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Fédération Internationale des Associations de Médecins Catholiques
World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations

 

SUMMARY

VATICAN
FIAMC ACTIVATES A FUND IN FAVOR OF THE VICTIMS OF THE TSUNAMI

The immense tragedy of the seaquake deeply touched the Catholic Doctors in every part of the world.
Our individual members participated with prayers and donations in their respective countries.
In addition, there were important interventions directly on site, carried out by our Associations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Sri Lanka.
These initiatives will be presented in a special issue of FIAMC's Newsletter as a witness to the solidarity manifested by our member Associations.
Finally, FIAMC's Headquarters, after receiving advice from many of the responsible persons of the Associations members of FIAMC, took the decision of a LONG-TERM PROJECT in favour of the victims of the tsunami in South East Asia
In order to achieve this goas MONEY IS NEEDED.
20 000 Euros have already been collected.
In order to increase the financial extent of the project, you are warmly encouraged:

1. to organise locally an efficient fund raising through your national Association, involving both your members and external donors;

2. to send any money you are able to collect to FIAMC (Asia Emergency),
by means of cheques, payable to: FIAMC, The Vatican City
and send to the address of our secretariat:

FIAMC
Palazzo San Calisto
I-00120 The Vatican City

or by money orders payable to the bank account of FIAMC at:

BANCA DI ROMA, filiale di Udine
Via Vittorio Veneto n. 34
33100 Udine, Italy
CAB 3002, ABI 12300, account no. 65335832
IBAN Code: IT80E0300212300000065335832
BANK INTERNATIONAL CODE (so called BIC or SWIFT Code): BROMITROMA1V46

3. Individual donors can follow the same procedure.

PLEASE NOTE: Differently from many organizations, FIAMC has no expenditures for organization:
Every sum that will be donated will go in the project 100% .

NEUROREHABILITATION, Volume 19, Number 4, 2004 Special Issue:
Life-sustaining treatments in vegetative state:
scientific advances and ethical dilemmas
Guest Editors: Gian Luigi Gigli and Nathan D. Zasler
133 pages, http://www.iospress.nl/
ISSN 1053-8135/04/$17.00 2004 &endash; IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

CONTENTS

  • Foreword
  • Address of Pope John Paul II to the Participants in the International Congress on "Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas", Saturday, 20 March 2004
  • E.N. Dorff: Applying traditional Jewish law to PVS
  • N.D. Zasler: Terminology in evolution: Caveats, conundrums and controversies
  • J.T. Giacino: The vegetative and minimally conscious states: Consensus-based criteria for establishing diagnosis and prognosis
  • K. Andrews: Medical decision making in the vegetative state: Withdrawal of nutrition and hydration
  • L. Palazzani: Advance directives and Living Wills
  • G.L. Gigli and M. Valente: The withdrawal of nutrition and hydration in the vegetative state patient: Societal dimension and issues at stake for the medical profession
  • P.W. Schoenle and W. Witzke: How vegetative is the vegetative state? Preserved semantic processing in VS patients &endash; Evidence from N 400 event-related potentials
  • S. Laureys: Functional neuroimaging in the vegetative state
  • D.A. Shewmon: A critical analysis of conceptual domains of the vegetative state: Sorting fact from fancy
  • S. Ashwal: Pediatric vegetative state: Epidemiological and clinical issues
  • E. Sgreccia: Vegetative state and brain death: Philosophical and ethical issues from a personalistic view
  • E. Borgonovi: Economic aspects in prolonged life sustainable treatments
  • K.T. McMahon: Catholic moral teaching, medically assisted nutrition and hydration and the vegetative state
  • C.J. Borthwick and R. Crossley: Permanent Vegetative State: Usefulness and limits of a prognostic definition
  • M. Calipari: The principle of proportionality in therapy: Foundations and applications criteria

