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
>Just days after we hear about functioning induced Pluripotent stem cells from adult skin cells, cells that can produce dopamine, the proteins missing in Parkinson’s disease, we read that President Obama is going to overturn the limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research. Despite the fact that these cells match the patient because they … Continue reading
The Texas Legislature is about to reconvene and the sex ed debate in our State is already in the news. (Free subscription required.) Unfortunately, the news article blurs the line between sex ed for all children in our schools and the problem that some of our girls have multiple pregnancies as teenagers. What little evidence … Continue reading
>You did know that due to the Social Security Act and the Patriot Act your medical records can be viewed and copied by anyone who claims to be an agent of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, didn’t you? Or that those same agents write their own subpoenas? (The best reference is this ACLU … Continue reading
>California voters have voted against a State Constitutional amendment to require doctors to notify parents when minor girls obtain an abortion. From the San Francisco Gate: Proposition 4 would alter the state constitution to prohibit a minor from obtaining an abortion until 48 hours after her doctor notified her parent, legal guardian or, in certain … Continue reading
>Washington has joined Oregon in legalizing “physician assisted death.” From the Wall Street Journal blog post on the initiative: A state measure known as Initiative 1000 passed by a margin of 59% to 41%, making it legal for doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for patients with less than six months to live. … Continue reading
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
“Obama chose to defend the widest possible scope for legal abortion by building a fence around it, even if that meant permitting a child who survives an abortion to be left to die without even being afforded basic comfort care.” Two of the greatest ethics minds today explain the controversy surrounding Senator Barack Obama’s blatant … Continue reading
The Los Angeles Times (a one time free registration may be required) finally notices that couples who initiate in vitro fertilization are “finding themselves ensnared in a debate about when life begins.” The proposed Colorado amendment states, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include any human from the time of fertilization.” If it is passed, … Continue reading
A Washington Post editorial(free registration required) is so outrageous in its appeal to the extreme that everyone who reads it should be offended. If Roe Goes, Our State Will Be Worse Than You Think By Linda Hirshman Sunday, September 28, 2008 (First come the horror stories.) In the 1980s, when abortion was severely limited in then-West … Continue reading