April 15, 2022
- Paris at Café de la Paix March 18, 2022
- Political, purposeful lies (Francis Collins & Anthony Fauci) January 16, 2022
- Comprehensive review of Texas’ Heartbeat Act September 29, 2021
- Biden to Ask OSHA to Mandate Vaccines at Businesses With 100 or More Workers September 10, 2021
- Long Post Reviewing COVID19 Myths September 3, 2021
- Afghanistan: Read this August 26, 2021
- Conversation with January 6 protester July 23, 2021
- Discordant (“The Cellist” by Daniel Silva) July 21, 2021
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