    FOREWORD

    The miracles of modern medicine have created scenarios where persons with clinical conditions previously considered "fatal" and/or "permanent" have in fact shown recovery. Inherent in aggressive and advanced medical treatment has also been a phenomenon leading to an increased number of persons in such states relying on life-sustaining treatments. In many cases, such patients remain dependent on these life-sustaining treatments for years. Possibly, one of the most dramatic examples of such a clinical scenario is the vegetative state (VS), a clinical condition that occurs when an individual, following a cerebral insult either through an event such as trauma or anoxia or by means of a neurodegenerative disorder, enters a neurological state marked by periods ofwakefulness and arousal but without associated demonstrable awareness/consciousness.
    There is extensive debate as to whether assisted nutrition and hydration (ANH) should be withdrawn from patients in VS, permanent or otherwise. Many clinicians and bioethicists, equating ANH with medical treatment, think prolonged ANH, when the chances of recovery are minimal, should be regarded as offensive to human dignity. Any individual, these clinicians argue, would hypothetically be entitled to refuse ANH should they become necessary in the future. For those who have not left advance directives, a magistrate or a legal guardian would have the duty to make provisions. For many others, instead, nutrition and hydration, although assisted, are considered part of the basic, ordinary care required to respect the fundamentally human right to live. Accordingly, some hold the position that no one has the right to deliberately hasten the death of a person due to the opinion that the individual's life is of "insufficient quality". There are those who believe there is the risk that clinical judgment may be overcome by other considerations and, in the future, other clinical conditions could be labeled as resulting in an "insufficient quality of life," thereby promoting measures to end the lives of such individuals.
    The International Congress on "Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas" was held in Rome in March of 2004. This international meeting provided a forum for presenting some of the most recent scientific, bioethical and religious views on VS and related states, as well as the many controversies surrounding them. The meeting served as a wonderful opportunity for discussing ethical problems in the clinical decision-making process integrating passionate, multicultural, multiethnic and diverse religious perspectives from the invited international participants. The Congress may also serve as a vehicle for subsequent conferences or international workshops aimed at discussing proposals for advancing our current terminology given the concerns of many scientists and scholars of the scientific merit, appropriateness, and potential pejorativeness of diagnostic phrases such as "vegetative state".
    An extensive record of the lectures and debates, as well as the Papal speech, can be found at www.vegetativestate.org, the Congress website. The quality of many of the lectures was so outstanding that we believed that it would be a travesty not to disseminate some of the key information to a larger international audience.
    Thanks to the collaboration of NeuroRehabilitation, we invited a select number of presenters (as well as non-presenters) to address a number of seminal topics from the meeting. We are confident that this special issue of NeuroRehabilitation will provide cutting edge information to many scientists and clinicians interested in this clinical topic. We also aspire for this issue to be a source of anthropological, philosophical and ethical reflection and inspiration to all those who encounter individuals in low-level neurological states. We believe the many dilemmas raised by the medical, religious, ethical and societal response to persons in VS go well beyond the clinical condition itself and have profound implications for the fundamental values in our global society. It is for this reason that we thought it was important to also provide a vehicle, not only for scientific and bioethical reflections, but also for the religious views and tenants of Judeo-Christian thought on the controversial topic of VS and, inherent in that conversation, the controversy of withdrawal and withholding of care. Several articles address these issues, including the address read by Pope John Paul II during the audience granted to the Congress participants and a paper prepared by Rabbi Eliott Dorff, a highly respected conservative Rabbi and bioethicist, providing Judaic views on the permanent vegetative state and withdrawal of care.
    We are very grateful to the authors of this special issue for their collaboration, knowledge, and time. We would also like to acknowledge the publisher for allowing us more space than normally allocated per issue, given the importance of consolidating the information within the confines of a single publication. As editors of this issue, we hope this volume of NeuroRehabilitation will provide readers with new insights and information that will positively impact their clinical practice, as well as create an environment for reflection and introspection regarding the controversies and caveats noted herein.
    Sincerely,
    Gian Luigi Gigli, M.D.
    Nathan David Zasler, M.D.

    VATICAN
    A NEW PRESIDENT FOR THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE
    January 3, 2005

    The Holy Father John Paul II, appointed the Bishop Elio Sgreccia the new President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. With the same document, the Rev. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, M.D., was appointed Chancellor of the same Academy.
    Bishop Sgreccia had been the Vice President of the Academy since its foundation in 1994 and becomes the third President, after Prof. Jerôme Lejeune and Prof. Juan de Dios Vial Correa.
    FIAMC wishes Bishop Sgreccia a great success in the direction of the important Pontifical Office and engages itself in continuing and extending the present fruitful collaboration.

