LIFEAlerts

LIFEalerts – Medical Ethics

Medical Ethics

Australia – Surgeons to have patients’ psychiatric evaluation before cosmetic or otherwise surgeries

A paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia warns surgeons to be cautious about taking on a patient whose had numerous past procedures performed by a list of different practitioners, which they refer to as “inadequate”. Patients need to have their psychiatric history and state of mind assessed before cosmetic procedures are performed because certain psychiatric disorders – such as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), depression or a psychotic diagnosis – can present with a heightened concern about the way in which the patient looks. The surgeon should clearly outline what is realistic, and what the risks and complications might be. A psychiatric evaluation would prevent instances of unrealistic expectation and unnecessary litigation. More

South Africa – Telemedicine was an expensive lesson for one woman who sought cosmetic surgery

The Health Professions Council of SA had previously banned all telemedicine consults, except for telephonic prescriptions, – but due to pressure and being in line with global trends of virtual consults – the council relaxed restrictions for the pandemic only. One woman with scoliosis who wanted cosmetic surgery from a Medical Spa in Sandton, had to pay R120 000 to secure her appointment without a physical consultation and without adequate consultation. After doing some research, Rania discovered that she was at heightened risk for things to go wrong and wanted a refund but was told there are no refunds and then ignored. It turns out that the same clinic was sued for trademark infringement. This should caution practitioners and patients/buyers to make full disclosures and first have a physical consultation before paying for procedures. More

LIFEalerts – Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse

South Africa – Cannabis bill angers cannabis consumers who intend on doing things illegally

South Africa’s draft Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill has made some Rastafarian cannabis consumers quite upset. If the bill is passed there will be a maximum jail term of 15 years for dealing in cannabis, smoking in public earns two years of jail time, and smoking around children would be punishable by four years in jail. At home you may grow up to four flowering plants if you live alone, and eight plants if there are two or more adults. You may possess 600g of dried cannabis if you live alone or 1.2kg if there are two or more adults in your home. The Rasta Business Foundation members marched to Durban City Hall in protest complaining that the government gives police too much leeway to enter people’s properties, and also criticised the amount legal to possess. The motive of groups that advocate for cannabis becomes clear that it’s not really about health and well-being but that dealing was also their intention and police who would ensure legal activities is a problem for them. Why else complain unless you plan to do illegal trade. More

USA – Benadryl challenge sends many teens worldwide to the emergency room

The ‘Benadryl’ challenge, which encourages users to overdose on the drug to achieve a hallucinatory state, first did the rounds on Tiktok back in May, when three teenagers were hospitalized in Texas. One of the three a 15-year old in Oklahama City died. In small quantities the drug heals fever and cold symptoms, larger doses can cause hallucination, heart trouble, seizures, coma and death. After this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning of the dangers with high doses and that parents should lock up medicine beyond the reach of children. Other cases of teens overdosing on Benadryl and heading for the emergency room are popping up nationwide in the United States, Europe, Australia and certain Asian countries. Article, Article 2, Video

USA – Another TikTok Trend endangers teens: Nutmeg challenge

A toxicologist explains what happened to a 19-year-old’s brain who made TikTok videos of himself after he drank an entire bottle of nutmeg spice in a protein shake. GG’s immense thirst made him drink 14 litres of water over a few hours which did not quench his thirst nor could he urinate. Like everything that’s herbal and natural, nutmeg has hundreds of chemicals in it. Natural things are all made of chemicals. GG had nutmeg poisoning and hyponatremia (Low sodium presence in blood) and caused his organs, heart and brain to swell with water. Fortunately, no herniation occurred in his brain and the 3% sodium infusion was enough to solve the hyponatremia and draw the water out of his brain. Upon regaining consciousness, he realized that no amount of views on TikTok made that terrible experience worth it. More

LIFEalerts – Sexual Exploitation

Sexual Exploitation

South Africa – The inherent dangers associated with prostitution are enough reason to keep it illegal

