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Text File | 1993-03-14 | 13KB | 243 lines

                         OF NOTE...
                         News to Use

Vol. II, Issue 33                                March 15, 1993
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                        CURE, Ltd.


                         ABLE Aid

After a 1990 Supreme Court decision overturning federal regulations that
discriminated against children with disabilities applying for Supplemental
Security Income (SSI), the number of children receiving has SSI benefits
has more than doubled in the last three years. New eligibility rules
consider the effect a child's medical conditions have on his or her ability
to walk, eat, dress oneself, and perform other daily activities. (Far More
Children Receiving Federal Disability Payments, DM, 3/10/93)

                         AIDS Addenda

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-Marion) introduces a bill in the West Virginia Senate
to allow counties to mandate AIDS testing when another is exposed to their
blood or other body fluids while giving emergency care. (Bill: Counties
Could Order AIDS Tests, Daily Mail, 3/10/93)

                         Cancer Chronicles

Instead of worrying over pear-shaped or apple-shaped bodies, women
concerned about cancer should pay attention to controlling their body fat,
researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center report. (Study:
No Link in Body Shape, Cancer, Morning Herald, 3/1/93)

In a study published in the journal Science, Hiroshi Takahasi, MD, of
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Charlestown, MA, reports that
experiments with lab mice show lymphomokine-activated killer cells (LAK)
linked to a laboratory-made antibody that seeks and attaches itself to
colon cancer cells reduce tumors up to 80%. (Antibodies Can Turn Immune
Cells into Colon Cancer Killers, Daily Mail, 3/9/93)

A Canadian study published in 1992 that found 40 percent of cancers in
under-50 women were not detected by mammograms is echoed in a new study
finding that women in their 40's who undergo the test have the same death
rate from breast cancer as those who do not. The National Cancer Institute
and the American Cancer Society recommend that women in their 40's and
older have mammograms every one or two years. (Study: Mammogram Benefits
Linked to Age, Daily Mail, 3/9/93)

                         Care Less

Asking, "How do we, in effect, stabilize the patient until we get the whole
system in place?" Hilary Clinton says taxing employee health benefits would
be unfair because the tax imposes a burden on the middle class. An exception
to Mrs. Clinton's pledge of no broad middle-class tax hikes are health-
related "sin taxes," such as those on cigarettes. However, Clinton's health
task force is considering restrictions on malpractice lawsuits, including
limiting damages for pain and suffering and other means of reducing damages
to injured patients. CURE Comment: Behind the lawyer- bashing propaganda
lie thrice-battered patients--first by negligent doctors, second by callous
courts, now by cost-cutting politicos. If that doesn't impose a burden on
the middle class, what does? (Hilary: Health Plan Won't Bite, DM, 3/9/93)

Safety tests on commonly used medical devices, including heart
defibrillators, are so poorly carried out that they are "not up to the
level of fifth-grade science," Dr. Bruce Burlington, director of the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Center for Medical Devices warns. An
internal FDA report cites using too few patients to detect possible side
effects as on cause of "grossly inferior" tests. (Some Medical Devices Not
Properly Tested, Daily Mail, 3/9/93)

"Many lawyers have become aggressive ambulance chasers and contingency-fee
gamblers. The average malpractice settlements have climbed far in excess of
inflation, from $12,000 in 1970, to more than $26,000 in 1975, to $45,000
by 1978, to $80,000 in 1984." (Fix Medicine? Fix the Legal System First,
Suzanne Fields, op ed, Daily Mail, 3/10/93) CURE Comment: Which came first-
-the chicken or the egg? The lawsuit or the malpractice? The way the
malpractice coddlers seek to stop "contingency-fee gamblers" is to limit
access to effective counsel for those who cannot otherwise afford legal
representation when they have been maimed. After all, bankers, like
doctors, deserve more protection than ditch-diggers and the unemployed.

