LifeAlerts – Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine

Portugal – Do No Harm

Prof Cardoso, head breast surgeon at the Champalimaud Cancer Centre in Lisbon, Portugal, told the BBC that it was important that patients always checked with their doctors first before trying complementary therapies for cancer that had spread to the skin. The danger is that many products can interfere with hormone therapy or chemotherapy treatments, and certain ones prolong the blood clotting process – which can lead to wounds taking longer to heal and more scarring. The following herbal products are examples of those which slow down clotting: Green Chiretta, Feverfew, Garlic Ginkgo, Ginseng, Hawthorn, and Horse Chestnut Turmeric. Prof Cardoso said it was not surprising that patients search for complementary or alternative treatments that might make a difference. But she said people should know “they could end up doing more harm than good”. Read more

USA – Doctor suspended over Medical Marijuana Approval          

Dr. Andrew Medvedovsky from South Jersey, had The State Board of Medical Examiners suspend his licence over authorizing marijuana for thousands of patients at new jersey Alternative medicine indiscriminately. Medvedovsky will be actively suspended for a year, with a second-year to be served as a period of probation. He may also not enter any medical practice during business hours, when patients may be present, during his active period of suspension. The board expects him to complete courses in medical ethics and recordkeeping since he failed to take Medical history from patients or did not examine them before approving the use of Medical Marijuana. Read more

LifeAlerts – Sexual Exploitation

Sexual Exploitation

Canada – Online child exploitation on the rise

Predators and children are both spending more time online due to COVID-19, RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] said. They say victims range in age from 9 to 17 years old.  Sgt. Stephen Rear, director of the internet child exploitation (ICE) unit in Manitoba, said his team has gone from receiving a handful of cases per week to, in recent months, upwards of a dozen cases a week. He attributes the spike to more people — both predators and children — spending more time at home and online due to COVID-19. Parents think even though the kids are in the room with them, that that’s enough.” Read more

USA – He focuses more on Johns.

Just as much as there are misconceptions about how prostitution happens, there is a long-standing myth that we can’t fix the problem. This is an assumption one researcher, Dr. Michael Shively, Senior Advisor on Research and Data Analysis at the U.S. based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), refuses to accept. “Anywhere there is prostitution, there is trafficking.” Where sex is sold, coercion follows. You only generate the supply—the people—if there is demand, and without demand, there is no motivation whatsoever to come up with that supply.”

Fighting sex trafficking needs a multi-faceted solution. Shively said we must continue to rescue victims and hold traffickers accountable, but we cannot ignore the buyers and cultural influences that encourage trafficking. Read more

USA – Amazon is profiting from the sale of sexual exploitation

Amazon, a member of our 2020 Dirty Dozen List, is selling a wide array of sex dolls. Poses of the dolls sometimes feature scenes of bondage and captivity. Some dolls are featured in school girl uniforms or in swimsuits with Disney characters. Some are marketed with images that include pictures of the doll’s genitalia. Many of the dolls have childlike facial features, small waists, and hips, but exaggerated bust sizes. Since launching our campaign some have been removed from the site but many remain. To make your advocacy efforts more seamless, we’ve made an easy-to-use action that allows you to quickly contact Amazon executives and urge them to remove these exploitative objects from their platform. Read more

USA – Governments, Big Tech Team Up Against Online Child Sexual Exploitation

In efforts to prevent child sexual abuse online, the United States, along with the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have created new voluntary principles that tech companies are promoting. Social media have all endorsed the principles, which ask them to prevent child sexual abuse material from being made available on their platforms, and taking action against advertising, soliciting children, and the livestreaming of child-related sexual abuse.  In 2019, it received 16.9 million reports. In Congress, a group of bipartisan senators introduced a bill on March 5 that would create incentives for companies to “earn” liability protection for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material. “Companies must do more to combat this growing problem on their online platforms.” Read more

USA – He focuses more on Johns.

Just as much as there are misconceptions about how prostitution happens, there is a long-standing myth that we can’t fix the problem. One researcher, Dr. Michael Shively, Senior Advisor on Research and Data Analysis at the U.S. based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), refuses to accept this. “Anywhere there is prostitution, there is trafficking.” Where sex is sold, coercion follows. You only generate the supply—the people—if there is demand, and without demand, there is no motivation whatsoever to come up with that supply.” Fighting sex trafficking needs a multi-faceted solution. Shively said we must continue to rescue victims and hold traffickers accountable, but we cannot ignore the buyers and cultural influences that encourage trafficking. Read more