After the gruesome murder of 23-year-old Jessica Weyers, the issue of prostitution has been brought back into the spotlight. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, founder and Deputy Chairperson of Embrace Dignity stands for total abolition of prostitution in South Africa because they believe that objectification, exploitation and oppression are inherent in the sex trade. They help women exit the lifestyle and have said that COVID-19 and unemployment put women at greater risk to be sex trafficked. Embrace Dignity is also a member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, which draws links between human trafficking and sex work. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2018 global report on human trafficking found that adult women and young girls account for 72% of trafficked persons across the world. More

Netherlands – Mask-wearing law contradicts legalized prostitution

The Netherlands have joined the rest of Europe to make wearing face masks indoors in public places compulsory – Citizens who rebel will be fined 95 euros. Prostitutes, on the other hand, are free to go with their clients and are allowed to remove their masks. Never mind that this contradicts the very goal of maintaining the spread of the virus since one sex worker will see around ten different clients a day. These rendezvous often include consuming drugs and alcohol – a recipe for disaster – if you’re serious about containing the spread of covid-19. More

LIFEalerts – Same Sex Attraction

Same Sex Attraction

UK – High Court protects transgender children from harmful and experimental drugs

In a landmark case which will impact laws around the world, the UK High Court has ruled that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are experimental treatments which cannot be given to children in most cases without application to the court. The court also ruled that it is highly unlikely that a child aged 15 and under could be competent to understand the long-term risks and consequences of treatment sufficiently in order to give consent to such interventions. Clinicians would also involve the court in any case where they doubt whether the long-term interests of a 16 or 17 year-old would be served by transgender treatments.

This case comes as vindication for Sue Evans (a former employee) who first raised concerns at the transgender clinic over 15 years ago. Keira Bell who was a victim of this treatment also made history as she joined the case and through her public testimony. In her statement, Keira Bell said: “I made a brash decision as a teenager, (as a lot of teenagers do) trying to find confidence and happiness, except now the rest of my life will be negatively affected.” The court found that the transgender clinic did not keep any record on the ages of children treated with puberty blockers or the number of young people referred by the clinic for blockers who have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or any other mental health diagnosis. The clinic did not investigate these possibilities before putting children on blockers. The clinic failed also to track children on blockers into adult services and to track the outcomes. More

Canada – Concerned mother fights for her daughter’s medical safety and sanity

A judge prohibited a doctor from performing surgery to remove the breasts of a 17-year-old girl who wants to look like a male, and that against the objections of the mother. In disbelief that clinical standards and medical protocols could permit doctors to treat traumatized teenage girls caught up in a trend this way, and shocked that the government supports such unscientific and dangerous experimentation, the mother demands to review all the protocols that led the physicians, neither of whom are specialists, to arrive at the conclusions they have. An endocrinologist warned that the teen is presently being “severely overdosed” on testosterone because it raises her female levels to 100 times above normal. This is dangerous because it increases the risk for heart attacks, Severe liver dysfunction, permanent deepening of the voice, erythrocytosis, hypertension and other serious conditions.

According to a study by Kaiser in 2019, a review of medical records of thousands of transgender identified youth found when compared to non-transgender peers, transgender youth were 7 times more likely to have had psychological disorders and also 25-54 times more likely to have expressed suicidal thoughts prior to identifying as transgender. Many teens who have gone down this road have expressed regret and are warning others against taking their feelings at face value or concluding that their feelings, which are subject to change all the time, to be the sole determining factor to doubt their biological reality. All this suggests that the mother is right to resist this type of treatment for her daughter who is none the wiser.

Article, Teens who speak out, More teens share transgender regret, Teen calls transgender surgery a Frankenstein hack job, Women regrets transgender surgery.

LIFEalerts – Abortion

Abortion

Ireland – New Study shows doctors suffer emotionally when performing abortions

In a new study based on interviews with ten doctors who perform abortions in Irish hospitals under the country’s new abortion law reveals what doctors go through. The doctors described Late-Term Abortion (LTA) procedures as “‘brutal’, ‘awful’ and ‘emotionally difficult’, referring to it as ‘stabbing the baby in the heart’, and held themselves responsible for the death of the baby”. Doctors expressed emotional difficulty describing LTA as creating a ‘psychological burden’. LTA kills the baby in the womb by injecting potassium chloride directly into the baby’s heart.

