Truth Out Loud

February 26, 2006

Canada state health care illusion collapsing

I always find it remarkable that socialist never learn the lesson even though the results are predictable.

But a Supreme Court ruling last June — it found that a Quebec provincial ban on private health insurance was unconstitutional when patients were suffering and even dying on waiting lists — appears to have become a turning point for the entire country.

"The prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services," the court ruled.

A caring bureaucracy is an oxymoron. Here in America we argue its expensive. In Canada it's unavailable and expensive.

Posted by Sid at 09:56 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living

January 19, 2006

Doctors fight to kill 4 year old against fathers wishes

It doesn’t take long for "right to die" to become "states right to kill".

"We believe it's meaningless to keep the girl artificially alive," Stener Kvinsland, director at Haukeland University Hospital, told Aftenposten.no. "We've come to this conclusion after an extremely comprehensive evaluation over a long time."

State health authorities and a city court in Bergen came to the same conclusion, but Kristina's father remains unconvinced. He told TV2 that his daughter isn't brain dead, and has opened her eyes.

Imagine having to go to court to keep the state from killing your 4 year old daughter. Europeans are so enlightened. Maybe we can adopt this version of "right to life" here.

Posted by Sid at 12:55 AM | Comments (4) | Healthy Living

October 07, 2005

ACLU Against Teaching Abstinance

I have always noticed that the Intelligent Design/Evolution debate looked a lot like the abstinence/condom use debate. But I never thought the anti religious argument would be used to attack the single most effective way to prevent pregnancy and the spread of STD's.

The director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom project charges that state officials need to be responsible for what’s taught in their classrooms. What they want is the promotion of condom usage. But the problem is that condoms fail and abstinence doesn’t.
The group wants schools to think that if they promote abstinence until marriage, they’re really advancing a religious concept—and that opens the door to the fear of litigation.

Posted by Sid at 06:03 AM | Comments (11) | Healthy Living

August 25, 2005

Doctors Win Appeal on Right to Kill

Naturally it is in Europe where they are more enlightened and need to be able to cut costs because of universal health care.

The parents of a brain-damaged baby have failed to overturn a court order that rules she should be allowed to die if she stops breathing.
Darren and Debbie Wyatt, from Portsmouth, presented a letter at the Court of Appeal from doctors saying Charlotte has made remarkable progress.

The 22-month-old has serious lung, brain and kidney damage.

Doctors at St Mary's Hospital, in Portsmouth, won the legal right not to resuscitate her last October.

If only America would wise up and follow the European lead. Think of the savings.

Posted by Sid at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living

August 14, 2005

Doctors Concerned That Only 46% of Americans Are Mentally Ill

Now days every ill, fear and quirk must be diagnosable as a disease or condition requiring professional care or disability compensation. It's getting to the point where those not medicated or complaining are the oddities. More and more others are wanting their share of victim pie.

A new study by Harvard University and the National Institute of Mental Health (search) claims that 46 percent of all Americans will, at some point in their lives, develop a mental disorder.

But this new statistic has experts arguing over exactly what constitutes a true mental illness.

According to experts, severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, dementia and manic depression are relatively uncommon. But the updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (search), or DSM — the standard survey for mental illness — lists conditions like adjustment disorder, passive-aggressive disorder and female sexual arousal disorder as mental illness, reflecting what are claimed to be advances in the mental health profession.

Critics say that's crazy, and that it won't be long before all human quirks and flaws are classified as mental disorders.

I think it's time for comprehensive "BUTCH UP SALLY" therapy. Oddly this is very close to the same percent that vote democrat in presidential elections. Kind of makes you wonder.

Posted by Sid at 12:22 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living

August 07, 2005

18 Week Wait for Surgery in UK

Anyone who reads my blog knows I have little patience for socialized health care. Anyone who understands how it works knows that free health care means delayed, limited or denied health care.

Elliot Knott was told he would have to wait more than four months for an appointment after being left housebound from an ice-skating injury, then face a further wait of at least nine months for an operation.

Elliott is suffering from spondylolisthesis, a debilitating condition caused when a vertebrae slips out of line in the spinal column and presses on a nerve

Elliot's plight coincides with a report published today by health thinktank the King's Fund, which warned that government waiting time targets were under threat from the constraints of financial pressures, unexpected increases in demand, and staff shortages in clinical areas.

