USA – Abortion clinic closed permanently due to health standards
USA – Studies on victims of rape and abortion
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UK – Is fear of being a burden a good reason for assisted suicide?
USA – Assisted suicide push fails in New York
Netherlands – Will assisted suicide always provide a quick gentle death?
UK – Man with motor neuron disease patient loses assisted suicide bid
USA – The harmful medical outcome of surrogacy
USA – Survey: most Americans support editing the human genome
USA – First anti-ageing drugs ready for trial
USA – Wesley Smith on “justice for Jahi”
USA – Nurses Association endorses voluntary stopping of food and drink
Brazil – Therapy should be available for unwanted sexual desires
USA – Children removed from school that teaches transgenderism
USA – HBO TV Series Normalizes Sexual Violence
Germany – Country Introduces Unpopular Prostitution Law
USA – Researchers Say Bitcoin Data Could Help Spot Sex Traffickers
USA – NCOSE is building a movement to end online sex trafficking
USA – Reporting on prostitution reveals its true natureNo news today
Abortion
USA – Abortion clinic closed permanently due to health standards
An abortion clinic in Pennsylvania has closed permanently because it failed 44 pages of Health and Safety standards. Pennsylvania’s Health Department issued a deficiency report on the Women’s Center for using expired medical supplies, failing to keep record of patients receiving anaesthesia and failing to conduct legally required background checks on employees working with minors. In 2016 they had to send a 30-year-old woman to hospital in an ambulance because the abortion went wrong. The Center had no registered doctor or nurse to supervise women recovering from anaesthesia or the abortion procedure. Cheryl Sullenger, senior vice president at Operation Rescue said this was the same for abortion centres across America.
USA – Studies on victims of rape and abortion
Strong evidence from a scientific study titled “Associations between Intimate Partner Violence and Termination of Pregnancy” concluded that abortion is accompanied by “High rates of physical, sexual, and emotional interpersonal violence were found across six continents among women seeking termination of pregnancy”. Dr. Sandra Mahkom’s study found that 75 to 85 percent of impregnated rape victims did not have abortions. The Elliot Institute’s research found that the women who had abortions said they felt pressured by families and healthcare workers not because the women wanted the abortion but rather that they responded to the demands of others.
Alternative Medicine
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Euthanasia
UK – Is fear of being a burden a good reason for assisted suicide?
In Oregon, 48.9{01b0879e117dd7326006b2e84bcaac7e8fa1509c5c67baf2c9eb498fe06caff4} of patients who ended their lives under the state’s assisted suicide act said that fear of being a burden was one of their reasons. We should be very worried by this, argues Charles Foster, a British medical ethicist, in the blog Practical Ethics. Foster goes on to argue that “The law should be framed in such a way as to encourage the attitudes in families and carers that make impossible the feeling, ‘I’m a burden’.”
USA – Assisted suicide push fails in New York
A New York Court has rejected a petition by three terminally ill patients to be allowed access to assisted suicide drugs. “The New York assisted suicide statutes apply to anyone who assists an attempted or completed suicide,” the court wrote in its unanimous decision. “There are no exceptions.” Assisted suicide and euthanasia are currently illegal in New York.
Netherlands – Will assisted suicide always provide a quick gentle death?
The gold standard for human experimentation is a randomly-assigned, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Organizing such a study to assess the effectiveness of the lethal medications used for executions in the United States and for physician-assisted suicide (PAS), has significant ethical issues and so we need to rely on historical data. In the latest issue of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, Sean Riley, an end-of-life researcher currently studying in the Netherlands reviews the patchy record of the drugs used in executions and PAS. He summarizes his findings as follows: The pervasive belief that these, or any noxious drugs are guaranteed to provide for a peaceful and painless death, must be dispelled.
UK – Man with motor neuron disease patient loses assisted suicide bid
A British court has once again supported a ban on assisted suicide. Noel Conway, a 67-year-old with motor neuron disease, had appealed to the court to allow him to die through assisted suicide when his health deteriorated. His legal argument was that the Suicide Act 1961, which sets out the law on assisted dying, is incompatible with Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. His lawyers argued that the law should be changed to permit others to assist him to commit suicide without risking prosecution. However, after reviewing most of the recent developments in the assisted dying debate over the past four decades, three justices of the High Court rejected his claim.
IVF&Surrogacy
USA – The harmful medical outcome of surrogacy
Jennifer Lahl, R.N., M.A., president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network (CBC) has 25 years of experience as a paediatric critical care nurse, hospital administrator, and senior-level nursing manager. Quoting multiple studies, she explains how surrogacy is harmful to the surrogate because many embryos are transferred into the surrogate mother and as The British Journal of Medicine warns, “Multiple pregnancies are associated with maternal and perinatal complications such as gestational diabetes, fetal growth restriction and pre-eclampsia as well as premature birth.” Surrogacy often involves the use of donor eggs, and there have been no long-term studies of the effects of egg harvesting on the health of the young women who provide their eggs. This makes it impossible for women to give true, meaningfully informed consent relative to the health and psychological risks involved. In addition, the medical process required for egg retrieval is lengthy and there are known medical risks associated with each step. Risks include Ovarian Hyper Stimulation syndrome (OHSS) due to superovulation, loss of fertility, ovarian torsion, stroke, kidney disease, premature menopause, ovarian cysts, and in some rare cases, death.