South Africa – Movement for sex trade survivors protest

Members of the sex-trade survivor movement Kwanele will be protesting outside the court before the appearance of the guilty man who killed, 20-year-old Siam Lee’s. Her remains were found on a farm in New Hanover, in the Midlands.  “We want all the men who buy women to know that it is not okay to buy women for sexual acts. “Women are not commodities to be bought and sold,” said Meji, a survivor of Embrace Dignity project called Kwanele. She said Lee’s murder case revealed that whether or not prostitution was legalised, women in the sex the trade were never safe. “It shows that legalisation and full decriminalisation of prostitution will not make the sex trade safe for prostituted women,”. Read more

France – 5th Global Report

The Fondation Scelles was created with the goal of “knowing, understanding, and fighting” sexual exploitation. Prostitution is a form of violence. Prostituted people display, after a few years, similar marks of trauma to survivors of concentration camps from WWII; those who have managed to escape prostitution refer to themselves as “survivors.” Prostitution is extremely violent and procurers attack vulnerable people. Prostitution is neither work, nor sex. It is the commodification of human beings. The fight against all forms of sexual exploitation must be a clearly defined priority by governments, equipped with the means to meet the challenges. Nevertheless, progress has been made in recent months. It must be continued, invariably in the direction of the abolition of prostitution. Read more

France – 5th Global Report Part III

Public opinion is stirred and authorities are addressing the sexual exploitation issue: governments are commissioning studies, parliaments are setting up thinking committees, media are debating, etc. Beyond these observations, appropriate legislative and judicial responses are emerging and lines of action have been identified. The past few months have reinforced the growing awareness of the online phenomenon which can facilitate the perpetration of these abuses, are now being held liable. In the USA, the adoption of the FOSTA/SESTA law allowed the authorities to seize a website specialized in dating offers and paid sexual acts. An online advertising platform prosecuted for aggravated procuring offences closed its “Encounters” section. These are the first significant milestones towards an authentic governance of the Internet. Read more

USA – America’s Hidden Sex Trafficking Epidemic

In 2019 alone, according to the FBI, 169 individuals were arrested in connection with sex trafficking during an 11-day operation that was undertaken in conjunction with Super Bowl happening in Atlanta. However, as deeply problematic as the trafficking that occurs around large events, the 24/7/365 reality of sex trafficking in the United States is an epidemic of proportions most Americans have not even begun to comprehend.  This lack of awareness is precisely why it’s important that we leverage the increased spotlight that the topic of sex trafficking gets in conjunction with the Super Bowl. In an age of distraction and increased competition for human attention, it is vital that we use opportunities for visibility as opportunities for education. Read more

Child sexual abuse and exploitation: 10 things a new study found

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) recently released a report on child sexual abuse and exploitation, based on a study of the approach which 40 countries took to such offences. South Africa was one of the countries included in the study. It ranked 15th out of 40 for its measures to protect children against sexual abuse and exploitation. From the report, titled “Out of the Shadows”. We see just over half (21) of the 40 countries analysed have legal protections for boys within their child rape laws. Social stigmas associated with sexual violence against boys discourage formal reporting and are exacerbated by “macho” masculine norms, homophobia and fears of being viewed as feminine, vulnerable or helpless. Read more

Netherlands – Prostitutes should not be a tourist attraction but that’s what happens when legalised

Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema has called for changes to the city’s red light district, arguing that turning prostitution into a tourist attraction is ‘humiliating’ and ‘unacceptable’. There has been growing concern that the number of tourists flocking to the red light district has made it more difficult for prostitutes to work in the area and compromised their safety. An open letter from a cross-party group of young political activists demanded an end to the ‘public meat market’ in the red light district. The group said the exploitation of prostitutes had gone too far. In an opinion piece titled ‘Enough is enough, take action in the Wallen‘, they wrote: ‘We, the youth of Amsterdam, have come to the conclusion that regardless of your point of view on sex work, the current situation cannot be justified. ‘Whether your view of the value of human life is based on humanitarian or confessional ideas, this circus, this public meat market, is humiliating.’ Read more


LifeAlerts – Paedophilia

Paedophilia

South Africa – Paedophile threat escalates in SA

Pro-paedophilia propaganda has increased dramatically on the internet since the global lockdown took effect in March this year. Paedophiles are aggressively rebranding themselves as “Minor Attracted Persons” (MAP) in attempts to remove the negative social stigma associated with paedophilia.  The World Wide Web, children’s entertainment (like Disney animated movies and cartoons) and national educational systems have all become the primary environments for the targeting, isolation and sexual indoctrination and grooming of innocent children. Parents backed by the Church must aggressively lead the fightback against the sexualisation of children. Its starts with the rejection of CSE (Comprehensive Sex Education) and SOGI (Sexual Orientation & Gender identity) in public schools. Parents must take urgent steps to monitor their children’s online activity including installing software on all devices that protects against online pornography and sexual predator activity. Read more

Australia – New law a ‘major victory for paedophiles’

