The Delaware House of Representatives has passed a resolution in support of protecting the life of Loren Richardson, who like Terri Schiavo before her, is the subject of a bitter court fight over removing her feeding tube. The resolution states:

This Resolution establishes protections for mentally disabled individuals in the State of Delaware. The impetus for this Resolution comes from the case of Lauren Richardson, a 24-year-old Delaware woman who, after suffering brain injuries and impaired consciousness, now faces the possible removal of her nutrition and hydration, despite the absence of her clearly specified and legal consent to any such a course of action. The State of Delaware has, through recent legislation prompted by the abuses at the Delaware Psychiatric Center, endeavored to protect the rights of mentally disabled patients in the First State. Lauren, as a mentally disabled person, is enumerated those same protection and rights.

Too many of us dismiss people like Lauren–and I am not referring here to her mother who wants treatment stopped–as “vegetables” (a word that should not be used as it is as demeaning and dehumanizing as the odious N-word), “brain dead” (as the Orlando Sentinel unrepentantly did for so long regarding Terri), or other such denigration. Meanwhile, some bioethicists look longingly at these people as “living cadavers” who can be harvested for their organs or used in medical experimentation.

Good for the Delaware Assembly for not shrinking from such demagoguery.

But why do people in the French health care system get more? The answer is they spend more. (BBC)

Lengner and fellow Whitehead postdoc Marius Wernig developed the new technique, which was published today in Nature Biotechnology. It’s technically daunting and — from the perspective of a public frustrated at delays in promised stem cell therapies — incremental. But it’s also the sort of keystone advance that lays the foundation for future breakthroughs. (Wired)

Germany, by many measures, has one of the world’s most successful health care systems — providing good care for everybody for much less than many other countries spend. (NPR)

When Roger Kusch helped Bettina Schardt kill herself at home on Saturday, the grim, carefully choreographed ritual was like that in many cases of assisted suicide, with one exception. (New York Times)

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:
“Developing a Senior Healthcare Practice Using the Chronic Care Model: Effect on Physical Function and Health-Related Quality of Life” by Ronald Stock, Eldon R. Mahoney, Dan Reece, Lorelei Cesario, May 22 2008

Big money is out there for the brightest minds to shove utilitarianism and the goal of human enhancement down our throats. Australian Professor Julian Savulescu (now in the UK)–who I have seen debate and believe me he is one scary cat–has just picked up an 800 thousand pound grant to begin a eugenics, er neuroethics, center at Oxford. From Bioedge’s report:

Professor Savulescu said: “Neuroscience studies the brain and mind, and thereby some of the most profound aspects of human existence. In the last decade, advances in imaging and manipulating the brain have raised ethical challenges, particularly about the moral limits of the use of such technology, leading to the new discipline of neuroethics.

Professor Savulescu has become notorious for arguing that we should genetically enhance the human species by improving IQ, behaviour, mood, character and morality. “Biological manipulation to increase opportunity is ethical,” he once said. “If we have an obligation to treat and prevent disease, we have an obligation to try to manipulate these characteristics to give an individual the best opportunity of the best life.” He has even argued that parents have a moral responsibility to select the best children they could have. It will be interesting to see what sort of ideas about brain manipulation will emerge from the well-funded new centre

So, they make up a new field whole cloth dedicated to destroying universal human equality and the intrinsic worth of merely being human and the money comes pouring in. And with the money and the prestigious academic affiliation comes awesome power to influence young and bright minds who are society’s leaders of tomorrow. And, being very bright, they see which way the financial winds are blowing and what they need to believe–or say they believe-in order to climb the ladder of success.

What chance do you think there would be for someone as bright as Savulescu, and with the same credentials, to receive such major funding and Oxford offices if he held opposite views? Good luck with that and don’t call us, we’ll call you.

But that’s the high academy/foundation nexus today. And these folk are determined to tear down what they consider the ancien regime. And unless “the folk” stand up to it, the forces that be will bulldoze the very concept of universal human rights directly into a landfill–claiming as they go that they are the “enlightened” ones, the “brights.”

This is exactly how it was with the first eugenics movement. The people who paid were not the connected but the powerless. And those who urged their sterilization and even killing were at the top of the social/academic/political/legal and even liberal religious heaps.

Bitter? A bit, I admit. Scared? A lot.

