A Florida law passed to prevent a brain-damaged woman from having her food and water withdrawn to bring about her death has been deemed unconstitutional by the state's Supreme Court. The court said on Thursday that "Terri's Law", hastily pushed through the legislature by Governor Jeb Bush last year, was "unconstitutional as a violation of separation of powers, as a violation of the right of privacy and as unconstitutional retroactive legislation".
Terri Schiavo fell unconscious after a heart attack 14 years ago. She can breath on her own, but needs to be tube-fed water and food. In the opinion of the court, "Medicine cannot cure [her] condition. Unless an act of God, a true miracle, were to recreate her brain, Theresa will always remain in an unconscious, reflexive state."
Terri's plight has created headlines as the world watches her husband, who wants to her to die, and her parents, who want to keep her alive, slug it out in the courts. For every judge he found who would allow her death, they found one who forbade it. Thursday's decision is not the end of the drama -- the case could be heard again or there could be an appeal to the US Supreme Court. Lawyers for Mrs Schiavo's parents are also trying to remove her husband as her legal guardian.
Florida's state constitution protects the right of terminally ill patients to die "with dignity". What this "dignity" implies is unclear. Mrs Schiavo's husband contends that she did not want to remain on a feeding tube and that she should be allowed to die slowly through starvation and thirst. ~ BBC, Sept 24; Philadelphia Enquirer, Sept 25
First baby born from frozen ovarian tissue
A Belgian team has raised hopes that women who have treatment for cancer and women who want to delay motherhood until after menopause can still become pregnant naturally. In an article in this week's issue of The Lancet Dr Jacques Donnez outlined how he froze ovarian tissue from Ouarda Touirat when she was 25 in 1997. Six years after treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma, Ms Touirat was cleared of cancer and had her tissue transplanted. Her ovarian function was restored and she became pregnant naturally.
This new technique is good news for young women with cancer. But it could also enable women to postpone child-bearing until they have established themselves in their careers -- at a time of life when their contemporaries are already grandmothers. However, a British scientist warned that the technique has limitations. Professor David Baird, of Edinburgh University, said the operation would be most useful for women with cancers which could not spread to the transplant graft. "I think it's a terrific advance, but I think it would be very easy to oversell it," he said. ~ The Lancet, Sept 24; Telegraph, Sept 25
New animal research stats needed, says UK govt adviser
An adviser on animal research for the British government has called for clearer statistics on animal experiments which can be understood by the public. Professor Michael Banner, of Edinburgh University, chairs the Animal Procedures Committee. He has complained in the London Telegraph that no one really knows how much animals suffer and how many are subjected to experiments that make them suffer. Statistics which show that there were millions of "procedures" conjure up "an image of suffering on a vast scale", he says, but in fact many of these procedures are brief and painless.
Reform the statistics' is not a cry to get the masses to the barricades, but it would help," says Professor Banner. "Where there is a lack of openness there is bound to be misunderstanding. Where there is misunderstanding there is likely to be suspicion. Where there is suspicion there is a climate in which extremism can flourish. And from any point of view, the existence of a threat of terrorism against researchers is a bad thing." ~ Telegraph (UK), Sept 1
Euthanasia deaths in UK could reach 18,000 each year
A British expert on euthanasia has called for the legalisation of euthanasia after estimating that 18,000 people are secretly killed each year by doctors. Dr Hazel Biggs, of the University of Kent, based her figures on extrapolations of figures from the Netherlands and Australia and on interviews with British doctors. What this says to me is that we know these practices are going on, but they are completely unregulated," she says. "We don't know how many people are volunteers or non-volunteers, and maybe because of that the law ought to be changed so that people can give voluntary consent, which will give them more protection." It appears that as the British population ages, more doctors are taking private decisions to speed the death of terminally ill patients, normally by increasing drug doses. ~ Observer, Sept 19
Growing support for "conscience clause" in US health care
Doctors, nurses and pharmacists who have a conscientious objection to abortion, the morning-after pill or contraception are winning more support in the US Congress and in state legislatures, according to an AP report. Almost unnoticed, the US House of Representatives recently passed a provision that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from forcing persons or institutions to provide abortions, even in cases of rape or medical emergency. Although the chance that it will survive scrutiny by the Senate is slim, some states are enacting even more liberal exemptions. Mississippi passed a law in July which allows health care workers to refuse almost any service they object to on moral or religious grounds.
Abortion supporters are alarmed. The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association recently launched a petition drive against what it calls refusal clauses". And Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, says, "We've seen increasing organisation and networking to get more pharmacists to refuse to provide EC [emergency contraception] -- not just in the Bible Belt, but all over." She claims that "It's part of the anti-choice arrogance in which they believe they have the right to impose their ideology on everyone else."