                         Courting Disaster

"The 'right-to-die' case of Christine Busalacchi represents a horrifying
new frontier in government-sanctioned killing. As James F. Wolfe of The
Joplin Globe says, her case may decide 'whether to keep people alive with
sophisticated, technology devices like spoons.'" (Missouri Father Wins
Court Approval for Starvation of Disabled Daughter, Betsy McDonald, The
Wanderer, 2/25/93)

                         Food for Thought

In a survey by ARA Campus Dining Services of 48,000 college students on 358
campuses, 72% claim they eat more pasta, fruit, and vegetables than two
years ago. 60% say they eat less snack food. Still only 18% say nutritional
value is the most important factor in choosing what to eat, with taste
leading the list at 41%. (College Students Eating Better, or so They Claim,
Daily Mail, 3/10/93)

                         Health Plans and Pans

"Four weeks ago, I sat in the front row for the State of the State address
and listened to Gov. Caperton (D-WV) say that West Virginia has more
government than it can afford. We can't afford those kind of additional
bureaucratic nightmare." --Delegate Robert Pulliam (D-Raleigh) on Caperton's
plan to establish a WV Health Care Authority at a cost of $15 million, $9
alone for expanding public school health ed. (Caperton Health Plan Draws
Fire, Daily Mail, 3/9/93)

                         Heart Beat

"It's premature to suggest, just on the basis of this study, that women
avoid angioplasty. The alternative is by-pass surgery, and there may be
even greater risk to women there." --Larry Dean, MD, cardiologist, University
of Alabama, commenting on study reported in "Circulation," the scientific
journal of the American Heart Association. The study conducted at the
Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, found that
women are ten times more likely than men to die in the hospital after
undergoing the artery-unclogging procedure. (Angioplasty Poses Much Greater
Threat to Women: Study, Daily Mail, 3/10/93)

                         Heart Stoppers

"It was Hippocrates who had physicians swear an oath that they would use
their gifts to heal human beings. He specifically forbade a physician to
kill--or help kill--a patient. As Bishop Galen of Munster, Germany, noted
in 1941 while opposing Hitler's euthanasia policies, 'Thou shalt not kill.
God engraved this commandment on the conscience of man long before any
penal code imposed penalties for murder, long before any court or tribunal
prosecuted and avenged homicide. Cain who slew his brother Abel, was a
murderer long before courts or states existed, and tortured by his
conscience, he confessed, 'My iniquity is greater than I may deserve pardon
...Everyone, therefore, that findeth me, shall slay me.'" (Not Even a
Silent Scream, Thomas Droleskey, PhD, The Wanderer, 2/18/93)

In his rush to help as many persons as possible kill themselves before the
March 30 deadline [or is that lifeline?- Ed.], Dr. Jack Kevorkian engineered
three "suicides" within five days in Michigan. Two of the three victims were
women. (Euthanasia Gains Support, Our Sunday Visitor, 2/21/93)

"In his book 'The Nazi Doctors,' Robert Lifton pointed out that the heart
of the Nazi enterprise was the destruction of the boundary between healing
and killing for the medical profession. For the protection of society at
large we have to keep that distinction present in all these discussions. We
must keep the bright line between healing and killing because there is a
sort of consistency in all these issues--a seamless garment if you will--
and I don't believe it will be possible to carve out one exception and say,
'This killing is permitted, but no further.'" --Carl Anderson, US
Commission on Civil Rights. (The Politics of Health-Care Ethics, interview
by Ann Carey, OSV, 2/28/93)

Derek Humphry founded the Hemlock Society, which backed the euthanasia
initiatives rejected by voters in the states of Washington and California
in 1992. Humphry resigned as Hemlock's director last year amidst allegations
about his role in the alleged "suicides" of his two wives and bitter
in-fighting with Hemlock's board of directors. Humphry, who says the pro-
death lobby is suffering from declining donations and poor staff morale, is
trying to reclaim control over the Hemlock Society. CURE Comment: Derek, I
thought the "suffering" were to be eliminated in your book. Then why not
show Hemlock the Final Exit? (Terminal Family Feud, OSV, 2/28/93)

