Orphans by Design "Orphan" is one of those words that seems old-fashioned to modern ears -- a word that evokes abject poverty in a Dickens novel. But in the years ahead, our reproductive technologies may lead us down a new, terrible path of creating orphans by design. In this case, the problem is not the tragic death of parents but the deliberate creation of children without living biological mothers or fathers -- as if such bodily origins do not much matter, as if nurturing were the only dimension of parenthood... (more)
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The man who wants to live foreverAubrey de Grey believes that a 60-year-old alive today may become the first 1,000-year-old human. And he is serious. Paul Miller & James Wilsdon profile a scorned but calmly defiant pioneer of the science of biogerontology.
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It's a bright October morning when Aubrey de Grey meets us at Cambridge station. The leaves are falling in the wind and mounting up in small piles on the station forecourt. De Grey is standing by his battered red racing bike, wearing scruffy white t... (more)
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'Powers over death' form proposedMinisters have drawn up plans for a form authorising others to block life-saving treatment if the person signing the form becomes incapacitated.
People will be able to grant authority to instruct a doctor under the Mental Capacity Act, coming in next year.
They could do so by ticking "Yes" or "No" boxes and answering a two-line question, a government consultation paper on implementing the act suggests.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said it was not ... (more)
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Russia’s Population Falls by 680,000 People in 2005Russia’s population decreased by 680,000 people in 2005, according to preliminary data, which represents a 0.5% fall on last year, the head of the Federal Statistics Service said Tuesday.
“The population of Russia stood at 142,800,000 people as of December 1, 2005,” Vladimir Sokolin was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
“The long term trend toward a decrease in population is typical today for the majority of European countries,” he added... (more)
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Who is messing with your head?WHAT if there was a drug that helped you do your job better, and your boss was pressuring you to take it, even though it could be bad for your health? There are already drugs that can boost memory or alertness, but whose long-term effects are unknown. Or what if scientists could tell what you were thinking or planning to do before you knew it yourself? Brain scans can now do this.
Should these drugs and procedures be regulated - or permitted at all? That is the inspiration for the... (more)
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Doctors 'help' eight patients die a dayNearly 3,000 patients were illegally helped to die by doctors in the UK in 2004, new research has suggested.
The study also revealed that an estimated one third of people who died in the year - 192,000 patients - had their deaths accelerated by doctors using pain relief, the so-called "double effect".
The independent report by Professor Clive Seale of Brunel University showed 2,865 of deaths were assisted by doctors in 2004. His figures were based on an anonymous ... (more)
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Doctors 'involved in eight euthanasia deaths a day'Doctors were involved in as many as eight deaths a day from voluntary or "non-voluntary" euthanasia in Britain in 2004, according to academic research.
A report by Clive Seale, professor of sociology at Brunel University, said 1,930 deaths were as a result of a doctor ending a patient's life without the patient's consent, a practice known as "non-voluntary euthanasia" or "mercy killing".
This involves the ending of the life of a person who does not have the faculty ... (more)
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Supreme Court nullifies ban on assisted suicideThe Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Oregon to continue to allow doctors to provide the drugs that terminally ill patients may use to take their own lives. The Court, saying that the U.S. attorney general had sought to make "a radical shift" of power from state to federal government, ruled that the head of the Justice Department does not have the power to bar doctors from prescribing lethal drugs for suicides. So far, Oregon is the only state to permit that medical practice.
<... (more)
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Creating Little Speed FreaksA site called The Attention Deficit Disorder [ADD] Help Center is running an article about ADD, ADHD, and the speed drugs (yes, they are speed) given to kids after diagnosis.
Of course, there is absolutely no chemical or biological test for ADD or ADHD. There is no proven root cause for this "disorder."
There are only lists of so-called symptoms.
Conclusion? There was never a reason for creating the labels ADD and ADHD in the first place, unless you i... (more)
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Clone team want to grow human cells in rabbit eggsBritish scientists want to create embryos by combining rabbit eggs with human DNA, it has emerged.
They hope the controversial move will boost stem cell research into incurable diseases by giving them a plentiful supply of eggs on which to hone their skills.
The scientists claim the development is needed as current human egg shortages are likely to worsen following a recent cloning scandal in which Korean research was exposed as fake. However, ethical c... (more)
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Leading Scientists: Overpopulation 'is main threat to planet'Climate change and global pollution cannot be adequately tackled without addressing the neglected issue of the world's booming population, according to two leading scientists.
Professor Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, and Professor John Guillebaud, vented their frustration yesterday at the fact that overpopulation had fallen off the agenda of the many organisations dedicated to saving the planet.
The scientists said dealing with the burgeonin... (more)
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TeenScreen's Pseudo-Scientific BasisBush’s New “Freedom” Commission recommended the TeenScreen mental health screening program for giving “mental health” checkups to America’s children. This article exposes TeenScreen for what it truly is, an unscientific fraud designed to turn normal children into lifelong drug addicts and mental patients. TeenScreen’s scientific background is investigated, leading to the source of all psychiatric “mental illness”, the Diagnostic and Statistic... (more)
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Freedom fears as the DNA database expandsThe government was accused last night of compiling a national DNA database "by stealth" as police reported a rapid increase in genetic profiling in recent years.
New Home Office figures estimate that by 2008, the samples of some 4.2 million people - seven per cent of the population - will be contained on a central criminal database, which is growing by about half a million a year.
