Abortion
Alternative Medicine
Euthanasia
HIV/AIDS
Homosexuality
IVF & Surrogacy
Medical Ethics
Pedophilia
Pornography
USA – Internet pornography a significant threat to society
USA – Latest pornography statistics, 2014
Prostitution &Trafficking
Stem Cells & Cloning
Substance Abuse
USA – Marijuana has no role in glaucoma management
USA – This Is Your Brain on Drugs USA – Marijuana Overdoses Kills people in First Week Of Legalization USA – Synthetic Marijuana; Doctors Still Don’t Have Treatment ProtocolAbortion
USA – Former abortionist appeals for support for traumatized workers
Former Planned Parenthood director and pro-life activist Abby Johnson sent a plea to pro-lifers to support workers fleeing the abortion industry and suffering emotionally because of what they experienced, including those who have done D&E (dilation and evacuation) abortion, where the unborn baby is removed with forceps, piece by piece. Some clinic workers have described nightmares they have had about this type of abortion. Few studies have been done examining the emotional effects of abortion on abortion providers but obsessive thinking about abortion, depression, fatigue, anger, lowered self-esteem, and identity conflicts are prominent. It has been found that 38{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of clinic workers polled had “moral concern” about what they were doing.
Chile – Restrictive abortion laws do not kill women
There is no more powerful argument for legal abortion than the fear many more women will die if they are forced to resort to underground abortion mills. Chile is a natural experiment because abortion was legal there from 1931 to 1989, when it was banned, even for rape and incest. In the Chilean Journal for the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, epidemiologist Elard Koch finds that counter-intuitively, the rate of abortion-related mortality has fallen since 1989. The high quality of Chilean vital statistics, says Elard, means that a decrease in hospital discharges due to complications from illegal abortion appears to explain virtually all the reduction in hospital discharges due to any type of abortion in Chile during the last decade.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11209
Alternative Medicine
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Euthanasia
USA – Brittany Maynard dies in Oregon after assisted suicide
Brittany Maynard a 29-year-old, announced that she would choose to die on November 1 under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, when she learned that she had an aggressive brain tumor. Rather than burden her husband and mother and suffer the indignities of increasing dependency, she moved to Oregon where she could access legal assisted suicide. However, there was a last-minute hitch. On October 29, she said in a new video that “it doesn’t seem like the right time right now” and she might not carry through with her November 1 resolution. But on November 3 Compassion & Choices announced that she had indeed died on Saturday. The news provoked a torrent of commentary on her decision, both for and against.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11211
Germany – German Parliament opposes assisted suicide groups
The German Bundestag have debated the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. German legislators did not debate a bill but rather debated the general issues related to euthanasia and assisted suicide in order to determine the direction of future legislation. Health Minister Hermann Groehe said he opposed doctor assisting suicide. He said Germany should instead expand its network of hospices, so everyone has access to palliative care and the best painkillers while dying.
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/strong-opposition-to-assisted-suicide.html
Australia – Nitschke battles to keep his registration
Philip Nitschke, one of the world’s best-known euthanasia activists has been battling to retain his medical registration before a Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Representing the Medical Board of Australia is barrister Lisa Chapman. The MBA regards Nitschke as a public danger. The trigger for the hearing was a police investigation of the death of 45-year-old Perth man Nigel Brayley. Nitschke, sounds fatalistic about losing his credentials as a doctor. “I wish I had never met Nigel Brayley, frankly, given the amount of damage that brief encounter has done to me and the time and energy and money that it’s has consumed,” he said.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11222
Switzerland – Canton forces nursing homes to host assisted suicides
The legislature of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel has voted overwhelmingly to force government-funded nursing homes to allow representatives of assisted suicide groups to advertise their services. There are no exemptions for conscientious objection by managers in the homes. The only criterion, according to Swiss.info, is the personal choice of the patients. Personal autonomy must take precedence over the rules of the nursing homes. About 60 institutions will be affected by the decision.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11221
HIV/AIDS & STI’s
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Homosexuality
USA – Sexual orientation can be restored says ex homosexual
Dean Bailey, 50, is not afraid to tell anyone he is living proof that ‘sexual orientation’ can in fact be changed. But he prefers to use the word ‘restored’ rather than ‘changed.’ He remembers never feeling treasured by his dad and that this began a pattern of turning to other males to find affirmation. Concerning the homosexual agenda he says that it is clear that a seeming majority of homosexuals actually do believe and adhere to a personal inward ideology that they are fighting for some sort of distorted “equality. Albeit, their idea of equality could more accurately be described as homo-fascism, because of the way it has become an agenda of forced acceptance and inclusion within our society.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ex-gay-homosexuality-is-just-another-human-brokenness
USA – Fines and jail for refusing to perform same-sex marriages
Ministers in the state of Idaho are facing fines and potential jail time for refusing to perform same-sex “marriages,” even though homosexuality violates their religion. After Idaho declined to defend its state marriage law, a man called the proprietors of The Hitching Post about “marrying” another man. Donald and Evelyn Knapp declined to provide him that service, and immediately sued the city to prevent the ordinance’s punishments – including fines and imprisonment – from applying to them. Fines could total as much as $1,000 for each day the Knapps do not follow the ordinance, and jail time could total 180 days.