Its report argues that the government has reasons to feel optimistic that no patient will wait more than 18 weeks from GP appointment to hospital treatment by 2008.

Just saying anyone could be optimistic about an 18 week wait for surgery to correct a debilitating condition is proof the language has been co-opted by the insanity of obscenely low expectations.

Posted by Sid at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living

August 05, 2005

RU-486 Kills Over 50% of Those Exposed

It has always been common knowledge that RU-486 was fatal to the unborn child. But now it seems to be taking out the mother on occasion as well.

The abortion drug mifepristone (Mifeprex,TM RU-486) has been linked to rare cases of fatal bacterial infections, but until now the connection has not been clearly understood.

At least 5 women in the US and Canada have died from septic shock after taking mifepristone. C. sordellii has been linked to 3 of those cases, while the bacteria remains unidentified in the others. C. sordellii infections are rare outside of mifepristone use and have proven particularly dangerous because they often lack the usual warning signs, such as fever and tenderness on examination.

I remember when this was first being introduced and people were trying to get it approved for over the counter sale. Imagine the potential death toll that could have developed.

I would like to know why this problem has only been noticed in North America though. I was under the impression that this had been used in Europe for a long time. Does this mean the Europeans kept the side effects hidden from the general public? All we ever heard was about how safe it was.

Posted by Sid at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living

July 29, 2005

UK Docters Given Right to Kill Patients Against Their Wishes

We all know about Terry Schivo and right to die. But what do you do when you give instructions to be fed and the doctors are allowed to overrule your decision because they decide it's not worth the effort?

The General Medical Council has won its appeal against a ruling allowing a terminally ill man to stop doctors withdrawing his feeding tube.Lesley Burke did not want doctors to stop giving him food and water in the final stages of his illness.

The 45-year-old is suffering the degenerative brain condition cerebellar ataxia.

He feared GMC rules on artificial nutrition might allow his wishes to be overruled.

Mr Burke, of Newton Estate in Lancaster, had feared reaching the point where, unable to communicate, he would be denied food and water and would take two to three weeks to die of starvation or thirst.

But the GMC told the Court of Appeal it believes the ruling could put doctors in "an impossibly difficult position".

The organisation believes it obliges a doctor to provide treatment which the patient demands - even if the doctor believes the treatment will not provide any benefit or would be futile.

Just so you know, the UK provides universal healthcare. Since when was food and water classified as treatment? The ultimate irony in this article is this statement.

The ruling has wide implications for terminally ill people who want the right to die.

A ruling that allows doctors to starve patients to death against their wishes has implications in right to die? Shouldn't this be right to live?

Posted by Sid at 12:50 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living

July 23, 2005

Really Protect the Kids, Give Them Condoms and Clean Needles.

If it is important to give children condoms and train them in their use, surely it is just as important to give kids needles and train them in their proper use just in case. We also might consider free low alcohol beverages, low tar cigarettes, harmless gateway drugs and training them to drink and drive properly. After all, they are going to do it anyway and this way we can make sure they do it safely.

When it comes to drug abuse, underage drinking and smoking, recent years have seen the arrival of much-needed media campaigns and school programs designed to let kids know flat out: Do not engage. Of course, we still have much to do to curb the use of illicit drugs, but at least most adults are committed to telling kids the behavior is unacceptable.

So why should this rule not apply when it comes to teen sex?

Suddenly, the adults who were so quick, so adamant about condemning drugs, drinking and smoking begin to stammer and look at the floor. Sure, it's not good for teens to be having sex, these adults will allow, but c'mon – they're going to do it anyway. So, they say, let's tell the kids not to do it. But let's also give them some condoms and other birth-control devices and tell them how to use them. You know, just in case.

To be consistent, then, we should also give kids clean syringes, low-tar cigarettes and tips on avoiding hangovers. But we don't, do we? And why? Because we know perfectly well that it would undermine our message that the behavior in question is unsafe – no ifs, ands or buts. Why should it be any different when it comes to teen sex?

More here.

Posted by Sid at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | Healthy Living