Macomb County, Michigan officials may file homicide charges against Jack
Kevorkian, MD, in light of evidence a 70 year-old man may have changed his
mind. Kevorkian says he's not afraid of jail. "I've been there twice and I
wasn't frightened." (Kevorkian: Watching Death Is Never Easy, MH, 3/1/93)

Some blacks fear that doctors might not work as hard to save their lives or
the lives of their loved ones if they reveal plans to donate their organs.
(Wanted: More Black Organ Donors, Daily Mail, 3/10/93)

                         Medicine Chest

"Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code...allows pharmaceutical companies,
probably the greediest and most self-righteous of America's industries, to
avoid paying about $3 billion in taxes. It has proven such a boon to
pharmaceuticals that according to Sen. (David) Pryor (D-AR), half of all
prescription medicine consumed in the U.S. is now manufactured in Puerto
Rico." (Corporate Types Robbing America Blind, op ed, Charley Reese,
Morning Herald, 3/1/93)

Three years ago Merck & Co., the largest drug maker in the US, pledged to
keep price rises in line with the Consumer Price Index. Today only 10 of
the more than 100 members have taken that price-restricting "Rahway
pledge." Pharmaceutical companies refusing to promise to limit price
increases include Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly & Co., Warner Lambert, and
Abbott Laboratories. (Some Drug Companies Aren't Holding Line on Price
Policies, Daily Mail, 3/10/93)

                         Mental Health

"False Memory Syndrome may possibly involve 1 percent of the persons
claiming sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is real. Incest and rape are real. We
must break this vicious cycle that has been rampant in our culture for
many, many years." (A Continuing Conversation, Barbara Eskew, letter-
editor, Our Sunday Visitor, 2/28/93)

                         Research Review

Patrick Aubourg, MD, St. Vincent de Paul Hospital, Paris, and colleagues in
France, Germany, and the United States discover a gene that appears to
cause x-linked adrenpleukodystrophy (ALD), the rare disease depicted in the
movie "Lorenzo's Oil," the true-life story of a couple that bucks the
medical establishment to find a treatment for their son. According to David
Valle, MD, John Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD, "it will certainly
gives us a better understanding of the disease," which should guide
treatment research. (Gene Found that Causes Disease Depicted in Movie,
Daily Mail, 3/9/93)

                         School Daze

The number of US students in home schools has doubled in the last decade,
the Department of Education reports. "More and more high school students
are saying, 'Enough of this, I'm wasting my time in traditional schools.'"
--Pat Montgomery, Home-based Education Program, Ann Arbor, MI. (Teens Drop
Out to Learn More, Daily Mail, 3/10/93)

                         Telling Headlines

Caperton Spokesman Defends Health Care Plan, Status Quo Must Go (DM, 3/10)
New Artificial Liver Using Pig Cells Kept Two Patients Alive (DM, 3/10)
PEIA Chief Promises to Determine Whether Agency Paid Sex Change (DM, 3/10)
Senate Democrats Favor Leaner Medicaid Program for State (Daily Mail, 3/10)
Young Transplant Boy's Condition Worsens (Daily Mail, 3/10)

                         Wish We'd Said That...

          What a dreadful civilization is that, amidst all its
          wealth, refuses to devote time, effort, and money to
          the handicapped, and instead takes refuge in brutal
          eugenics or in the methods of primitive peoples. A
          civilized state does not kill the weak, but protects
          them. (Rev. Werenfried Van Straaten, O. Praem.)

                         ...Glad We Didn't

          This is what happens when premature babies, crack
          babies, and fetal alcohol syndrome babies grow up.
          These are the real costs of the chicken coming home to
          roost. (Timothy Sneeding, Professor of Economics and
          Public Administration, on children with disabilities
          receiving SSI)

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).