IVF &Surrogacy
USA – Egg freezing is a health risk
There is no long-term data tracking the health risks of women who inject hormones and undergo egg retrieval, and no one knows how much of the chemicals are absorbed by eggs, and whether they are toxic to cell development. According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, for a woman age 38, the chance of one frozen egg leading to a live birth is only 2 to 12 percent. Worldwide in 2011, fewer than 10 babies were born from eggs frozen for women aged 38 and older. Egg freezing guidelines issued by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine clearly state that egg freezing should only be used when there is medical need, such as women undergoing cancer treatments.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11174
UK – Authority opens national sperm bank
British clinics are currently unable to meet demand for sperm, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and sperm imported from Denmark and the US has been steadily rising. Dr Allan Pacey, chair of the British Fertility Society said: “We are importing as a nation more and more sperm from overseas, without being xenophobic it kind of just doesn’t feel right…” There will always be some patients who, with regards to sperm donors, will want an individual that is more closely related to them in culture and language and outlook.” Statistics show that 1 in 10 cycles are conducted with donor eggs or sperm in the UK. A third of the users of donor sperm were single or lesbian.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11197
Medical Ethics
USA – What do we do when biohazards are human?
The UN announced it is drafting guidelines to prevent human rights violations against people suspected of having Ebola after UN High Commissioner cautioned criminal punishments on those refusing isolation, saying it might have the opposite effect. A number of bioethicists have defended the practice, arguing it “takes precedence” over certain rights of the individual. Craig Klugman of De Paul University criticised the individualism of those who fail to voluntarily isolate themselves: “Why can’t people be trusted to do the right thing?…Has our worship at the altar of individualism gone so far that we are willing to spread a deadly disease ….?” Klugman asks people to accept a program of voluntary isolation. When this fails duress may be legitimately used.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11177
USA – Measures to prevent the spread of Ebola in hospitals
Hospital systems are currently considering whether they withhold certain treatments from Ebola patients, in a bid to protect their doctors and nurses. Executives at University of Chicago Medicine are considering whether procedures such as inserting a breathing tube or putting a ventilator on a patient should be avoided due to the potential of exposure to the virus. Dr Nancy Kass, bioethicist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said healthcare workers should not hesitate to perform a medically necessary procedure so long as they have robust personal protective gear. Dr Kevin Donovan, director of the bioethics centre at Georgetown University, told hospitals to proceed with caution: “To have a blanket refusal to offer these procedures is not ethically acceptable”.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11187
Sweden – Swedes succeed in first womb transplant
Doctors at the University of Gothenburg have delivered the first baby to have been gestated in a transplanted womb. The child is healthy and normally developed. The goal of the Gothenburg project, headed by Professor Mats Brännström, is to enable women who were born without a womb or who have lost their wombs in cancer surgery to give birth to their own children. The successful delivery is considered a major step forward. “It gives us scientific evidence that the concept of uterus transplantation can be used to treat uterine factor infertility, which up to now has remained the last untreatable form of female infertility. It shows that transplants with a live donor are possible, including if the donor is past menopause.
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11181
USA – Eugenics making a comeback as a respectable policy
Nazi enthusiasm for eugenics and sterilization campaigns in the Western world in the 1920s gave eugenics a bad name. But recently, Joe Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project argued that we should legalise screening technologies, as most people want them and they are ultimately of great social and economic benefit to society. Also, the latest literature from Oxford in the Journal of Medical Ethics by Benjamin Meir Jacobs argues that parents have an “obligation to choose a healthier child” based on a moral imperative to avoid creating situations of “harm”. Jacobs argues that we are morally obliged to select children without disabilities if we have such a choice (which is now available through preimplantation genetic diagnosis and IVF).