Tens of thousands of sexual assault survivors in Victoria have been stripped of their legal right to tell their stories using their real names. The changes to the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act – which were quietly introduced in February – silence all sexual assault victims whose offenders have been found guilty, by banning them from ever speaking out under their real identities. The new ‘gag laws’ have been described as a “major victory” for convicted paedophiles and rapists, as their victims are now “muzzled” and prohibited from self-identifying in publications – including media and autobiographies – regardless of their consent. Victorian Attorney-General, Jill Hennessy says that she has asked the Department of Justice and Community Safety to urgently look into these cases and consider how future reform could remedy any unintended barriers (to speaking out). Read more

UK – Catching Paedophiles by Looking at the Marks on Their Hands

Professor Sue Black is a forensic anthropologist and human anatomist in the UK and proposes a new way for identifying paedophiles. When the pedophile films his crime, he can be tracked using nothing more than his veins, scars, and other markings on their hands. Each person has their own unique vein pattern that matches no one else’s.

A case in 2006 of a teenage girl being interfered with at night by her father began this process for Sue. The girl’s mother did not believe her so she turned on her Skype camera and left it running all night, the camera went into near-infrared mode – when you look at the human body through near-infrared the veins stand up like black trams lines – which enabled Sue to trace the vein pattern associated with her father and they matched.

This was the first time evidence was presented in this format in court and because they were anatomists the court accepted the scientific evidence. The devastating decision of the court to dismiss the case was because the girl, according to the jury, did not cry enough for her to be believed. Since then Sue has had the research academically researched and validated. Watch video presentation here

South Africa – Pedophilia/Psychology today in SA

Pedophilia is an ongoing sexual attraction to pre-pubertal children. It is considered a paraphilia, a condition in which a person’s sexual arousal and gratification depend on fantasizing about and engaging in sexual behavior that is atypical and extreme. For people with pedophilic disorder who do seek help, research suggests that cognitive-behavioral treatment models may be effective. Such models may include aversive conditioning, confrontation of cognitive distortions, building victim empathy (such as by showing videos of consequences to victims), assertiveness training (social skills training, time management, structure), relapse prevention (identifying antecedents to the behavior [high-risk situations] and how to disrupt antecedents), surveillance systems (family associates who help monitor patient behavior), and lifelong maintenance. Read more

New York – The Emerging Psychology of Pedophiles

Images of child sex abuse have reached a crisis point on the internet, spreading at unprecedented rates in part because tech platforms and law enforcement agencies have failed to keep pace with the problem. What drives people to sexually abuse children?  Science in recent years has begun to provide some answers. One thing most pedophiles have in common: They discover that their sexual preferences have not matured like everyone else’s. Studies suggest that at least 40 percent of sex offenders were using drugs or alcohol when they committed their crimes. “The important thing, is that people know that treatment is possible, there’s a subgroup out there, they refer themselves here, and they are quite convinced that they do not want real-life sex with children.” [Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic.] Read more

USA – Doctor claims pedophiles are born that way

According to a study by Dr. James Cantor, a neuroscientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, based on MRI brain scans of convicted child molesters, that “pedophilia begins in the womb.” Strangely, however, no brains of infants or children were examined in the study. There has been an active campaign going on for years to categorize pedophilia not as some kind of sexual deviancy worthy of society’s harshest condemnation, but rather a ‘sexual orientation.’ In other words, in the very same ballpark as the LGBT crowd. Will this research serve to give child sex predators more rights than their victims? Will society fall for this attempt to make predators look like “victims of nature”? Read more

USA – Amazon promotes pedophilia

Amazon has come under fire for selling a children’s T-shirt with ‘Daddy’s Little Sl*t’ printed on the front, and while the controversial top has since been removed, the site is still offering other clothing items for babies and toddlers featuring the disturbing phrase. Journalist Yashar Ali drew attention to the horrific clothing item by sharing a screenshot of the children’s shirt on Twitter. People were outraged and quick to share their disgust with Amazon. Read more at daily mail, Independent

USA – Man claims to be 8-year-old child in porn defense

A 45-year-old man from Michigan is facing charges for possessing child pornography. He defended himself by claiming he identifies as an eight-year-old girl and therefore should have his rights protected under the First Amendment. His collection reportedly contained over 50 pornographic images of everything from infants to 5-year-olds, and police were able to identify at least eight victims who were sexually assaulted. Prosecutor Daniel Helmer said he was a danger to the public “Even during the trial, the defendant continued to draw, talking about raping babies in Jail.” We are seeing pedophiles trying to climb aboard the LGBT “sexual orientation” train in an attempt to normalise raping children. Read more

USA – Professor backs sex with children!