http://cbc-network.org/pdfs/CBC-Lahl_Telling_the_Truth_about_Surrogacy_in_the_United_States.pdf
Medical Ethics
USA – Survey: most Americans support editing the human genome
A survey in the journal Science found that about two-thirds of American respondents support therapeutic editing in both cells that would be inherited and those that would not, with 65 percent of respondents supporting therapy in germline cells and 64 percent supporting therapy in somatic cells. When considering enhancement editing, however, support depended more upon whether the changes would affect future generations. Only 26 percent of people surveyed supported enhancement editing in heritable germline cells and 39 percent supported enhancement of somatic cells that would not be passed on to children. “A majority of people are saying that germline enhancement is where the technology crosses that invisible line and becomes unacceptable,” said author Dietram A. Scheufele.
https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/survey-most-americans-support-editing-the-human-genome/12422
USA – First anti-ageing drugs ready for trial
Writing in the Journal of American Geriatrics this week, doctors from the Mayo Clinic and Scripps Research Institute outline a set of new clinical trial to test the efficacy and safety of “Senolytics”, a new class of drugs that target mechanisms in the ageing process. Senolytics target a process known as “cell senescence”, in which moribund cells begin to accumulate in different parts of the body and (in some cases) disrupt the functioning of healthy cells. Senescence is associated with failing heart health, osteoporosis, general run-of-the-mill frailty, and even cancer. Senolytic drugs trigger a specific gene that leads cells to die a normal death and prevents them from interfering with other cell functions. “This is one of the most exciting fields in all of medicine or science at the moment,” said Dr. James Kirkland, director of the Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic and lead author of the new paper. The researchers argue that the new drugs “could transform geriatric medicine by enabling prevention or treatment of multiple diseases and functional deficits in parallel, instead of one at a time”.
https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/first-anti-ageing-drugs-ready-for-trial/12419
USA – Wesley Smith on “justice for Jahi”
The legal dispute over Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl alleged to be brain dead has received renewed attention after a judge ruled she may in fact be alive. Bioethicist Wesley J Smith visited McMath in hospital and feels there is evidence to suggest she no longer meets the criteria for brain death. McMath appears to respond to requests from her mother to move her fingers, and video evidence suggests she is capable of other autonomous motory operations. “I am stunned that the medical and bioethics communities generally show such a pronounced lack of curiosity about Jahi’s situation…Perhaps it is just a case of “experts” not wanting to know, because if Jahi isn’t dead, it would have epochal legal, social, medical, and scientific ramifications.
https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/wesley-smith-on-justice-for-jahi/12429
USA – Nurses Association endorses voluntary stopping of food and drink
Many patients require artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) at the end of life. But what should medical staff do when a patient seeks to hasten death by having ANH withdrawn? Despite the ethical complexities, medical guidelines are vague and, in some cases, non-existent. But the American Nurses Association has issued a new position statement that categorically endorses “voluntary stopping of eating and drinking” (VSED). In the statement, the ANA asserts; “VSED at the end of life is used to hasten death, and is a reflection of autonomy and the patient’s desire for control.” According to the Association, VSED should be respected by nurses, as “patients who are at the end of life likely have reasons for stopping nutrition and hydration”.
https://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/american-nurses-association-endorses-vsed/12430
Pedophilia
Australia – Expert discusses paedophile behaviour Cyber Safety expert Susan McLean discusses the behaviour of paedophiles after Ben McCormack (a former Australian reporter) was caught by police sharing conversations with another man about how they sexually desire young boys on social media. McLean explains that paedophiles normalise what they do, don’t see it as wrong, only regret it when they are caught and even advise each other on how to get closer to young children. She says that some paedophiles operate in isolation, targeting children for grooming and try to solicit photos while a newer online breed, collects photos and videos of children but do not make contact. There are those who do make contact and finally you have those who like to connect with like-minded individuals. If paedophiles like the look of the child, they not only like naked pictures but also uniforms, swim suits, sports clothes etc. Parents need to understand this. It was discovered that Instagram, Facebook, Viber; online games like Minecraft and streaming apps are popular among paedophiles. http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/kids/gnoc-get-naked-on-cam-the-secret-world-of-australias-paedophiles/news-story/82052b43cc9139a72fa1d9105fb8e23fPornography
USA – Seeks to declare Porn a public health crisis Arkansas, Tennessee, South Dakota, and Utah have formally recognized the public health harms of pornography and Florida is soon to follow. According to bill H.R. 157 that Republican Ross Spano filed, pornography is “contributing to the hyper sexualisation” of adolescents and claims that kids who view adult content are at a higher risk of developing low self-esteem, eating disorders and a desire to engage in dangerous sexual behaviour. The bill therefore orders the state to also create “recovery programs” for porn-addicts and said there is a need for education, prevention, research and policy change to protect the citizens of the state. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the country’s leading anti-pornography organization applauds Rep. Ross Spano for this proposal. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/21/anti-porn-bill-touted-florida-senator/Same Sex Attraction
Brazil – Therapy should be available for unwanted sexual desires
Judge Waldemar Claudio de Carvalho issued a ruling that sided with a psychologist who lost her license in 2016 after working with at least one patient to overcome same-sex attraction. Austin Ruse, president of the Center for Family and Human Rights said to deny these rights to people seeking help is a strike at their freedom and that the Judge did the right thing. Pro-LGBT libertarians have argued in favour of allowing people to seek therapy for unwanted sexual attractions. Banning certain therapies is “actually censoring and forbidding types of discussion,” Scott Shackford wrote in Reason magazine in 2016.