Adult cells of mice created from genetically reprogrammed cells–so-called induced pluripotent stem (IPS) stem cells–can be triggered via drug to enter an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the need for further genetic alteration. (ScienceDaily)

Edith Isabel Rodriguez writhed for 45 minutes on the floor of the emergency room lobby at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital as staffers walked past and a janitor mopped around her. Her boyfriend called 911 from a pay phone outside the hospital, pleading futilely for help. (Los Angeles Times)

Just four factors can predict with 70 percent accuracy whether a woman will become pregnant through “test-tube” baby technology known as in vitro fertilization, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

The European Commission has unveiled a healthcare package designed to make it easier for patients to get medical treatment elsewhere in the EU.

Under the proposals, patients would not have to get their doctor’s approval for non-hospital care abroad. (BBC)

New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation agreed on Tuesday to increase the monitoring of patients at a public psychiatric ward in Brooklyn. The agreement came after a videotape surfaced showing a patient collapsing onto a floor after waiting nearly 24 hours to be seen, and lying there for about an hour while hospital workers did nothing for her. The patient soon died. (New York Times)

A state court jury on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running Medicaid drug pricing scheme and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages. (AP)

Bioethics (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:
“DEADLY PLURALISM? WHY DEATH-CONCEPT, DEATH-DEFINITION, DEATH-CRITERION AND DEATH-TEST PLURALISM SHOULD BE ALLOWED, EVEN THOUGH IT CREATES SOME PROBLEMS” by KRISTIN ZEILER, 12-Jun-2008
“AGAINST THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO WITHDRAW FROM RESEARCH” by ERIC CHWANG, 11-Jun-2008
“ADVANCING AN ADVANCE DIRECTIVE DEBATE” by CHRISTOPHER BUFORD, 11-Jun-2008
“MANAGING INTENTIONS: THE END-OF-LIFE ADMINISTRATION OF ANALGESICS AND SEDATIVES, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SLOW EUTHANASIA” by CHARLES DOUGLAS, IAN KERRIDGE AND RACHEL ANKENY, 11-Jun-2008
“IS POST-MORTEM HARM POSSIBLE? UNDERSTANDING DEATH HARM AND GRIEF” by FLORIS TOMASINI, 28-May-2008
“THE FALLACY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF PROCREATIVE BENEFICENCE” by REBECCA BENNETT, 9-May-2008
“DEAF BY DESIGN: DISABILITY AND IMPARTIALITY” by DAVID SHAW, 8-May-2008
“ENHANCEMENTS, EASY SHORTCUTS, AND THE RICHNESS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES” by MAARTJE SCHERMER, 25-Apr-2008
“WHY WE ARE NOT MORALLY REQUIRED TO SELECT THE BEST CHILDREN: A RESPONSE TO SAVULESCU” by SARAH E. STOLLER, 25-Apr-2008
“MEDICAL CONFIDENTIALITY: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS IN GREECE” by STAVROULA A. PAPADODIMA, CHARA A. SPILIOPOULOU ANDEMMANOUIL I. SAKELLIADIS, 25-Apr-2008
“THE MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AND THE FAMILY: THE CASE OF BREAST CANCER PATIENTS AND THEIR HUSBANDS” by ROY GILBAR AND ORA GILBAR, 11-Apr-2008
“BEYOND ABORTION: THE LOOMING BATTLE OVER DEATH IN THE ‘CULTURE WARS’” by JAMES EVANS, 11-Apr-2008
“REASSESSING INSURERS’ ACCESS TO GENETIC INFORMATION: GENETIC PRIVACY, IGNORANCE, AND INJUSTICE” by ELI FEIRING, 11-Apr-2008
“ADMINISTRATIVE GATEKEEPING – A THIRD WAY BETWEEN UNRESTRICTED PATIENT ADVOCACY AND BEDSIDE RATIONING” by SIGURD LAURIDSEN, 11-Apr-2008
“CLARIFYING APPEALS TO DIGNITY IN MEDICAL ETHICS FROM AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” by RIEKE VAN DER GRAAF AND JOHANNES JM VAN DELDEN, 4-Mar-2008
“HUMAN NATURE AND ENHANCEMENT” by ALLEN BUCHANAN, 4-Mar-2008
“OUTLINING ETHICAL ISSUES IN NANOTECHNOLOGIES” by ANTONIO G. SPAGNOLO AND VIVIANA DALOISO, 23-Jan-2008