Thomas Hubbard a professor at the University of Texas has written that it should not be illegal for people to have sexual relationships with children. He also says age-of-consent laws prohibit the liberated sexuality of adolescents. This is so twisted; Laws are written to protect children from criminal sexual deviants who want to force sexual acts on the immature and underdeveloped bodies of children. The American Psychiatric Association tries to put some instances of pedophilia in the category of “sexual orientation.” Just like the homosexual groups, Pedophilia is pushing to be another group that should not be discriminated against regardless of the child’s protection rights.

As a result, everyone else’s freedom gets trampled on for example, we now find men allowed in women’s locker rooms if they say they “identify” as a female. We have men who “identify” as females entering high school athletic competitions and demolishing their competition. Businesses are being doxed if they don’t bake a wedding cake in opposition to their religious beliefs. We are also told that there are 60 something genders that have never before existed in human history. Read more

USA – Social media contributing to normalization of pedophilia

Screenshots captured by Big League Politics’ Shane Trejo show several Twitter users who identify as MAPs (Minor Attracted Persons) openly engaging in conversation about sexual contact with children. Twitter policy now explicitly allows discussions surrounding “child sexual exploitation,” so long as posts don’t promote or glorify it. The policy has led to MAPs and pedophile enablers having a platform to discuss sexual contact with children. Shane traces the policy back to Dr James Cantor, who petitioned Twitter back in January 2018 to allow “non-offending pedophiles,” arguing that not doing so could cause them to act out in the real world. Twitter’s refusal to ban pedophiles suggests the company is on-board with the new movement attempting to normalize pedophilia. Read more

USA – Another pedophile calls to legalise child sex abuse

Gary Wolchesky, 31, admitted he induced under aged boys to send him sexually explicit videos but insisted at his 2016 trial that pedophilia should be legal. Fortunately, he lost that argument and was convicted of 21 crimes for which he is serving a 46-year prison term. But now, his criminal conviction could be in jeopardy, if a judge rules he was denied a speedy trial because of a seven-year wait from his 2009 arrest to go to trial. The appellate judges, in their ruling, said a number of circumstances led to the trial delay, including a “high volume of defense motions.” The jury found Wolchesky guilty of aggravated sexual assault and related child-pornography charges. Read more

LifeAlerts – Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse

USA – States that legalized marijuana experience skyrocketing workforce positive rates

According to national data released by Quest Diagnostics, rates of marijuana positive testing in the workforce have sharply risen both over the last year (2018-2019), and since legalization was implemented. “Marijuana continues to be an enduring presence in the U.S. workforce. Changing attitudes toward its use could pose heightened risks especially in safety-sensitive positions and those states exploring legalization,” said Barry Sample, PhD, senior director, science and technology for Quest Diagnostics in a press release. Marijuana continues to top the list of the most commonly detected illicit substances across all workforce categories. Read more

USA – Association between Marijuana and Heart Disease risks

More than 2 million people with heart disease currently use marijuana or have used it in the past, either recreationally or “medical” reasons, according to estimates published in a research review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. That’s alarming for researchers, who may have found an association between using cannabis and cardiovascular risks. “Our review suggests that smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco” lead author Muthiah Vaduganathan, M.D., a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center in Boston said. “While the level of evidence is modest, there is enough data for us to advise caution in using marijuana for our highest-risk patients, including those who present with a heart attack or new arrhythmia, or who have been hospitalized with heart failure. The review also cautions that marijuana can interfere with certain medications for cardiovascular problems. For example, if you’re taking lipid-lowering statins and using marijuana your statin levels can climb—that’s because both drugs are metabolized by the same liver enzymes in the body. And if you use marijuana while taking blood thinners, like warfarin, it’s a similar result: The levels of the blood thinners in your blood can increase. Read more

USA – Cannabis impairs driving skills long after the high is gone

A recent study published widely confirms what Doctors For Life International (DFL) has been cautioning for years: that cannabis influences your driving skills long after you have smoked or used the drug. The study revealed that whether it is running red lights, driving at high speeds, crossing center lines into the opposite lanes, getting into accidents or even hitting pedestrians, these were some of the dangerous driving behaviors of regular, heavy users of recreational cannabis who began using before the age of 16. But more concerning is that users drove this badly even when they were no longer high. The study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, asked chronic, heavy marijuana users to drive in a customized driving simulator. “Heavy use was defined by daily or near daily use, a minimum of four or five times a week, with a lifetime exposure of 1,500 times,” said lead author Staci Gruber, director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. 