    VATICAN
    XIII WORLD DAY OF THE SICK, 2005

    The Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the XIII World Day of the Sick, which will be celebrated in Yaondé, Camerun, on the 11th of February 2005, is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese at the following address: http://www.vatican ..va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/sick/index.htm

    CHILE
    IV CONGRESS OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTORS OF LATIN AMERICA (FAMCLAM)

    En Santiago de Chile, los días 29 y 30 de abril de 2005, en el Instituto Pedro de Córdoba, Apoquindo 9090, (monasterio al costado de la Iglesia de los Dominicos de Las Condes) se llevará a efecto el IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Médicos Católicos.
    Las inscripciones al congreso estarán abiertas durante todo el mes de Marzo. Los participantes y las delegaciones podrán acreditarse desde las 18h del 28 de Abril de 2005. Las delegaciones extranjeras y hasta un cierto cupo de participantes disponen de alojamiento en el mismo lugar del Congreso.
    El Congreso Latinoamericano se reúne cada 4 años y es primera vez que se hace en Chile.
    Pretendemos dar fuerza a la Evangelización de nuestro mundo sanitario regional e inspirados en los principios de la doctrina católica y firme adhesión al Magisterio de la Iglesia. Para este efecto, el Congreso facilita el intercambio de experiencias y la puesta al día para los profesionales de la salud en conocimientos tanto en el ámbito científico como en el de los retos éticos que conlleva la investigación y la práctica de la medicina de hoy, mediante sesiones académicas, conferencias, sesiones de trabajo y simposios paralelos, en les que los invitamos a participar, de acuerdo al temario que agrupamos bajo el titulo de Nacer, Vivir y Morir con Dignidad.
    Las conferencias se ordenarán de acuerdo a: "antes de nacer", "al nacimiento", "en la infancia", "en la adolescencia", "en la vida adulta" y "en la ancianidad". Un primer Programa "tentativo", con exposiciones de colegas ya inscritos que aún admite ponencias, se publicará pronto.
    Han confirmado su asistencia S.E.R. Cardenal Arzobispo de Santiago y Presidente del C.E.L.A.M. Monseñor Francisco Javier Erràzuriz, S.E.R. Cardenal Javier Lozano Barragán, Presidente del Consejo Pontificio para la Pastoral de la Salud, S.E.R. Monseñor Aldo Cavalli, Nuncio Apostólico de Su Santidad, el Dr. Juan de Dios Vial, de la Academia Pontificia para la Vida, el Dr. Gian Luigi Gigli Presidente de FIAMC (Federación Internacional de Asociaciones Médicas Católicas) y otros distinguidos profesionales del Continente. Le agradeceremos mucho confirmar su inscripción lo antes posible y comunicarnos si tiene la intención de presentar algún trabajo, lo que permitiría que la Comisión Organizadora lo incluya con tiempo en el Programa.
    El Congreso lo organiza la Federación Latinoamericana y la entidad responsable en Chile es la Academia de Medicina San Lucas, Corporación de Médicos Católicos de Chile, que trabaja junto a la Vicaria Pastoral de la Salud y a los Voluntarios de hospitales en actividades sociales y académicas, orientadas al estudio y divulgación de las directrices en materia de salud del Magisterio de la Iglesia.
    Dr. Francisco Díaz Herrera

    KOREA
    SOUTH KOREA APPROVES CLONING RESEARCH

    Agence France Presse, 12.01.2005
    SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea gave official government backing to ground-breaking research that produced the world's first cloned human embryos.
    The health and welfare ministry said a research team led by Hwang Woo-Seok, a Seoul National University professor, has been officially registered as a state institute and its research approved.
    "Professor Hwang Woo-Seok's team will now be able to step up its research on stem cells under the government's management system," the ministry said in a statement.
    In February 2004, Hwang's cutting edge research produced the first cloned human embryos to generate stem cells for therapeutic purposes.
    Stem cells hold the key to potential cures for an array of diseases including diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's and other disorders.
    New legislation that took effect here on January 1 requires all bio-technology institutes to register with the government.
    The legislation offers government support but also tightens government control in the ethically-sensitive field of human embryos research. South Korea last year banned the cloning of human beings and also bans stem cell research for commercial purposes.
    Stem cells are nascent cells that can be coaxed by chemical signals in the body into becoming different kinds of tissue to form almost any part of human organizations.
    The dream is one day to use stem cells to grow replacement tissue in a lab dish, such as brain cells, skin, liver, a kidney, that could be used for human transplants.
    But religious groups and other critics say research on human embryos and stem cells is unethical by not treating the embryo as a live human being.
    "Such ethical issues are too hard for individual scientists to take care of," said an official at the bioethics policy team at the health and welfare ministry official.
    "The legislation has significance in that the government itself, not individuals, copes with the ethical issues that could rise from the stem cell research."
    In related stem cell research another South Korean medical research team at Chosun University in the southwestern city of Kwangju reported a breakthrough in spinal injury therapy.
    A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years was able to walk again after researchers repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.
    Separately, the science and technology ministry said Wednesday it raised by 25 percent year-on-year to 10 billion won (9.5 million dollars) its 2005 budget aimed at supporting the country's biotechnology industry.
    The ministry said the budget would be allocated largely to the development of animal organs transplantable for humans and a protein chip which can easily detect diseases.
    Seoul officials have touted the developing of new biotechnology as a "next-generation growth engine" for the country.
    Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. http://www.afp.com/home/

