SerPolUS_IDES

26,000 premature deaths/yr in US b/o no health insurance

A KERFUFFLE has broken out between philosophy and physics. It began earlier this spring when a philosopher (David Albert) gave a sharply negative review in this paper to a book by a physicist (Lawrence Krauss) that purported to solve, by purely scientific means, the mystery of the universe's existence. The physicist responded to the review by calling the philosopher who wrote it "moronic" and arguing that philosophy, unlike physics, makes no progress and is rather boring, if not totally useless. And then the kerfuffle was joined on both sides.

Doctors' inertia in changing practice to fit new evidence - especially in cancer screening

Even highly effective people fear displeasing doc by speaking up

Political action, talking to moderates, needed - instead of just condemning the right.

From Bush v. Gore thru permission to strip-search any arrestee....

Med resource overuse

Medical debts of elderly despite Medicare

Online support systems for family member's complex medical needs

Personalized music arousing elderly w/ dementia, ?"locked-in"

Even when the system works as it's supposed to, and palliative care specialists arrive like the cavalry to provide comfort care, to stop fruitless and painful interventions and to support what patients want, their own colleagues may brand them murderers. It takes strong doctors to stand up to that kind of verbal abuse, to explain that courts and ethics committees have approved care that's intended to reduce suffering, to point out that the patient's own wishes are paramount. Perhaps they have to be stronger than we know. "The culture is changing," Dr. Matlock told me. "But it's not changed yet."

Teacher describes reunion with former students in Tanzania. "Mountains can never meet, but people can meet again." - Swahili proverb

In a globalized economy, the countries that pay the most and offer the greatest chance for advancement tend to get the top talent. South America's best soccer players generally migrate to Europe, where the salaries are high and the tournaments are glitzier than those in Brazil or Argentina. Many top high-tech workers from India and China move to the United States to work for American companies. And the United States, with its high salaries and technological innovation, is also the world's most powerful magnet for doctors, attracting more every year than Britain, Canada and Australia - the next most popular destinations for migrating doctors - combined.

Interview by John C. Reed, MD, PhD - CEO, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, La Jolla, California.

'Capitalism must be corrected: The social doctrine of the Church stands above existing economic systems, since it confines itself to the level of principles. An economic system is good only to the extent that it applies the principles of justice taught by the Church. As Pope John Paul II wrote in 1987, in his encyclical letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis: "The tension between East and West is an opposition... between two concepts of the development of individuals and peoples, both concepts being imperfect and in need of radical correction... This is one of the reasons why the Church's social doctrine adopts a critical attitude towards both liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism." '

"In a major encyclical addressing the economic questions raised by the upheaval in Eastern Europe in 1989, Pope John Paul II warned capitalist nations yesterday against letting the collapse of Communism blind them to the need to repair injustices in their own economic system. "The encyclical, "Centesimus Annus" ("The Hundredth Year"), includes the fullest, and in many ways the most positive, treatment of the market economy in any papal document. But praise is typically followed with qualifications and ringing reminders about economic failures in both developing and developed countries."

What did the makers of America believe about God and religion? The subject is stirring the very rancour they wanted to avoid. Dec 17th 2011 | Washington, DC

Focus only on Natural Law

>'With unrealistic expectations of our ability to prolong life, with death as an unfamiliar and unnatural event, and without a realistic, tactile sense of how much a worn-out elderly patient is suffering, it's easy for patients and families to keep insisting on more tests, more medications, more procedures. >Doing something often feels better than doing nothing. Inaction feeds the sense of guilt-ridden ineptness family members already feel as they ask themselves, "Why can't I do more for this person I love so much?" >...At a certain stage of life, aggressive medical treatment can become sanctioned torture. When a case such as this comes along, nurses, physicians and therapists sometimes feel conflicted and immoral. We've committed ourselves to relieving suffering, not causing it. A retired nurse once wrote to me: "I am so glad I don't have to hurt old people any more." '