Despite having little THC in their system, heavy users consistently performed worse on driving tasks than non-users, making critical, dangerous mistakes. Although both Gruber and Dahlgren claim it’s too early to tell how significant these ‘results’ may be, data in states where cannabis has been legalised reveal the shocking reality. Both Colorado and Washington for example, experienced a significant increase in fatal motor vehicle accidents since cannabis has been legalised recreationally. Gruber does however admit that is worrisome that weed appears to be replacing cigarettes in recent USA national surveys. “Daily cigarette use among 12th graders was 2.4% and marijuana use was 6.4%,” she said. Read more

France – Man hallucinates and kills woman while high on marijuana

A French appeals court ruled that a suspect will not stand trial for killing a female doctor while being high on marijuana. Kobili Traore, a Malian immigrant to France, allegedly beat the doctor for an hour while calling her a “demon” and shouting about “Allah.” This is nothing new, the impact of high potency marijuana and frequent use are well documented. A 6-year study done in 2015 by British Psychiatrists found that daily users of high potency marijuana are five times more likely to suffer psychosis than those who never touch it. The finding suggests that about 60,000 people in Britain are currently living with conditions involving hallucinations and paranoid episodes brought on by the abuse of high-potency cannabis. Read more at National Review, The Telegraph

LifeAlerts – Euthanasia

Euthanasia

USA – Euthanasia polling data may fail to capture people’s considered views

A new paper in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry find that public attitudes to euthanasia for patients with dementia change when they are presented with case studies of individuals with severe dementia who have made an advanced request for euthanasia. An online survey of 1700 US-based participants show 54% supported legalized euthanasia and 22.6% were unsure, but after reading the ethical and practical complexities of the scenarios, support decreased. The study authors say that it is not enough to ask whether advanced request for euthanasia should be legal following a description of life with dementia because it may fail to capture the public’s considered views. Rather, it is important that the public is given insight into the complexities of illnesses like dementia to avoid clouded public views. Read Bioedge, ajgponline

Canada – Wife Loses Lawsuit to Prevent Husband’s Euthanasia

According to Wesley J. Smith, euthanasia destroys the family bond. Imagine your spouse wants to be euthanized and you have no say over it, or if your depressed brother decides to be euthanized and you beg doctors not to kill him, to no avail. Both cases happened in Canada. One involving a wife trying to prevent her husband’s death by euthanasia but lost because the benefit of the doubt goes to death once euthanasia becomes legal. In Oregon a psychiatrist determined that an elderly woman with dementia was mentally unable to consent to assisted suicide, and believed her daughter was pushing for it, but it happened anyway. Read more

New Zealand – Underfunding no argument for assisted dying

In an upcoming referendum a vote on Euthanasia will be done. Pro-euthanasia, unsupported claims have been promoted in the media. Specialist doctor Sinead Donnelly is trained in palliative medicine, who decries the move to make underfunding and overworked staff the reason to euthanize the old and dying. Dr Donnelly says it’s a little like arguing that the car needs a clean so we should push it off a cliff. This “End of Life Choice Act” gives no choice for the patient but to die. The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners told Parliament they won’t be able to detect coercion or pressure in all cases with this test, and that there will be wrongful deaths under this law.

“Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders advised that: “… under the Act a person could be dead within only a matter of days after being diagnosed, and without needing to tell any loved ones. There’s no mandatory cooling-off period between a request and the lethal prescription. That’s a serious flaw because terminally ill people can go through a whole range of emotions from day to day. If they’re caught in a moment of weakness and have the wrong people around them they could be dead within 72 hours”.

Every week as doctors we see cases where patients with advanced illnesses with limited prognosis who are also disabled, sick or mentally ill will, at their most vulnerable point, contemplate suicide. With the right care and medicine, the vast majority are brought out of this vulnerable state to a place of health. Under the proposed Act, those same people could be dead within 72 hours.” Read more

Canada – Organ donation increases after euthanasia

In 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia or Medical Aid in dying (MAiD), but since euthanasia was legalized organ donations increased. The CEO, Ronnie Gavsie, of the organization called Trillium insists that euthanasia is totally separate from organ donation and that they only provide the information to the dying patient and wait for them to decide. Yet there is a subtle sense of coercion since in the very next breath Ronnie says “it’s the right thing to do for those no the wait list.” Organs donated by euthanized patients are often of better quality than organs harvested from accident victims. There is more time to test them and find a match with potential recipients.