USA – Children removed from school that teaches transgenderism
In California, 41 families have removed 73 children from school over a boy that was reintroduced to the children as a girl wearing a dress. The parents were not informed of this and their 5 year-olds were traumatized asking if they too will turn into the opposite sex. There is uncertainty of what exactly happened in the classroom and the school board along with the teacher refuse to disclose any information. California law requires parent notification and offers the parent to disallow their children to be part of sex education but the school refused to inform parents and rejected the parents request to be notified in the future.
Sexual Exploitation
USA – HBO TV Series Normalizes Sexual Violence
The HBO television series ‘The Deuce’ glorifies and normalizes sexual behaviours and violence. The main themes are pornography and prostitution where performers team up for very disturbing pornographic scenes that have graphic sexual content. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) condemns HBO for building its business model on sexual violence and exploitation and is calling on it to remove the shows programming. Commenting about the show, Executive Director and Vice President of NCOSE, Dawn Hawkins, said producers of The Deuce would need to use mental art to convince themselves that this show is anything but beyond any reasonable degree of exploitative feelings of hatred directed at women. She added that the show will inevitably continue the cycle of degrading women, children and men who are real life victims of sexual violence and exploitation. It is not a documentary but is entertainment that normalizes the sexual exploitation of those who actually undergo the abuses of pornography and prostitution.
http://endsexualexploitation.org/hbo/
Germany – Country Introduces Unpopular Prostitution Law
Germany has passed a new prostitution law to fight human trafficking and exploitation. It calls for more control, more regulations and more penalties, which is not popular with the prostitution industry. According to the law, prostitutes must register with local authorities and seek a medical consultation from a public health service. Brothels or businesses that offer sex services will be required to apply for a permit that will only be granted if health, hygiene and room requirements are met. The law prohibits parties in which a prostitute must service several men concurrently and sex without a condom is prohibited. Furthermore, clients who knowingly make use of the services provided by people who have been forced into prostitution will be penalized. Even now that the law has been adopted, Germany still has no consensus on how to fight human trafficking in the industry, through counselling services and aid organizations.
http://www.dw.com/en/germany-introduces-unpopular-prostitution-law/a-39511761
USA – Researchers Say Bitcoin Data Could Help Spot Sex Traffickers
Bitcoin is often described as an anonymous way to pay online but a group of researchers says that data revealed through cryptocurrency’s might help track down sex traffickers. In a paper presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’ annual conference, researchers analyzed sex-related ads placed on the controversial classified listings site Backpage. They sought to locate groups of ads placed on the site by the same person, which they say could help investigators spot behavior that points to human trafficking and sex slavery.“Such a tool would allow officers to confidently use timing and location information to distinguish between ads posted by women voluntarily in this industry versus those by women and children forcibly tracked.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/40463805/researchers-say-bitcoin-data-could-help-spot-sex-traffickers
USA – NCOSE is building a movement to end online sex trafficking
The National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national organization combating all forms of sexual exploitation, and one of their foremost goals is amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which currently allows broad immunity to websites facilitating sex trafficking. NCOSE is making progress and building a swelling movement for change. Nearly 100 non-governmental organizations, 35 United States Senators, over 150 members of the U.S. Congress, and finally, influential corporations like Walt Disney and Oracle have joined their side of the debate.
http://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/thank-tech-company-standing-online-sex-trafficking/
USA – Reporting on prostitution reveals its true nature The United States of America has joined Germany in reporting and exposing the true harms of prostitution. In a special report in The Vindicator, reporters Jordyn Grzelewski and Joe Gorman placed a spotlight on what some wrongly call the ‘victimless crime’ of prostitution. The detailed report increases the focus on prostitution and human trafficking incidents in Ohio and also exposed the common myth that combating prostitution is a waste of public time and resources. Prostitution has proven links to sexual harassment, rape, verbal abuse, child-sex abuse to mention but a few and one can hardly call the crime victimless. A study in the Journal of Epidemiology shows that women in prostitution have the highest rates of rape and homicides of any group of women studied. In addition death among prostitutes is exceptionally high with leading causes ranging from drug ingestion, accidents and alcohol-related causes. Ohio ranks fifth in USA cases of human trafficking, 375 having been reported in 2016 which is a 400 percent increase since 2013. http://www.vindy.com/news/2017/sep/29/crackdown-on-prostitution-shows-true-nat/?printSubstance Abuse
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Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of Doctors for Life International
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