One of Feldt's opponents, Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life, agrees that interest in "conscience clauses" is growing. She even argues that there should be no obligation to refer patients to a pro-abortion doctor. "Forced referral is stupid," she says. "If we're not going to kill a human being, we're not going to help the customer go do it somewhere else." ~ AP, Sept 15
Bush v Kerry on health
Life issues appear to be the most radical differences between American presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry in their health and science policies. In analyses published by the BMJ, Nature and the BBC, the two men clashed most on abortion and stem cell research, although they also have different solutions to health coverage, climate change, GM crops and new nuclear weapons. According to BBC analyst Paul Reynolds, this represents a battle between Kerry's science and Bush's "moral fundamentalism" -- a view hotly disputed by the President's supporters.
On abortion, the Republican platform elevates embryos and foetuses to the status of citizens. It states that "we support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make it clear the 14th amendment's protections apply to unborn children." The Democrat platform supports Roe v Wade and repeats President Clinton's slogan that "abortion should be safe, legal and rare".
On stem cell research, the Republicans support Bush's compromise which allows federal funding only for research on a few dozen human embryonic stem cell lines which were created before August 2001. They also oppose cloning and the creation of human embryos. The Democrats believe that stem cell research should be supported "under the strictest ethical guidelines" because it could bring wonder cures for Alzheimer's, heart disease, Parkinson's and juvenile diabetes. ~ Nature, Sept 16; BMJ.com, Sept 11; BBC, Sept 15
Discussing death with children should not be taboo
Parents should be open and honest about death when they talk with a dying child, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. A Swedish survey of 449 parents of children with terminal cancer found that parents who weren't often regretted it and were likely to suffer depression afterwards. Parents who did discuss death were more likely to be older, to be religious, retired or on sick leave and to have sensed that the child was aware of their condition. Dr Lawrence Wolf, of the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, said that the findings ought to reassure parents. "I have seen children with cancer respond to the idea of their dying with startling maturity," he said. "A nine-year-old boy left a legacy by giving his prized possessions to his friends, planned his funeral and decided what he would wear to his burial." ~ BBC, Sept 16
Will companies scare people into buying gene tests?
The UK lobby group GeneWatch claims that companies are preparing to market gene tests for a "susceptibility" to a disease and that this could frighten people into taking unnecessary medication. "Most claims that genes increase a person's risk of common conditions, such as heart disease, depression or obesity, later turn out to be wrong," says GeneWatch deputy director Dr Helen Wallace. "Unregulated genetic testing would mean that we could all be frightened into taking medicines for illness that we are never going to get." The UK does not require companies which market tests to confirm the link between a gene and a disease. ~ NetDoctor, Sept 9
Call for referendum to reverse Italian fertility law
Critics of Italy's strict new law regulating the fertility industry are scrambling to get half a million signatures by September 30 so that they can have a referendum to scrap it. The law, which was passed only in February, bans donor sperm or eggs, surrogate motherhood, IVF for gays and single women, embryo freezing and embryo experimentation. Although many leaders of Italy's diverse political parties are backing reform, other politicians warn that a referendum could "tear the country apart". ~ Reuters, Sept 21
India's census pinpoints the disappearing girls
The sex ratio of India's children is notoriously skewed in favour of boys, but recently-released figures from the 2001 census give a more detailed breakdown according to religion. They show that the ratio is lowest amongst the Sikhs and Jains and highest amongst Christians and tribal religions. The natural sex ratio at birth is between 940 and 950 girls per 1000 boys, according to the Population Reference Bureau. The Indian ratio is highest amongst tribal people (976) and Christians (964). Amongst Buddhists it is 942 and amongst Muslims and Hindus 925. However, amongst the Jains it is 870 and amongst the Sikhs it is 786.
Ratios are lower in urban areas, with a district in Uttar Pradesh scoring the lowest ratio in the country -- 678. A Calcutta demographer, Satish Agnihotri, told the Washington Times that urbanisation and prosperity had not modernised Indians' attitudes towards girls. "The reality is the opposite. As prosperity goes up, the sex ratio seems to go down," he said. ~ Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, Sept 6; Washington Times, Sept 18
IN BRIEF: placebos; teenagers; embryo licence fees
A survey of Israeli doctors suggests that they often give inactive "placebo" pills to their patients and then lie by telling them that they are getting a real drug. Some doctors want the practice banned because of the deception and possible harm to the doctor-patient relationship, say the authors of a study in the British Medical Journal. ~ Reuters Health, Sept 17
Teenagers who have sex and use drugs are at greater risk of suicide, says a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Teens who abstained from sex and drugs had the lowest levels of depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. ~ HealthDayNews, Sept 16
The UK fertility watchdog has scrapped plans for a 30-fold increase in licence fees for embryo research, according to a report in The Scientist. ~ The Scientist, Sept 21