Wesley J. Smith commented in the National Review saying “The clear message being sent to suicidal, ill, and disabled Canadians – with the active support of the organ transplant community – is that their deaths can have greater value to Canada than their lives.” “Someday, Canada will probably dispense with the euthanasia part altogether and go straight to killing by organ harvesting—already being proposed bioethics and medical journals. Read more

Spain – Legalized euthanasia pressures elderly to die

According to an article by Francisco José Contreras, a lecturer in legal philosophy, Euthanasia once legalized will pressure the sick elderly to die. Francisco said that it will be easy to convince the elderly that the final stretch of their life, along with all the difficulties, is not worth being lived and that it is dignified not to impose one’s decay on others – exactly what the Nazi legislation used to justify the extermination of the deficient. In both The Netherlands and Belgium, once euthanasia became legal, the interpretation became increasingly lax. They have evolved from killing only terminally ill patients, to those with chronic illnesses; from killing people with physical illnesses, to people with psychological illnesses; from voluntary cases to killing people without their express permission. Read more

Belgium – Court clears Doctors for murder

A Belgian court has cleared three doctors accused of murder in the country’s first criminal case concerning euthanasia. The doctors were alleged to have unlawfully poisoned 38-year-old Tine Nys in April 2010 because she did not fulfil the conditions to be euthanized. The deceased’s family said that Nys did not have an incurable mental disorder. Belgian law allows adults to request euthanasia if they are facing unbearable physical or mental suffering resulting from a serious and incurable disorder. In the Netherlands, a doctor was cleared in a trial after being accused of failing to secure proper consent from a woman who had Alzheimer’s disease. Read more

Netherlands – Euthanasia now kills patients who could receive healing and hope

According to a file analysis by the Euthanasia Expertise Center requested by the Ministry of Public Health, Men turn to euthanasia more often because they suffer from addiction problems, and women more often suffered from mood disorders. The average age of women in this study is 50 years, of the men 49. A depressive mood disorder was the most common disorder across the board. Bullying, sexual abuse, or trauma played a role with relatively many patients. Many of these lives could have turned out differently if they had sought out counselling and support. Another example of how euthanasia has crossed the lines and become a slippery slope. Read more

Canada – No one talks about the cons of euthanasia

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, retired last year as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence University College, Manitoba, Canada. He feels that there are more cons to euthanasia that are often dismissed. For example; with the acceptance and expansion of euthanasia, our society will see suicide as a legitimate way of solving an individual’s problems. Life will no longer be seen as society’s default position. the elderly, terminally ill, disabled, and whoever else is suffering—must justify the continuation of their lives. Why should we spend so much money on healthcare for them? This may not be stated explicitly, but will be an unspoken assumption. Law professor Carter Snead correctly points out, a “subtle coercion.” Adding insult to injury. To those becoming handicapped or infirm we insult them as the most vulnerable with euthanasia by saying: We would rather be dead than be like you! If that isn’t an insult, what is?

If the choice or autonomy of the sufferer constitutes acceptable personal and legal grounds for euthanasia, then will suicide interveners have to add to their script some directions as to where euthanasia is available? Will National Suicide Prevention Week include some Suicide Promotion Days? Will suicide intervention or counselling against suicide become grounds for a lawsuit against the intervener or counsellor? If we kiss good-bye the above portion of the Hippocratic Oath, then we invite a deep change of character to the practice of medicine. Healers will be asked to be killers. Health care becomes careful killing. And those conscientious persons who refuse to kill will be discouraged from practicing medicine.

In conclusion: Ideas have consequences—and sometimes the consequences of bad ideas can be disastrous.

In view of the above cons, it would be wise for Canadians not to embrace euthanasia. Instead, we should do a better job of providing excellent palliative care—pain relief and life-enhancing dignity—for all who suffer. We should embrace a culture of life, not a culture of death. Read more

Germany – Death on demand comes to Germany

German people now have the right to kill themselves at any time and for any reason. The right to a self-determined death is not limited to situations defined by external causes like serious or incurable illnesses, nor does it only apply in certain stages of life or illness. Rather, this right is guaranteed in all stages of a person’s existence. One radical court ruling leads to another. The right to commit suicide could soon become a right to be killed. Since Germany’s absolute right to assist in suicide is open-ended and not limited to doctors, why not permit friends to kill friends? How can the state now restrict the taking and selling of addicting drugs? Drugs may be harmful, but if an autonomous person chooses to spend their days high, how can the state gainsay that decision or inhibit the commercial providers who supply the fixes? A culture that has lost its faith in life cannot comprehend why it should be endured.” If we don’t change our current cultural trajectory, we will become “Germany” too. Read more

UK – Academics says euthanasia saves money

Academics have argued how killing patients through assisted suicide in the United Kingdom would save money and provide organs for transplantation in a new report published in the journal of Clinical Ethics. Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing said that this report “exposes the real agenda” of assisted suicide and demonstrates the dangers of legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia. While the authors may not believe money is a motivation for assisted suicide there are some people who do. In the US states of Oregon and Washington the majority of those ending their lives cite fear of being a burden on their families and finances.”  Read more at Lifesitenews, Sagepubjournals