    KOREA
    MORE ON SOUTH KOREA APPROVAL OF CLONING RESEARCH
    Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) 12 January, 2005

    The ethical problem underlying cloning involves the reproduction of a human embryo in order to extract a stem cell line which can be used to repair organs like the heart or brain. The human embryo is destroyed during, or after, the process. Using adult stems cells or cells taken from the umbilical cord does not involve the destruction of human life, and has had much more probability of therapeutic success.
    In June 2004, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare has established a grant of 12 million won (10 million US dollars) for six years to the Institute of Cell and Gene Therapy of the Catholic Medical Center (CMC), a hospital of affiliated with the Medical School of the Catholic University of Korea. The CMC has pledged to develop research on adult stem cells to be used in 'therapeutic cloning'. It was the first Korean government support for study on adult stem cells.
    Religious groups and other critics say research on human embryos and stem cells is unethical by not treating the embryo as a live human being. John Paul II indicated the defence of life in all its stages, including the embryo and the family, in his annual speech to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, last 10 January. "The Church's position - he said - supported by reason and science, is clear: the human embryo is a subject identical to the human being which will be born at the term of its development. Consequently whatever violates the integrity and the dignity of the embryo is ethically inadmissible. Similarly, any form of scientific research which treats the embryo merely as a laboratory specimen is unworthy of man." (MA)

    AUSTRALIA
    FARMACEUTA SE NIEGA A VENDER LA PÍLDORA "DEL DÍA SIGUIENTE".

    El eminente farmaceuta provida John Wilks ha emitido una declaración contra la píldora "del día siguiente", marca Postinor-2, por ser abortiva y dañina para la salud femenina. Debido a que los grupos abortistas están promoviendo este mortal fármaco en América Latina, hemos considerado oportuno reproducir a continuación dicha declaración:

    1. Los estudios científicos han proporcionado sólidas evidencias que indican que en el caso de muchas mujeres la píldora "del día siguiente" no impide el embarazo. Los investigadores han dicho que este fármaco actúa por lo menos de dos maneras para ponerle fin al embarazo:

    a. Causándole daño a la capa que cubre el útero, de forma tal que la implantación del embrión humano, el paciente que no se ve, no pueda ocurrir1.
    b. La investigación en ratones también ha indicado que en el caso de que el embrión logre adherirse al útero, el cuerpo de la mujer lo reabsorbe, causándole por ende la muerte2.
    Como la píldora del "día siguiente" puede actuar de esas dos maneras, debe ser clasificada como un abortivo &endash;un fármaco que puede causar un aborto3. El hecho de que la píldora del "día siguiente" reduce el índice de embarazos en un 87% sirve de apoyo a la afirmación de que frecuentemente actúa de forma tal que le pone fin a la vida de un embrión humano4.
    Por consiguiente, debido al peligro para la salud del embrión humano que constituye La píldora del "día siguiente", el Código de Conducta Profesional, partes 1.1 y 1.2 me prohibe la venta de este fármaco5.

    2. La píldora del "día siguiente" también es muy peligrosa para la salud de la mujer. Los informes científicos han demostrado que:

    a. La píldora del "día siguiente" aumenta el índice de embarazos ectópicos (el alojamiento del embrión humano en la trompa de Falopio, en vez del útero)6. En uno de estos casos, la trompa afectada tuvo que ser extirpada quirúrgicamente. Cuando ello ocurre, a las mujeres se les reduce la posibilidad de un embarazo en el futuro.
    b. La píldora del "día siguiente" también puede interferir seriamente con medicinas que han sido recetadas. La revista inglesa de medicina Bristish Medican Journal ha informado que la píldora del "día siguiente" puede interferir con ciertos anticoagulantes7,8.
    c. La Dra. Ellen Grant publicó en el 2001 un artículo en la revista británica de medicina The Lancet, en el cual expresó su preocupación de que "… el 5% de las mujeres tienen una susceptibilidad genética a la enfermedad tromboembólica (coágulos sanguíneos)". Cuando estas mujeres toman la píldora del "día siguiente" &endash;la cual tiene una potencia equivalente a 50 tabletas anticonceptivas regulares&emdash;se puede formar un coágulo sanguíneo9.
    d. Existe la preocupación de que la dosis tan elevada de la píldora del "día siguiente" pueda catapultar el comienzo del cáncer cervical, si la mujer que la toma ya está infectada con el virus del papiloma humano10.
    Resumiendo, debido a estas peligrosas consecuencias vinculadas a la píldora del "día siguiente" y a mi responsabilidad y deber professionales de cuidar de mis pacientes, nosotros no vendemos Postinor-2.