http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/11207
Pedophilia
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Pornography
UK – Photos of schoolgirls found on porn site trawled by pedophiles
More than 731 photos of schoolgirls have been discovered on a pornographic website used by pedophiles. The photos appear to have been taken from legitimate social network profiles without their knowledge or consent. The Northern Irish schoolgirls were from 19 post-primary schools in the country. Some of the pictures showed the schoolgirls with underwear exposed, as well as some bare skin a BBC investigation revealed. Although registered to an offshore accountancy business in Cyprus, with its servers in The Netherlands, the website was found to be actually based in Israel.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hundreds-photos-schoolgirls-found-porn-4606749
USA – Internet pornography a significant threat to society
The societal costs of pornography are staggering with the financial cost to business productivity in the U.S. alone estimated at $16.9 billion annually. Every second 28,258 users are watching pornography on the internet and 35{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of all internet downloads are related to pornography. About 200,000 Americans are “porn addicts.” Teenagers with frequent exposure to sexual content on TV have a substantially greater likelihood of teenage pregnancy; and the likelihood of teen pregnancy was twice as high when the quantity of sexual content exposure within the viewing episodes was high. 40 percent of “sex addicts” lose their spouses, 58 percent suffer considerable financial losses, and about a third lose their jobs
USA – Latest pornography statistics, 2014 A nationwide study by Proven Men Ministries pertaining to the scope of pornography use found that before the age of 16 more than 78{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of men had viewed pornography. And that only 3{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of men had not seen pornography before turning 21. With respect to men between the ages of 18 and 30 the survey revealed that nearly two in ten (17{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}) first viewed pornography before turning the age of 9, nearly four in ten (38{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}) first viewed pornography before turning the age of 12, and nearly nine in ten (88{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4}) first viewed pornography before turning 16. http://www.provenmen.org/2014pornsurvey/Prostitution & Trafficking
USA – Launch New Approach to Reduce Demand for Prostitution
Historically law enforcement has focused on arresting prostituted people. This approach has been unsuccessful at reducing exploitation and doesn’t address the demand that drives sex trafficking. The “Buyer Beware” initiative is a partnership with eight different police departments and city attorney’s offices across King County who are shifting their emphasis to go after sex buyers. Prostitution is not a victimless crime. The typical age of entry into prostitution is between 13 to 15 years old and 85{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} have histories of childhood sexual and physical abuse. As adults in prostitution, over 80{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} experience physical and sexual assaults, homelessness, and PTSD. 88{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} report wanting to leave prostitution if they had an alternative.
http://www.kingcounty.gov/Prosecutor/news/2014/october/prostitution.aspx
UK – Ex prostitute urges all political parties to commit to Sex Buyer Law
What would the UK adopting the Sex Buyer Law mean to me? It would mean that the law would stand alongside me, not against me. It would recognize that what happened to me was abuse. The johns would be under the spotlight for once and held legally responsible for their actions. Exiting services would be put in place for women who are trying to get out. Prostitution is not a woman’s right – something to be protected, it is the end of women’s rights. It is about men’s power over vulnerable women and girls. Being penetrated by stranger after stranger, them whispering unpleasant things in your ear, laughing if they hurt you – it does something to you. This isn’t ‘work’. It’s sexual abuse.
Stem Cells & Cloning
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Substance Abuse
USA – Marijuana has no role in glaucoma management
A clinical professor of ophthalmology of the University of California San Francisco, Dr. Lieberman, has explained that a consistent conclusion, based on years of study, is that marijuana is less effective than currently available topical glaucoma therapies and is inappropriate for glaucoma management. “At the end of 2014 the National Eye Institute, and ophthalmologic societies said that there is no current role for use of cannabis agents in the management of glaucoma,” said Dr. Lieberman. ” In my personal practice I educate my patients, I refrain from prescribing marijuana, and I try to do no harm.”
USA – This Is Your Brain on Drugs
A study released in 2012 showed that teenagers who were found to be dependent on pot before age 18 and who continued using it into adulthood lost an average of eight I.Q. points by age 38. And last year at Harvard and Northwestern University, Dr. Breiter and colleagues also saw changes in the nucleus accumbens among adults in their early 20s who had smoked daily for three years but had stopped for at least two years. They had impaired working memories as well. “Working memory is key for learning,” Dr. Breiter said. “If I were to design a substance that is bad for college students, it would be marijuana.”
USA – Marijuana Overdoses Kills people in First Week Of Legalization
According to a report in The Oregonion, 46 people were killed across the state since weed became legal earlier this week. Reports from MSNBC indicate there has also been 23 deaths in Alaska, and a staggering 89 in Washington DC. “It’s complete chaos here, I’ve never seen anything like it” says Dr. Steve Perkins, chief of surgery at Riverbend Hospital in Springfield “We are seeing cardiac arrests, seizures, hypospadias, acquired trimethylaminuria and multiple organ failures. By next week the death toll could go as high as 300, maybe 400. We told everyone this would happen,” says Gilliam County Sheriff Gary Bettencourt, who claims legalizing weed will tear families apart and cause more deaths.
http://thatoregonlife.com/2014/11/marijuana-overdoses-kill-46-oregon-first-week-legalization/
USA – Synthetic Marijuana; Doctors Still Don’t Have Treatment Protocol
The use of synthetic marijuana is on the rise according to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The number of emergency visits due to the drug doubled in one year. ‘It tends to raise your pulse, raise your blood pressure…a lot of people have a form of psychosis,” said paramedic David Karrer. “Seizures is another bad thing that happens with them,” explained Dr. Albert Gest, an emergency medicine specialist at Christus Spohn. That’s troubling to Dr. Gest, who believes synthetic marijuana is very risky. It hasn’t been around long, so little is known about its long-term effects.Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International
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