Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
Wesley J. Smith looks at the problem of doctors who give up before the patient does.
Extreme measures?
Posted on: April 28, 2011
Heads up for Canadians
Posted on: April 25, 2011
If I understand correctly, Canadian doctors are seeking legal cover for withdrawing medical care without consent.
More workmen with integrity
Posted on: April 8, 2011
From the 40 Days for Life blog, Day 31:
Eileen in Beaumont recently witnessed some men who answered the call on what was otherwise a typical day on the job.
A truck from a heating and air conditioning contractor pulled up in front of the abortion center where the 40 Days for Life vigil is in progress. A couple of guys got out and saw the signs: “Pray to end abortion.”
“Do they do abortions in there?” asked one of the men. The volunteers responded, “Yes, they do!”
This man had not been aware of that. “We don’t do work for people who do abortions,” he said sharply, “and we will tell them so!”
With that, the two men went inside the abortion facility, came right back out, got in their truck and left.
“We want to encourage all businesses to be as brave as those folks,” Eileen said of the men who put principle above money. “Our world would be different if everyone took such a strong stand.”
Denny Hartford has a few suggestions.
He notes that active euthanasia – actual hastening of death – has become more common in medical facilities than many people realize – until they have a loved one in need of care.
The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is also a good place to turn for information, and help.
In Canada, there’s the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
Hawaii Right to Life has been working hard to fight euthanasia and assisted suicide.
OK, there are groups and individuals all over who are trying to fight this, but it’s something of an uphill battle, because all too many medical schools adopted a ‘quality of life’ mindset years back, and tossed out the Hippocratic Oath at the same time. Some med schools use a modified oath (which suggests that killing a patient should never be undertaken lightly, but it’s OK if you’re humble about it), and others don’t even go as far as that. (See here for more on the different oaths, and a discussion related to it.) So, we’re pretty much left with a lottery based on the individual consciences of the medical staff we happen to get, pushed or pulled by ethics committees and facility policies, when we go for care. And since so many people these days, including those operating health care facilities and nursing homes, think in terms of moral relativity or situational ethics, this can make it very dangerous to be at their (misguided) mercy.
Feel free to list other resources in the comments.
… to a research company that comes up with artificial flavors using cells from aborted babies. Info and links here.
People are calling for boycotts.
That should be easy enough. This is food we’re talking about. Who wants to buy food that makes them sick to think about?
Please note: Campbell Soup has severed ties with the research company. They are no longer on the boycott list. If you hear of other companies that respond appropriately, let us know in the comments.
Heads up, Californians.
Never mind that embryonic stem cell research has helped no one and harmed many – or that adult stem cell research has provided great benefits without the ethical downsides. California has come up with a sneaky way of skimming more money from the citizenry to pay for embryonic stem cell research, according to EraseTheNeed’s Blog. Barb says “This new bill (AB 190) is due to be heard tomorrow, April 5.”
Signing away what you might want
Posted on: March 21, 2011
Zombie writes at Pajamas Media about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of Advanced Directives, and the attitudes of various health care workers, in “Death Channels.” (February 21, 2011)
hat tip: Wendy Wright link on Facebook
Embryo adoption
Posted on: February 15, 2011
This week’s Cross Examine television show looks at embryo adoption. The episode is titled Snow Babies.
One of the reasons some churches forbid some fertility procedures is that ‘excess’ embryos are created, many of whom are discarded or donated to be used as research material (which, as one lady notes in the show, is another way of being discarded). Embryo adoption has arisen to give some of the hundreds of thousands of young lives, currently in suspended animation, a chance at being born.
The post begins (emphasis in original):
From Father Corapi,
A large number of endangered, unwanted, and unborn children held a town hall meeting on the 4th of July – alarmed at the brutal and untimely killing of millions of their brothers and sisters in recent years. That the murderous war waged on them had the full force and respectability of the law made their plight all the more terrifying.Their complaint was humble and it was simple. They were not distressed by rising gas prices, or the deteriorating economy in general. They were not even frightened by the exponential increase of natural disasters. The threat of global warming or global terrorism did not greatly disturb them.
They had become an endangered species, and little had been done to answer their terrified and silent screams from the womb. They decided that the barbaric treatment that they and their fellow unwanted unborn human beings have had to endure for perilous decades was unconscionable and unbearable. They cried out to their Creator for inspiration and protection, and then unanimously they put forth a declaration. It began as follows:
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of nature and the Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS…
THAT AMONG THESE IS LIFE; THAT AMONG THESE IS LIFE; THAT AMONG THESE IS LIFE!”
The first and pre-eminent right is the right to life. This truth the Founding Fathers were sure of, and anyone with any common sense at all is equally sure of it. 232 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed the amount of common sense that seems to be operative in many spheres of influence – most notably the courts and the political arena – can easily be poured into a very small thimble. The United States of America seems to have a death wish, and we have traveled far down the road to having that wish realized. When law divorces itself from common sense and spawns the illegitimate offspring of distortions of law, resulting in illegal laws – based neither on the natural law nor divine law – this undermines law itself, generating disdain for the law. Erosion of trust in the courts, or the system in general, is inevitable.
hat tip: Mrs. Rene O’Riordan’s Facebook page.
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