    John Wilks B. Pharm., MPS, MACPP
    Farmaceuta Asesor, 18 de febrero del 2004, Email: jfwilks@bigpond.net.au
    Esta declaración fue recibida el 5 de mayo del 2004 del Dr. Vincent Rue, Presidente del Elliot Institute y ha sido traducida y reproducida con su autorización.

    Notas:

  • 1. Ugocasai G, Rozsa M, Ugocasai P. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) changes of the endometrium in women taking high doses of levornogestrel as emergency postcoital contraception. Contraception. 2002; 66: 433-437.
  • 2. Shirley B, Bundren JC, McKinney S. Levornogestrel as a postcoital contraceptive. Contraception. 1996; 52(2): 277-81.
  • 3. Moore KL, Persaud TVN. The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (6th edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company 1988).
  • 4. Wellbery C. Emergency Contraception. Arch Fam Med 2000; 9: 642-64.
  • 5. Policy &endash; Code of Professional Conduct. Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. Endorsed by National Council, March 1998.
  • 6. Sheffer-Mimouni G, Pauzer D, Maslovitch S et al. Ectopic pregnancies following levornogestrel contraception. Contraception. 2003; 67: 267-69.
  • 7. Ellison J, Thomson AJ, Greer IA. Apparent interaction between warfarin and levornogestrel used for emergency contraception. BMJ. 2000; 321: 1382.
  • 8. Richards D. An important drug interaction &endash; an alternative mechanism. BMJ Rapid responses. 22 December 2000.
  • 9. Grant E. Adverse reactions and emergency contraception. Lancet. 2001; 357:1201.
  • 10. Chen Y-H, Huang L-H, Chen T-M. Differential effects of progestin and estrogens on long control regions of human papillomavirus types 16 and 18.
  • Source: Boletín electrónico de vida humana internacional (VHI) Sección hispana de human life international (HLI) 14.01.2005, vol. 9. No. 10.