Texas – Disabled man euthanized without his consent

In Texas, a disabled, 46-year old African American man named Michael Hickson, was euthanized without his consent or that of his wife. Michael contracted COVID-19 and was admitted to hospital. Melissa, his wife, was given no choice over whether he lived or died. Melissa recorded her conversation with the doctor who said it was better to euthanize Michael because he is paralyzed and not like “walking and talking people.” Giving her husband food, water, oxygen and medicine would not have been a burdensome treatment, and the hospital had plenty of space. The doctor made clear that the issue was his disability. The National Council on Disability is calling for an investigation into the hospital for violating Michaels civil rights. Read more

USA – Girl kills herself with the help of assisted suicide website

Shawn Shatto who was dealing with depression and anxiety for years and seeing a therapist. A website provided Shawn with lethal directions and encouraged her to die by suicide through cheering her on by telling her what kind of drugs to mix in order to kill herself, and by wishing her ‘good luck and ‘safe travels.’ Shawn’s mom has been advocating for “Shawn’s Law” Which “strengthens penalties against anyone who assists in a suicide, especially anyone under the age of 18 or has a mental disability. Shawn’s Law has passed the House, and is now in the Senate. Read more

When the blind see again

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Doctors For Life International (DFL), in partnership with Medical Mission International (MMI), assisted Angolans with free medical care in 2008. The main goal was to cure blindness through cataract surgery. The campaign was in an area in the south of Angola, where cataract surgery have not been performed for as much as 3 decades due to the civil war (ended in 2002).

Most of patients DFL operated on, had bilateral blindness (blind in both eyes) for many years. Their reactions to being able to see again was filled with emotional; mixed with shock and pure joy! The their sometimes animated reactions were priceless. Hit the “like button” if you enjoyed watching them see again. In addition to surgery DFL also provided dental procedures and general medical treatment to over a thousand people during this 2008 outreach.

DFL have completed approximately 9 similar medical campaigns in various regions in Angola alone since 2003. Other countries where DFL assist medically include (but are not limited to) Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa. Consider supporting our work by contributing to these campaigns.

Visit our website at www.doctorsforlife.co.za or email us at [email protected]

WHEN BLIND PEOPLE SEE AGAIN (CATARACT SURGERY) – REACTIONS ARE PRICELESS

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Doctors For Life International (DFL), in partnership with Medical Mission International (MMI), assisted Angolans with free medical care in 2008. The main goal was to cure blindness through cataract surgery.

The campaign was in an area in the south of Angola, where cataract surgery have not been performed for as much as 3 decades due to the civil war (ended in 2002). Most of patients DFL operated on, had bilateral blindness (blind in both eyes) for many years.

Their reactions to being able to see again was filled with emotional; mixed with shock and pure joy! The their sometimes animated reactions were priceless. Hit the “like button” if you enjoyed watching them see again. In addition to surgery DFL also provided dental procedures and general medical treatment to over a thousand people during this 2008 outreach. DFL have completed approximately 9 similar medical campaigns in various regions in Angola alone since 2003.

Other countries where DFL assist medically include (but are not limited to) Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa. Consider supporting our work by contributing to these campaigns.

Visit our website at www.doctorsforlife.co.za or email us at [email protected]

IF BLACK LIVES MATTER, DEFUND ABORTION

USA

Matt Walsh an American writer, actor and director wrote a piece on Black Lives Matter in the Daily Wire. He said

“defunding the police is sure to kill many more black people than it saves, defunding Planned Parenthood, and then abolishing abortion entirely, is sure to save many millions of lives while costing none.”

Abortion has destroyed over 60 million people in the USA since Roe v. Wade. In some American cities, the situation has gotten so bad that more black babies are aborted than born. Planned Parenthood kills close to 100,000 black people every year. For comparison sake, police killed 1,000 people total last year — white, black, armed, and unarmed. 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-if-black-lives-matter-defund-planned-parenthood-not-the-police?inf_contact_key=c0cb563487f5f99f610206cbff03f397cc0558ed5d4c28cbfab114022b1ec50d

LGBT GUIDELINES IN SA SCHOOLS | FACTS – NOT IDEOLOGY – DETERMINE REALITY.

MEDIA RELEASE

Embargo: Immediate release                                             Inquiries:     Doctors For Life Int.

Date:      19 June 2020                                                    Telephone:   032 481 5550

  • DA’s draft guidelines on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation in Public Schools unscientific
  • DFL made Submission to Adv. Lynn Coleridge-Zils
  • Pro-LGBT Johns Hopkins Science on LGBT issues | genetics, causation, discrimination.
  • Growing number of individuals regretting transitioning.
  • 5 counties in UK and 15 states in the USA working to withdraw either/and transgender bathroom bills, opposite sex sport participation and transgender surgery on minors

Doctors For Life (DFL) is deeply concerned for the youth of South Africa, especially since the Democratic Alliance (DA) has recently published draft guidelines on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation in Public Schools.[1] These guidelines suggest that boys and girls must be encouraged to believe that they can be “born in the wrong body with the wrong sex” and that boys and girls can “use whatever toilets and changing rooms they feel most comfortable using”. DFL has taken this opportunity to make a scientific submission to Lynn Coleridge-Zils along with examples of the mistakes made by other countries that we can learn from.