The system, which held only 700,000 samples when Labour took office in 1997, now excee... (more)
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Sterilized psychiatric patients get $450,000 in out-of-court deal: 'The Gov. agreed to make the payout without admitting anything wrong happened'VANCOUVER -- Nine women who were sterilized while psychiatric patients in Vancouver more than 35 years ago have received a total of $450,000 in an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit against the British Columbia government.
"It was the right time to settle these cases," Public Guardian Jay Chalke, who initiated the lawsuit on behalf of the women in 2001, said yesterday in a news release.
"Some of our clients died during these lengthy proceedings and we had to consi... (more)
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Psychopolitics: Erasing Christianity Through the Consensus Process"Not too many years ago, Americans had never heard of sensitivity training, and if a facilitator of it had tried to convince them that they needed to be conditioned by it, he would have been told, very quickly and in no uncertain terms, to take a hike. However, step by careful step, sensitivity training began to be stealthily inserted into our society. Today, Americans simply submit to it without much thought, let alone any protest." Psychopolitics: Joe Six-Pack and the Crocodile –Linda... (more)
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Principal resigns; handcuffed little girl and forced 'medication' in classAn elementary school principal has resigned amidst allegations she and a school psychologist restrained a troubled 8-year-old and forced the child to take prescribed medication in front of her classmates.
Washington Elementary School District board members on Monday voted unanimously to accept Cherri Rifenburg's resignation. The board also met in executive session with legal council to discuss the fate of school psychologist Burke Bretzing, but no action was taken.
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Iowa professor proposes `body farm' to advance study of forensicsAn Iowa professor seeks a federal grant to study the decay of human corpses.
WASHINGTON - An Iowa professor has come up with a new use for Midwestern farmland: He wants the federal government to help pay for a three-acre "body farm" near Cedar Falls, Iowa, where forensic scientists could study how quickly human corpses decay when exposed to different conditions.
"If you know what a cornfield's like, you know that there's very little air movement, a lot of humidity t... (more)
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Company To Workers: Light Up And You're FiredMARYSVILLE, Ohio -- Quit smoking, or you're fired.
That's what Scotts Miracle-Gro is telling its employees. If they don't quit smoking by October, they'll lose their jobs.
The lawn and garden company is trying to keep health insurance costs down by promoting healthy lifestyles for its employees.
Its chairman and chief executive, James Hagedorn, said the company shouldn't have to shoulder health risks for employees who smoke. It pays for 75 percent of ... (more)
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Israelis to be allowed euthanasia by machineMachines will perform euthanasia on terminally ill patients in Israel under legislation devised not to offend Jewish law, which forbids people taking human life.
A special timer will be fitted to a patient's respirator which will sound an alarm 12 hours before turning it off.
Normally, carers would override the alarm and keep the respirator turned on but, if various stringent conditions are met, including the giving of consent by the patient or legal guardian, the a... (more)
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Trouble in Prozac NationWonder drugs of the 1990s, Prozac and its kin have been prescribed to tens of millions of people. But a growing backlash may portend the end of an era.
By David Stipp
Can Prozac make you want to die? The idea seems strange, given that the drug and similar antidepressants are supposed to do just the opposite. Yet that is what Kimberly Witczak believes happened to her husband. Two years ago Tim "Woody" Witczak killed himself at age 37, soon after going on Pfizer's Zo... (more)
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High school students should be drug tested, summit toldA national drug summit in Adelaide has been told of a radical proposal to address addiction before it takes hold in teenagers.
Perth doctor George O'Neil suggests that high schools should test students for marijuana use as part of an annual health check and if they fail, they would be forced to undergo monthly tests.
Dr O'Neil says several mining companies use a similar model on their employees.
"The only punishment a school could ever give is to chan... (more)
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Whose Life Is It Anyway?More and more that cigarette, or drink at home, that political candidate you supported, even your eating habits, are coming under the scrutiny of your boss.
If he doesn’t approve, it might even cost you your job, which is what happened to two Michigan women, Anita Epolito and Cara Stiffler.
Anita and Cara were considered model employees at Weyco, an insurance consulting firm outside of Lansing, Mich., both having worked at the company for years. The women sa... (more)
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U.S. Alters Test Policy On Psychiatric DrugsThe government will back down from a plan to require long-term studies of new psychiatric drugs before allowing them on the market, regulators said yesterday.
The reversal of the recently adopted policy came after a panel of experts unanimously recommended against requiring such studies as a condition of approval. While such studies are needed, the experts said, delaying decisions on new medications would hurt patients.
The panel's vote came after it heard a barrage... (more)
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Doctors 'forced' to overprescribe antidepressantsGPs know they are overprescribing antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and Seroxat, but believe the lack of other forms of help for those suffering from mild depression and stress leaves them no choice, a survey reveals today.
The survey shows that 80% of GPs believe they are writing too many prescriptions for the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), as the class of drugs made famous by Prozac is known.
The findings are alarming in the wake of a decision... (more)
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Fertility clinic in US gets green light for sex selection trialA clinical trial into the effects of allowing couples to choose the sex of their babies has been given the go-ahead at a US fertility clinic. The controversial study was given the green light by an ethics committee after nine years of consultation. The purpose of the study is to find out how cultural notions, family values and gender issues feed into a couple's desire to choose the gender of their child.
Fertility clinics already use a technique called pre-implantation genetic dia... (more)
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Chips inserted in soldiers' brainsBOFFINS working for the US military are experimenting with creating super soldiers by sticking microchips in their brains.
Apparently the Pentagon has decided that one of the things its soldiers are missing is brains, or at least the ability to remember details of their training.
Now researchers at the University of Southern California's bio-engineering department have developed a chip which they claim acts in exactly the same way as the hippocampus.
... (more)
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