    UNITED KINGDOM
    LA PÍLDORA "DEL DÍA SIGUIENTE" NO REDUCE NI LOS EMBARAZOS NI LOS ABORTOS

    Un nuevo estudio hecho en Gran Bretaña demuestra que la disponibilidad a gran escala de la píldora "del día siguiente" no reduce el número de abortos quirúrgicos, lo que echa por la borda las pretensiones de los promotores de este mortal fármaco. Los investigadores de las universidades de Dundee, Edinburgh y Oxford que realizaron el estudio, concluyeron que el suministrarles por adelantado la píldora "del día siguiente" a las mujeres no redujo el índice de abortos. Alrededor de 18,000 mujeres entre las edades de 16 y 29 años participaron en la investigación y recibieron las píldoras1.
    La píldora "del día siguiente" también puede ser abortiva, por cuanto uno de sus mecanismos de acción es impedir la implantación de un embrión humano a los aproximadamente 6 días de concebido en el útero de su madre. VHI tiene abundante información sobre este hecho y sobre el daño para la salud femenina que constituye la píldora "del día siguiente". Visite en el portal de VHI, http://www.vidahumana.org, la sección "Anticoncepción de emergencia" en: http://www.vidahumana.org/vidafam/anticon/emergencia_index.html. Véase también la fuente citada en la nota 4 en esta misma noticia.
    El estudio del Reino Unido no es el único que demuestra el fracaso de la amplia disponibilidad de la píldora "del día siguiente". En EEUU, ha surgido otro estudio que arroja la misma conclusión, pero desde otro ángulo. Los investigadores de la Universidad de California en San Francisco siguieron la pista durante 6 meses a 2,117 mujeres participantes entre las edades de 15 y 24 años, a quienes se les suministró la píldora "del día siguiente" o se les facilitó su acceso. El estudio, que fue publicado en la revista de la Asociación Médica de EEUU Journal of the American Medical Association, arrojó que la píldora "del día siguiente" no disminuyó el índice de embarazos, como los promotores de este fármaco pretendían2.
    Uno de esos promotores es el grupo abortista de EEUU Planned Parenthood (Paternidad Planificada). Un médico de esta organización fue co-autor del estudio apenas mencionado3, cuyo resultado viene precisamente a refutar lo que la propia Planned Parenthood y otras organizaciones abortistas han estado diciendo, a saber, que la amplia disponibilidad de la píldora del "día siguiente" disminuiría el índice de embarazos.
    Paternidad Planificada es la filial en EEUU de la Federación Internacional de Planificación de la Familia (IPPF, por sus siglas en inglés). La IPPF es la federación de organizaciones no gubernamentales más abortista del mundo entero. VHI tiene en su portal abundante información sobre la IPPF y Paternidad Planificada, visite las siguientes dos secciones:
    "IPPF": http://www.vidahumana.org/vidafam/ippf/ippf_index.html.
    "Paternidad Planificada": http://www.vidahumana.org/vidafam/ippf/ppfa_index.html.
    El tipo de píldora "del día siguiente" que se hizo disponible en este segundo estudio ya mencionado ha recibido el nombre de "Plan B" por parte de la agencia del gobierno de EEUU a cargo de la supervisión de los fármacos y los alimentos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés). El "Plan B" se refiere concretamente al uso de píldoras anticonceptivas que están compuestas solamente de la hormona sintética progestina llamada Levornogestrel (0.75 milígramos). La FDA aprobó la venta con receta del "Plan B" en 19994. A finales del 2003, la FDA comenzó a considerar la venta sin receta del fármaco, lo cual todavía no ha sido aprobado, pero es precisamente objeto de debate en EEUU3,5.
    Precisamente también las personas y grupos provida han señalado este segundo estudio científico de la Universidad de California en San Francisco, para exigirle a la FDA que no apruebe la venta sin receta del "Plan B". Wendy Wright, de la organización Concerned Women for America, prestó testimonio ante la FDA en diciembre del 2003, cuando esta agencia gubernamental estaba considerando la aprobación de la venta sin receta de la píldora "del día siguiente". Wright se hizo eco de las preocupaciones principales de las personas que defienden la vida: el carácter abortivo de la píldora "del día siguiente" y el daño que esta les causa a las mujeres o la facilidad conque las puede exponer a contraer enfermedades de transmisión sexual. Wright también señaló que la disponibilidad de la píldora "del día siguiente" tampoco reduce el número de abortos quirúrgicos5.
    El estudio británico y el de la Universidad de California en San Francisco constituyen las más recientes confirmaciones de que las preocupaciones de las personas provida son ciertas.

    Notas:

  • 1. "British Study Shows Morning After Pill Don't Reduce Abortion Rate in U.K.," 7 de diciembre del 2004, LifeNews.com.
  • 2. Steven Ertelt, Editor, "Morning After Pill Study: No Pregnancy Rate Decrease, OTC Sales Irrelevant," 5 de enero del 2005, LifeNews.com.
  • 3. "Bishops' Spokewoman Reacts to New Study on Morning After Pill No 'Benefit' >From Over-the-Counter Access," Christian Communication Network, 6 de enero del 2005, http://www.earnedmedia.org/usbc4.htm.
  • 4. "What is Plan B," Center for Drug Evaluation and Research," U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/planB/planBQandA.htm.
  • 5. "Pro-Life Groups: Study Shows FDA Shouldn't Support Morning After Pill," 7 de enero del 2005, LifeNews.com.

    Source: Boletín electrónico de vida humana internacional (VHI) Sección hispana de human life international (HLI) 14.01.2005, vol. 9. No. 10.

