Blog.
Author Archive: Neil Skjoldal
04/02/2018
The Child I Want
I appreciate the honesty of Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. Watching various states attempt to enact more and more restrictions on abortion, she wrote of her strong personal feelings regarding the importance of keeping abortion legal. The headline certainly grabs our attention: “I would’ve aborted a fetus with Down syndrome. Women need that right.” Noting how cute the new “Gerber Baby” is, Marcus reminds her... // Read More »
02/05/2018
They didn’t choose brain damage
As we say goodbye to another NFL season, the inevitable stories about the devastating effects of CTE appear, showing the devastation that America’s favorite sport takes on its players. In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Emily Kelly, wife of former NFL player Rob Kelly, tells the story of her husband’s struggles since his retirement. What makes Kelly’s story interesting is that it addresses... // Read More »
12/04/2017
The DNR Tattoo
National media outlets have reported the fascinating account of the unconscious 70-year old brought into the Jackson Hospital (Miami) emergency room with a “Do Not Resuscitate” tattoo on his chest. In correspondence to the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors involved in the case explain the process by which the medical team used to evaluate the case. At first, the team did not plan to... // Read More »
10/02/2017
Spiritual Pain
Recently, I’ve been thinking about spiritual pain. Given our current circumstances, it seems like it is more prevalent than we may have imagined. In a 2006 article in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, spiritual pain was defined as ‘a deep pain in your being … in your soul, that is not physical’ (Mako, Glek, & Poppito). I must admit that seemed a bit nebulous to... // Read More »
09/04/2017
Happy Labor Day
As we enjoy the unofficial end of summer on this Labor Day, it’s good to remember those who do their difficult jobs well with little fanfare and in some cases, with some risk involved. One recent example is the case of Alex Wubbles, a Utah nurse who was arrested in July for simply following the basics of patient care when she stopped a police officer... // Read More »
08/07/2017
The NFL & CTEs, again
Channel surfing last week, I was shocked to see that there was an NFL preseason game on TV already. With the arrival of the NFL season comes a report from The New York Times on a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. The convenience study included the brains of 111 former NFL players, 110 of which were found to have evidence... // Read More »
06/05/2017
Buck v Bell at 90 years old
Last month marked the 90th anniversary of Buck v Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the Supreme Court decision that ruled that Virginia’s sterilization law was constitutional and infamously stated regarding the litigant Carrie Buck, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” In his 2016 book Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck (Penguin), Adam Cohen goes over the facts of... // Read More »
06/05/2017
Buck v Bell at 90 years old
Last month marked the 90th anniversary of Buck v Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the Supreme Court decision that ruled that Virginia’s sterilization law was constitutional and infamously stated regarding the litigant Carrie Buck, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” In his 2016 book Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck (Penguin), Adam Cohen goes over the facts of... // Read More »