In a statement the American College of Pediatricians urged healthcare professionals, educators and legislators to “reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.” And outlined the following;

  1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: every single cell in a person’s body is either “XY” or “XX” which are genetic markers of being male or female, – not genetic markers of a disorder that needs to be changed through transgendering.
  2. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.
  3. Rates of suicide are nearly twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBTQ – affirming countries. What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88% of girls and 98% of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?
  4. Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is mental molestation of children. [2]

Johns Hopkins University was the first Pro-LGBT medical center who pioneered sex-reassignment surgeries (SRS) on transgender individuals in 1960. Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as “satisfied” by the results, but their subsequent mental distress and depression were no better than those who didn’t have the surgery. And so at Hopkins they stopped doing SRS, since producing a “satisfied” but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs. [3]

Sweden’s Karolinska Institute did a longitudinal study in 2011 of 30 years – following 324 trans people who had SRS. The results showed how 10 years after having the surgery, the transgender person experienced increasing mental difficulties. Most alarmingly, their suicide rate rose 2000% (!) compared to non-transgender populations. [3] LGBT groups tried attributing their suffering to discrimination and stigmatization but Johns Hopkins said, “There is evidence linking some forms of mistreatment, stigmatization, and discrimination to some of the poor mental health outcomes experienced by non-heterosexuals, but it is far from clear that these factors account for all of the disparities between the heterosexual and non-heterosexual populations. [4, page 85] Sweden is one of the most tolerant countries of LGBT and yet these problems persist within the community.

Johns Hopkins university went even further and published a report stating “Some of the most known views about sexual orientation, like the ‘born that way’ or ‘born in the wrong body’ hypothesis, simply are not supported by science.[4, page 7 & 8] Rather we should look at “developmental, environmental, experiential, social, or volitional factors…” [4, page 33]That will give a fuller picture of how sexual interests, attractions, and desires develop. As in many other studies, data shows associations between childhood sexual abuse or maltreatment and LGBT orientation, with the strongest associations being between sexual abuse and sexual identity. [4, page 49]

Some medical institutions have been pressured to abandon what is well known about homosexuality for decades in fear of being labelled “homophobic” or “transphobic”. Radical LGBT groups intimidate and label disagreeing parties in attempt to suppress the truth because the scientific evidence flies in the face of their false claims about being “born that way” and “born in the wrong body”. There is a growing number of experts who disagree and who base their opinions on sound science and genetics.

Last year December 200 people showed up for the world’s first gender de-transition conference in England. The sold-out event included a panel of medical and psychological health experts as well as young women who are “de-transitioning” from attempts to make them men. The event also marked the official launch of the De-transition Advocacy Network headed by Charlie Evans, 28, a woman who identified as a man for a decade. Evans decided to found the group to help the hundreds of young people she says have reached out to her after regretting their own experiments with hormonal treatments and surgeries. [5]

The Equalities Minister in the UK blasted a document containing LGBT guidelines for schools. The document asserted that schools have a legal and moral duty to embed LGBT teaching in the curriculum, and suggests that schools ignore the concerns of parents and carers who object. The LGBT guidelines document also told schools to ignore advice from groups such as Transgender Trend, A Woman’s Place UK and Fair Play for Women, because these groups do not fully endorse the affirmative approach to gender confusion. The LGBT guidelines document further made false claims that “refusing a child or young person access to the changing room or toilet of their gender identity would constitute an act of discrimination”. [6]

Hungary is another example where parliament voted 133 to 57 to ban transgender individuals from changing their gender/sex on identity documents. [7]

Currently six counties in the UK [8] and fifteen States in the USA [9] are working to withdraw transgender bills that allow children to use opposite sex toilets, changing facilities, and opposite sex sports participation. As well stop transgender surgery on minors under 18 years of age.

In closing we’d like to ask why the DA wants to initiate and experiment on the public and children of South Africa, when other countries have already experimented, and now show us the outcome that will follow?


Editors note: The downloadable version of our submission available here has been updated with a few minor changes after we sent it out to the media and our database.

DFL RECOMMENDS THAT ALL SOUTH AFRICANS WEAR MASKS IN PUBLIC

Doctors For Life International highly recommends that ALL South Africans now wear face masks in public. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention as well as the U.S. Government is officially recommending this.

We suggest that the public begin making their own cloth face masks to avoid draining health professional supplies in hospitals etc.

You can wash them daily with boiled water and a disinfectant such as JIK.

Need some help making a mask?

Visit this website to get some tips: CDC