    NETHERLANDS
    HEALTHY PATIENTS DESERVE EUTHANASIA, TOO, SAY DUTCH DOCTORS

    Doctors should be allowed to kill patients who are "suffering through living", the Royal Dutch Medical Association has recommended after a three-year inquiry. It could find no good reason to exclude suffering from living" from the list of motives for legal euthanasia. At the moment, doctors must follow a 2002 ruling from the Dutch Supreme Court that only a "classifiable physical or mental condition" constitutes the "hopeless and unbearable suffering" which can justify a case of legal euthanasia.
    The report argues that the Supreme Court's interpretation of the law is simplistic. It is "an illusion", it says, to contend that the suffering of a patient can be "unambiguously measured according to his illness". The emeritus professor of clinical psychology who led the report, Dr Jos Dijkhuis, denied that Dutch doctors would agree to a request for euthanasia from a patient who was simply tired of living. His committee believes that "suffering through living" is real suffering which involves a range of physical and mental ailments. In about half of the cases studied Dr Dijkhuis said that there had been no "classifiable disease". "We see a doctor's task is to reduce suffering; therefore we can't exclude these cases in advance," he argues. ~ BMJ.com, Jan 8
    More information has also emerged in the English-language media about euthanasia for newborns in the Netherlands. Several paediatricians are campaigning there for non-voluntary euthanasia for babies with untreatable congenital diseases and malformations. Dutch legal authorities are studying a protocol which would allow doctors to kill such babies without fear of prosecution if their parents consented. Dr Eduard Verhagen, of Groningen Hospital, estimates that about a dozen children are already being killed by their doctors every year in the Netherlands, even though this is technically illegal.
    To bring about a change in the law, Dr Verhagen and his colleagues have been reporting these killings to the public prosecutor. No charges have been laid, but the threat of prosecution still hangs over the doctors' heads. "If the doctor and the parents decide to terminate the life of the baby, it is illegal in any country. So it is murder," says Dr Louis Kollée, the head of paediatrics at Radboud University Medical Centre, and an advocate of euthanasia for infants. "This is all very problematic for a doctor. He feels like a criminal. It's very difficult." ~ Guardian, Dec 21; Telegraph (UK), Dec 26
    Mira de Vries, of the Association for Medical and Therapeutic Self-Determination, a pro-suicide group, pointed out that the law exists only to protect doctors from prosecution for homicide. She commented on the British Medical Journal's forum page, "By claiming that the medical domain of doctors is far broader, and includes the reduction of suffering unrelated to classifiable and measurable somatic illness, physicians are proposing to redefine medicine, and vastly expand its already inflated territory." Henk Jochemsen, director of the anti-euthanasia Lindeboom Institute for Medical Ethics, said the report gave the message that, "we as a society should say to people who feel their life has lost meaning: right you had better go away."
    Source, BioEdge, 11 January 2005 · Issue 147

    USA
    ALABAMA MAN LIVES IN COMA FOR 23 YEARS

    An Alabama man who has lived in a persistent vegetative state for 23 years recently turned 50. Doctors believe that he could survive to the age of 70 or 75. Joey Adkins went into a coma in 1981 following an operation on his vertebrae. After a lawsuit, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital agreed to care for him in perpetuity. According to an article in the Birmingham News, he has been superbly nursed -- he has never had a bedsore, his teeth are cleaned and physiotherapy keeps his muscles from atrophying. Doctors maintain that he is unconscious but his 78-year-old father says that he detects signs of responsiveness. He visited daily until his own health failed, but he still phones regularly and gets a nurse to place the phone at his son's ear. Joey's siblings are less dedicated, but say that they would not agree to remove his feeding tube. ~ Birmingham News, Jan 2
    Source: BioEdge, 11 January 2005 · Issue 147

    POLAND
    HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS REJECT UN CALL FOR LEGALIZED ABORTION IN POLAND

    The government of Poland is actively assessing its domestic laws on abortion and other social issues. An influential UN committee has intervened in the process by issuing a report calling on Poland to liberalize its laws. The report issued by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee expresses "deep concern about restrictive abortion laws in Poland" and tells Poland that it "should liberalize its legislation and practice on abortion."
    The report was released just as the Polish government prepares to consider draft legislation that would loosen current restrictions on abortion. In an unusually explicit attempt to influence national lawmaking, the report directs Poland that "[t]hese recommendations should be taken into account when the draft Law on Parental Awareness is discussed in Parliament."
    The report, which is a periodic review of Poland's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), does not mention that it is purely recommendatory and has no legal force according to that treaty. The ICCPR is one of the two major human rights treaties adopted in 1966 to implement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What is most troubling to human rights activists is that the treaty makes no mention of abortion yet is increasingly used by the UN committee to pressure changes in abortion laws. Not only does the treaty make no mention of abortion it says explicitly that "Every human being has the inherent right to life."
    Human rights worker Ewa Kowalevski, Director of the Poland-based Human Life International Europe, says that with this report, "A committee of the UN has officially said that abortion is a human right according to international law. Where is this right? Show me this right!" She cautions that the report poses a "real danger" as it exerts pressure on Polish leaders. The report, she says, is a warning sign to the rest of the world.
    "It is against our sovereignty," and "if they can do it to Poland, they can do it everywhere."
    The UN's review is based on a Polish progress report that, according to Kowalevski, was prepared this year by radical feminist and pro-abortion groups led by the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Polish Federation on Women and Family Planning. Kowalevski says the report was "full of inaccurate data," such as the claim that up to 200,000 illegal abortions occur annually in Poland, while the government's official estimate places such abortions in the hundreds. A statement released by Polish pro-life groups shows that even when abortion-on-demand was available, before the current restrictive law came into effect in 1997, the total number of abortions did not exceed 60,000 per year.
    The UN report also requests the adoption of a wider social agenda, telling Poland to track doctors who refuse to carry out abortions, that "discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation should be specifically prohibited in Polish law," and that the undefined "sexual minorities" should be protected. Poland should also alter the "nature" of sexual education in schools to meet the Committee's standards.
    Copyright 2004 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
    E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org

