Followers of this blog, and I mean both of you, know by now that I am a fan of getting the word out about good writing. Here’s a nice example from the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly. It is from the cover article, titled “We Will Never Run Out Of…
Blog.
05/17/2013
The SUPPORT Study and the Standard of Care
Lois Shepherd
05/16/2013
Vermont Passes Physician-Assisted-Suicide
Craig Klugman, Ph.D.
Awaiting the governor’s signature, Vermont is poised to become the fourth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. While Oregon and Washington legalized physician-aid-in-dying through public referendum and Montana through a court decision, Vermont’s is occurring through the legislative process.
The first U.S. aid-in-dying law was the Oregon 1994 Death with Dignity Act. The law faced a referendum to appeal it in 1997 and a Bush administration court challenge was ruled on in 2006.
The Vermont law mirrors those of Oregon and Washington. The patient must be at least 18 years of age, have a life-threatening condition and be a state resident.…
05/16/2013
What Does It Mean to Be an Organism?
In a tremendous article in The Smithsonian Magazine, Richard Conniff writes about the largely unexplored oodles of microorganisms that make us what we are. The article overflows with wonderful facts: for instance, that there are 150 microbial species, …
John D. Lantos
Sometimes, one is delighted to find out that one’s physician has made an error. That is what happened to Mark Templin. Clinicians at the Montana VA misdiagnosed him with brain cancer. They prescribed two drugs and ordered hospice…
A new study in the International
Nursing Review compares
nurses’ end-of-life treatment preferences in Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy
and the USA. Nurses in every country consistently chose a more aggressive
option for patients than …
A international team including scientists from Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center have just announced in Cell that they have successfully used somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to develop human emb…