Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance told a Catholic magazine that pornography should be banned because it’s stopping Americans from getting married and starting families. According to Vance the combination of porn and abortion have basically created a lonely, isolated generation that isn’t getting married, they’re not having families, and they’re actually not even totally sure how to interact with each other. Vance further stated that American values are declining due to the consumption of pornography. He contributed the recent school shootings to the absence of strong family values and not the lack of gun control. We made a political choice that the freedom to consume pornography was more important than the public goods, like marriage and family and happiness, he continued. “We must make new and better choices in the future.
LIFEAlerts
End-of-life care in South Africa: Important legal development (South Africa)
In 2015, a terminally ill Robin Stransham-applicant asked for the “right to die with dignity”. Judge Fabricius of the North Gauteng High Court found that he had a constitutionally protected right to do so. The applicant passed away a few hours before the judgement. Supreme Court concluded that assisted suicide is not unlawful in all circumstances. Nevertheless, the judgment of Prof. Sean Davison in 2019 shows that euthanasia is still unlawful in South Africa. In fact, he received a suspended sentence of 8 years with house arrest and community service for having assisted 3 patients in dying. Very recently, a new case involves a palliative care specialist and one of her patients, both with terminal conditions.
The ethics of euthanasia in dementia (2012–2020) (Netherlands)
151 Dutch case reports on euthanasia in dementia (2012–2020) were analyzed. In 2011, the first advanced-dementia-case has been authorized. The reported numbers amounted from 5 in 2005 to 170 in 2020. Ethically relevant is the prevalence of psychological and spiritual suffering (99.1% and 84.7). The study questions the factors of euthanasia requests: How voluntary is a request? Can an incapacitated patient make well-considered requests? What constitutes “unbearable suffering”? How (well) can a patient with cognitive limitations be informed? To conclude, the importance of narrowing the gap between perceived and real nursing home quality, making information about end of life options and involving patients’ own physician in a euthanasia request are highlighted.
Assisted suicide: the Federation of Swiss Doctors revises its guidelines (Switzerland)
On May 19, 2022, the Federation of Swiss Doctors (FMH) reviewed its directives concerning the support of people at the end of life and has revised its guidelines to follow those applied by the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (ASSM) since 2018. The new text explicitly states what was implicit until now: assisted suicide of healthy people is not defensible from a medico-ethical point of view. Unbearable suffering must be proven. Doctors must also now be more involved by conducting at least two interviews with people wishing to resort to assisted suicide. Suicide assistance organizations deplore much more complicated access to assistance and fear that assisted suicide will become much more difficult.
From reviewing cases of euthanasia to warning Uruguay parliament (Uruguay)
Theo Boer was invited by the NGO Prudencia Uruguay to give a lecture in Parliament as the euthanasia project is being studied in the Chamber of Deputies. He worked almost ten years reviewing cases of euthanasia practiced in the Netherlands. In total, about 4,000 cases passed through his hands in that decade. While he agrees that assisted suicide should be practiced in some cases of terminally ill patients, the Dutch experience led him to change his mind and advises looking at the figures and what happened in his country so as not to repeat that experience. His position turned against the lev because the euthanasia numbers have quadrupled and the laxity with which the criterion of intolerable suffering is used.
Copycat suicides after reports on celebrity suicides (South Korea)
Since 2003 Korea has experienced the highest suicide rate among OECD countries. One of the societal risk factors that triggers suicide is the contagious nature of suicide. The number of public suicides soars after media reports on celebrity suicides (increased by 16.4% within just one day after the reports) while celebrity deaths by accidents or diseases have no effect on the public suicide. Further analysis reveals that female and younger subgroups are more likely to be affected by celebrity suicides. Moreover, the public reacts more strongly to suicide incidents of celebrities of the same gender and even imitates the methods of suicide used by celebrities. It highlights the significance of responsible media coverage of suicide stories to prevent copycat suicide.
Internet service providers must find and remove online child pornography (Belgium)
Under new European Commission laws, Google, Meta and other online service providers will be compelled to detect and remove online child pornography. Companies who do not follow the requirements face fines of up to 6% of their annual revenue or global turnover, as determined by EU countries. The EU executive said on Wednesday that its plan aims to replace the present system of voluntary detection and reporting by businesses, which has proven insufficient to protect youngsters. It stated more than one million allegations of child sexual abuse in the EU27 in 2020, with the COVID-19 epidemic contributing to a 64 percent increase in such reports in 2021 compared to the previous year. Furthermore, 60 percent of all child sexual abuse material is hosted on EU servers.
European Union (EU) commission proposes plan to fight child pornography (Belgium)
The EU’s executive arm unveiled a plan to require online platforms to detect and report the sharing of child sex abuse images on the internet. This would force companies operating in the EU to detect, report and remove the material. An increase in online child sex abuse has been noticed globally. Reports of internet child abuse rose from 1 million to almost 22 million during 2014-2020 and over 65 million images and videos of child sexually abused images were identified. Detection, reporting and removal of child sexual abuse online is also urgently needed to prevent the sharing of images and videos of the sexual abuse of children, which retraumatizes the victims often years after the sexual abuse has ended.”
Increased cardiovascular risk with cannabis consumption and partial reversal through genistein (UK)
Cannabis use increases the risk for cardiovascular disease. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (the psychoactive substance of cannabis) binds the CB1 receptors in blood vessels causing the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in the development of atherosclerotic plaques and cardiovascular disease. This has been showed in plasma concentrations of patients smoking cannabis, cell lines and mice models. Genistein, a component of soybean, acts as a CB1-receptor antagonist and reduces and partially reverses the pro-inflammatory effects of THC, reducing atherosclerotic plaques in both cell lines and mice models. Genistein, however, does not cross the blood-brain barrier and has no influence on the neurobehavioral effects of THC.
Marijuana legalisation and its effect on adolescents (USA)
Legalization of marijuana for medical purposes/recreational use coincides with a decrease in perceived harmfulness of the drug and increases adolescent use. 9% of children in grade 9-12 use marijuana daily/almost every day. Marijuana exposure in adolescence is associated with use of other illicit drugs and increased emergency unit visits in the pediatric population. 17% of youth using marijuana develop a cannabis use disorder, recognized in the DSM-V as physical dependence. 68% of youth presenting for treatment report dependence, tolerance and withdrawal. Marijuana intoxication may cause acute psychosis and adolescent exposure predicts a twofold increased risk of developing psychosis and schizophrenia in adulthood. There is also an association between chronic use and suicidal ideation/attempt. Adolescent use causes cognitive impairment and decreases academic performance. Pediatricians must be aware of the problem and incorporate questions about substance abuse and education/intervention in their consultations.