Nursing Philosophy (July 2008 - Vol. 9 Issue 3) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:
“Critical realism: a philosophical framework for the study of gender and mental health” by Michael Bergin MMedSc BSc (Hons) RPN RGN; John S. G. Wells PhD MSc BA (Hons) PGDip(Ed) rpn rnt and Sara Owen PhD BA BEd RMN SRN RNT, 169–179
“Comments on ‘Spirituality and nursing: a reductionist approach’ by John Paley” by Robert W. Newsom III JD, 214–217
“Philosophical approaches to understanding pain” by Steven J. Palazzo mn, rn, ccrn, 220–220
“Do we need to redefine caring?” by Kara N. Mochan mn, aprn-bc, 221–221

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 may be, though, the death of Bettina S., many are saying on Tuesday, crossed a clear line. The former X-ray technician, who never married and has no children, says in the video that one of her motivations to kill herself was that she was afraid of ending up alone in a nursing home. According to reports on Tuesday, she had also contacted the Swiss assisted suicide organization Dignitas before getting in touch with Kusch.

What clear line? There is no clear line! Media continue to refuse to open their eyes! Assisted suicide is not about terminal illness. That’s just a way to get people to accept the principle of death on demand.

Lest you doubt me, just consider this partial list:

- Switzerland’s Supreme Court has declared a constitutional right to assisted suicide for the mentally ill.

- Dutch euthanasia is not in the least about dying, nor necessarily, physical illness, and indeed, the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that existential suffering can justify assisted suicide. Dutch doctors refer their patients to how to commit suicide data on the Internet if they don’t qualify for legal euthanasia.

- Assisted suicide for the mentally ill has been promoted in the Hastings Center Report.

- Most of Kevorkian’s victims were not dying and yet he enjoyed great poll numbers and Time invited him as a guest of honor at its 75th anniversary gala. Etc. ad nauseum.

- In Oregon, a patient received a lethal prescription nearly 2 years before dying naturally, meaning he wasn’t terminally ill under the law when the script was written. And, of course, the authorities did nothing.

How much more clear can it be????

The current conflict over embryonic stem cells throughout the world deals particularly with the ethical implications of this promising, but delicate subject and the scientific manipulation of human life in its early stages of development. It is a symbolic struggle over the whole future of developmental biology - over how we will proceed with a wide range of research on human development. (News-Medical)

“We’ve found that geography is often destiny,” says James N. Weinstein, D.O., director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, where this field of study was pioneered. “It’s not that the rates of disease are different, it’s the way they’re treated that’s different — from prevention to diagnosis to long-term care.” (MSNBC)

This marks the third animal-human hybrid embryo licence to be issued by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the first since the Commons voted in favour of this controversial research last month. (Telegraph)

In recent years, stem cell researchers have become very adept at manipulating the fate of adult stem cells cultured in the lab. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies achieved the same feat with adult neural stem cells still in place in the brain. They successfully coaxed mouse brain stem cells bound to join the neuronal network to differentiate into support cells instead. (ScienceDaily)

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 American Medical News:

When all else fails to control patients’ pain at the end of life, it is appropriate for physicians to sedate such patients to unconsciousness, according to new ethical policy adopted at the AMA Annual Meeting in June.

The rarely employed practice of palliative or terminal sedation is sometimes perceived as speeding the dying process, leading critics to dub it a form of physician-assisted suicide. But evidence of such a hastening effect is lacking, according to a Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs report adopted by the House of Delegates. “These are unusual circumstances that require us to urgently relieve these symptoms by sedating patients to unconsciousness,” said CEJA member H. Rex Greene, MD, a Lima, Ohio, oncologist and palliative medicine specialist. “This is not intended to end life.”

Key words: “When all else fails,” and “rarely employed process,” and, “this is not intended to end life.”

I know Rex Greene and he is a powerful voice against assisted suicide and euthanasia. And his quote is absolutely true. But the article should have added that any confusion that may exist about palliative sedation was not caused by opponents of assisted suicide. Rather proponents intentionally sowed confusion by–as in California’s AB 2747 before it was gutted in committee–seeking to pass legislation that would transform it from a rarely used but legitimate palliative measure into a “treatment” available to all terminally ill patients on demand–whether their symptoms warranted it or not.

Palliative sedation, as described in the article, is proper and ethical. But if euthanasia advocates get their way, it would become a form of back-door assisted suicide/euthanasia–as now appears to be the case in the killer country the Netherlands where doctors increasingly use sedation so they don’t have to be at the bedside when they euthanize the patient. They should cease and desist their redefinition attempts now for the benefit of all of us.