The administration of potassium chloride in executions in the USA is considered so painful that it is necessary to first administer an anaesthetic before its use. There is, however, no such obligation to use painkillers in late term abortions, despite the mounting evidence that the unborn baby is capable of experiencing pain and distress. There have been cases of abortion following a misdiagnosis of disability. In 2019, a baby boy was thought to have Trisomy 18 and only after the abortion was it shown that the child was perfectly healthy. Article, Study

Russia – Lessons learned from Russia’s 100 years legalized abortion

Soviet Russia was the first country to legalize abortion in 1920 believing that this would reduce the harm caused by dangerous, illegal procedures and gradually make abortion non-existent. The opposite happened instead, and abortion rose by 400% which caused a falling birth rate and a plunging population. The opposite also happened in after Roe v. Wade became U.S. law in 1973, and also the opposite of what happened to Ireland in 2018. As a result, Russia tried disseminating birth control and eventually made abortion illegal again in 1936 because it wasn’t working. The general feeling however was that women needed to limit the number of children because of societal conditions at the time and women needed abortions so they could work or attend school. Medical dangers of abortion often go unacknowledged because this belief persists today that abortion is necessary for women’s social well-being.

Back in the 20th century, researchers attempted to warn the Russian public about abortion risks, Professor M. Malinovsky wrote: “…People do not see or do not want to see the dangers inherent in abortion. The fact that the operation goes unpunished and is relatively safe has created an illusion of the complete harmlessness of the operation. It is our duty to dispel this misconception.” One hundred years later, abortion has not corrected societal or familial injustices or inequalities against women or their children — because an injustice perpetrated against an entire class of human beings can never lead to justice for anyone else. More

Ireland – Opposition to DIY abortions grows in the medical sector

A leading Scottish medic, Northern Ireland’s Health Minister, and 277 healthcare workers are opposing the DIY abortion programme, calling it “unsafe and “unacceptable.” The abortion pills are sent through the post and women perform their own abortion at home with no medical supervision or support. The letter stated: “We find it sadly ironic that, at a time when the whole of society is constraining itself to prevent sickness and death for our at-risk friends and family, there is a push to expedite the ending of the lives of its most vulnerable member, the unborn child. Concerns include; forced abortion on women in abusive relationships or victims of trafficking, sepsis and significant bleeding is also of great concern.

Healthcare workers oppose DIY Abortion, Scottish Medic concerned about trauma caused of at-home abortions, Article.

USA – Activists are promoting new way to cushion consciences on abortion

The Missed Period Pill (MPP) is a new type of abortion pill which would bring on bleeding like a menstrual period, and which would terminate the pregnancy for nearly all people who were pregnant. The key point is that they would never know whether or not they had been pregnant. What was interesting to researchers was despite decades of feminism, culminating in groups like Shout Your Abortion, many women still appear to be ashamed of having an abortion. Some would use this because they’d feel less guilty about killing their baby because they’d never know if they were pregnant or not. Why else would women feel ashamed unless something instinctively tells them that this is a life being taken? More.

LIFEalerts – Euthanasia

Euthanasia

Belgium – Investigates alleged illegal euthanasia deaths

Belgium officials are investigating around ten euthanasia cases which may not have murder. In an anonymous letter to the public prosecutor, they say: “Our family member passed away two years ago, and we were told that euthanasia was presumed to have been carried out without the doctors informing us or following the necessary procedure. This is a very traumatic experience for us.” Two doctors were named in the letter. Belgium’s chief euthanasia overseer says that not every case of euthanasia gets reported to the committee, as it should, and doctors freely admit that. Potential for abuse was the among the concerns of euthanasia opponents and cases like these prove their concerns were right about the slippery slope. More

South Africa – New legal challenge attempts to legalise euthanasia

A new legal challenge was instituted in the Johannesburg High Court in August 2017 in an attempt to legalise physician assisted suicide (PAS) and active voluntary euthanasia (PAE). Currently, South African law deems these acts are prohibited and are treated either as murder or culpable homicide. The new case is expected to proceed to trial in early 2021 and Cause For Justice (CFJ) will be contributing to the case by legal arguments. CFJ’s main concern is that legalized euthanasia will result in a “cultural shift and slippery slope towards acceptance of death as a solution to human pain and suffering” (which has been the case in countries that have legalized it). See Fatal Flaws Documentary. More, Fatal Flaws.