    MALAYSIA
    THE CATHOLIC DOCTORS OF MALAYSIA
    ON THE DARK SIDE OF ASSISTED CONCEPTION

    I refer to your report, "Test-tube babies gather for Malaysian record" (Sunday Star, Dec 5).
    Although the objective of trying to help childless couples to conceive is a noble and very laudable act, the means by which this objective is achieved may not go down well with certain religious faiths. They may also be contrary to medical ethics and have serious social and moral implications.
    The Catholic Church opposes test-tube babies (also known as In Vitro Fertilisation or IVF) and other assisted reproductive techniques for various reasons.
    It believes that fertilisation should be a natural process and should be the result of a loving sexual union between husband and wife within the context of marriage.
    IVF involves the mixing of sperm and harvested eggs under controlled laboratory conditions in an attempt to produce embryos, which are then implanted (embryo transfer) into the uterus of the recipient.
    Usually, one to three healthy embryos are selected and the rest are frozen and kept for later use.
    Although embryos are frozen to preserve their lives, this exposes them to risks of physical harm. It also leaves them in a vulnerable position where they may be subjected to further experimentation and manipulation, such as embryonic stem cell research.
    Not many people are aware that IVF patients must usually agree to an early amniocentesis (a process whereby a needle is injected into the pregnancy sac of the womb to aspirate some cells and fluids for analysis) if they become pregnant, the rationale being that they will have an abortion if any abnormality in the foetus is discovered.
    Studies have also shown that infants conceived through IVF have a higher risk of major birth defects compared with infants conceived through natural fertilisation.
    There are other assisted reproductive techniques such as Artificial Insemination by Donor (AID), IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), GIFT, ZIST and PROST.
    There is now donation not only of sperm but also eggs (ova), of frozen embryos and a leasing arrangement of wombs of surrogate mothers (wombs for hire). All these sound like commodities ready to be offered to the desperate buyer.
    The main aim in IVF and AID is to fulfil a woman's desire to bear her own child. Although this child will be welcomed and loved, very often its status and interests are ignored during the process of trying to achieve a successful pregnancy.
    The child in its embryo stage becomes an object ready to be bought or sold, frozen, aborted, experimented with or disputed over in litigation.
    Perhaps we should look at other alternatives. There is a new technique call NaPro Technology, which is promoted by Pope Paul VI Institute for the study of Human Reproduction in Oregon, USA.
    When combined with other medical approaches, NaPro can achieve a success rate of up to 80% in the treatment of fertility.
    We do not need to destroy embryos to harvest their stem cells. Adult stem cell research has advanced tremendously and has shown great potential compared with embryonal stem cell research.
    Adult stem cells have been injected into failing hearts, spinal cords and damaged brain tissues.
    There are thousands of unwanted babies waiting for adoption. We should encourage more childless couples to think about adoption and perhaps give these unfortunate babies the love, care, dignity and hope that every child or human person deserves.

    Dr K.Y. Chong
    Immediate Past President, Catholic Doctors Association of Malaysia
    Petaling Jaya, Selangor
    Source: "The Star online" http://thestar.com.my/ Sunday December 12, 2004

    ARGENTINA
    A NEW WEB SITE FOR THE CATHOLIC DOCTORS OF ARGENTINA

    The Consorcio de Medicos Catholicos de Buenos Aires, Argentina, has a new website. You can visit it at the following address : http://www.medicoscatolicos.org/