Netherlands – Doctors can sedate dementia patients before euthanizing them

Doctor no longer have to agree with a patient on the time or manner in which euthanasia will be given, sedation is permissible if a patient is unable to communicate or becomes disturbed, agitated or aggressive in cases of severe dementia. Family members no longer need to be consulted either. This came when a doctor sedated a 74-year-old patient without her knowledge before killing her, was cleared of wrongdoing. Dutch euthanasia doctor Bert Keizer admitted that “those who embark on euthanasia venture down a slippery slope along which you irrevocably slide down to the random killing of defenceless sick people”. More

LIFEalerts – Paedophilia

Paedophilia

USA – New Legislation aims to ban sales & possession of sex dolls

A bill aiming to ban the sale and possession of sex dolls that look like children is before the U.S. House. This legislation is called the CREEPER Act 2.0. Patrick Trueman, the CEO and president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said “Recently, a mother discovered that an image of her 8-year-old daughter’s face was used on a sex doll being sold on the Internet.” The bill’s detractors say that sex dolls would be a form of harm reduction that meets the needs of individuals who would want to avoid harming real children, but no research exists to prove that this would prevent the actual abuse of children. Research does however exist that repeating this behaviour (especially sexual behaviour) actually has a normalising effect.

The Australian Institute of Chronology did a literature review on the research surrounding child sex dolls and found that it desensitizes the user from the harm that child sexual abuse causes because dolls don’t give any kind of emotional feedback that indicates pain and discomfort, maybe it even increases the risk of objectifying children and viewing them as sex commodities. Just like pornography which has been found to drive the demand for increased sexual exploitation. Some individuals start off watching normal soft porn but end up watching more extreme content to achieve the desired results. Extreme content includes violence against women, degrading of women, and an appetite for younger and younger ages. More

LIFEalerts – Pornography

Pornography

South Africa – No child is immune to the dangers online

The East Rand Child Protection (ERCP) Hotline was launched in October this year by Danie van Loggerenberg, the 13th Child Protection Hotline to be established in South Africa. Their goal is to take on any cases of child abuse, bullying or child neglect that can be reported to 071 523 9215. So far 1,000 children have been helped by ERCP and their network. Covid-19 has forced most children to online platforms for school, but at the same time opened them up to an ocean of pedophiles and bullies. One incident involved a 16-year-old boy who raped a 13-year-old girl after threatening to share explicit images of her far and wide. More, even more.

LIFEalerts – IVF & Surrogacy

IVF & Surrogacy

South Africa – Essentials and non-essentials during the covid-19 pandemic

Amrita Pande, an associate professor in the sociology department at the University of Cape Town, questions whether SA can justify investments in cutting-edge reproductive technology as essential during the pandemic while our health system is in a permanent state of crisis. Fearing that critical and scarce resources like personal protective equipment; hospital beds; operating rooms and emergency care, would be burdened if we pursue treatments that are not life-threatening. The causes of infertility, such as sexually transmitted infections, and poor medical treatment during an earlier birth or abortion, require affordable preventable measures rather high-cost and high-tech interventions that such patients cannot afford. More

LIFEalerts – IVF & Surrogacy

IVF & Surrogacy

USA – Study shows IVF babies are at greater risk for cancer

According to a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open this week, when compared to children conceived naturally, Children conceived with in vitro fertilization (IVF)  have a higher risk of developing cancer which authors of the study say is at a 2-fold increased risk. IVF-conceived children were also at a one-third greater risk of birth defects compared to their naturally-conceived counterparts. The study covered more than a million children conceived naturally and approximately 53,000 conceived by IVF. “With IVF births rising worldwide, further investigations into these associations are warranted,” the authors write. Read more

Japan – MP promotes IVF to boost birth rate

Japan’s biggest long-term problems are a low birth rate and a shrinking population. Incoming Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to provide insurance coverage for infertility treatments. He will also promote paternity leave for working fathers to ease the burden on working mothers. He has promised more help for single-parent households, more than half of which are living in poverty. Suga’s predecessor, Shinzo Abe, regarded the rapidly ageing population and falling number of births as a “national crisis,” and introduced free preschool education and day-care services. Read more