Health Risks
Written on 29 Aug, 1995 at 9:14 in
Health Risks, Society & Culture | Author:
Winifride Prestwich Opinion polls clearly show Canadians’ distaste with genetic engineering. Why is the Health Minister dodging the issue?
Medical and legal experts have long recognized that scientific and technological developments in regard to new reproductive technologies (NRT) have far outstripped the law. They have warned that, unchecked by legislation, this “area of research is par excellence one likely to produce problems for mankind as a whole…” (Julius Stone, Professor of International Law and Jurispudence). As early as 1975, that is three years ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 May, 1995 at 12:42 in
Bioethics, Health Risks | Author:
Interim Staff The Consent to Treatment Act (which came into force on April 3, 1995) sets out conditions under which Health Practitioners (HPs) are permitted to administer treatment to patients. (The term Health Practitioner includes: school doctors, nurses and psychologists; public health nurses, and doctors and nurses on staff at birth-control centres and abortion clinics.)
Although one of the main purposes of the Act is to codify legal understanding of the term “informed consent,” it removes from parents their constitutional right and legal ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 May, 1995 at 9:33 in
Bioethics, Health Risks, Motherhood, Population | Author:
Patricia Ryan Those who follow the workings of the various anti-population organizations have long feared the possibility of an anti-human vaccination.
These fears may now have been realized with the discovery of an anti-tetanus vaccine, administered by the World Health Organization, which may have destroyed the fertility of millions in the Third World.
Several pro-life agencies, including Human Life International and International Right to Life, have discovered that a tetanus vaccine administered to women in the Philippines and Mexico and Nicaragua also contains ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 13:04 in
Health Risks, Society & Culture | Author:
Sue Careless Providence center’s Dr. Ian Ferguson ensures that depression does not affect an elderly patient’s treatment
Looking more like a funky film animator then a psychiatrist, Dr Ian Ferguson appears too boyish, even at 45, to be specializing in geriatrics. With his own lively mind, he treats patient suffering from dementia. Even though many of his clients display some behaviors that are ‘disinhibited,’ he finds them ‘remarkable. There’s a lot of wit there”
Ferguson believes that our society doesn’t like ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 12:40 in
Health Risks, Politics | Author:
Interim Staff Ontario’s new Consent to Treatment Act could create havoc with the treatment doctors and healthcare workers are able to provide.
Already, one doctor has shut down her clinic saying that the legislation has makes it impossible for her to care for her patients.
“I’m not going to open my clinic until somebody sorts this around,” said Dr. Lynne Margesson in an April interview with the Toronto Star.
Margesson, who runs a clinic for the mentally disabled ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 12:01 in
Abortion, Abortion statistics, Health Risks | Author:
Sabina McLuhan Mother Jones Magazine is not usually on my must read list but a colleague gave me the March/April issue which contains a surprisingly fair article on abortion and breast cancer.
Writer Michael Castleman concludes that there is enough evidence in studies to date to show a connection. He does not demand an end to abortion, but he does ask for some informed counseling and decision-making. “Pro-choice groups should not fall into the trap of defending abortion as absolutely ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 10:39 in
Health Risks | Author:
Interim Staff Calgary case typical of the sort of medical discrimination which the disabled face in Canada
A Calgary boy who suffers from Down Syndrome will finally get a chance to have a lung transplant.
However, the number of hurdles and the amount of animosity that he and his family had to overcome to get on this list provides vivid insight of how Canadian society views the disabled.
The dispute began in July last year when 17-year-old Terry Urquhart was ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 10:35 in
Abortion, Health Risks | Author:
Patricia Cashen A physician at the University of British Columbia has come up with a chemical concoction which she feels will give women another choice in how to end the life of their unborn baby.
Unable to convince the federal government to allow the testing of RU-486, the French-made abortion pill, Dr. Ellen Wiebe is convinced that she will be able to sneak her method in through the back door.
Following up on previous U.S. research, Weibe ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 10:17 in
Health Risks | Author:
Winifride Prestwich A boy is born with no hands; a girl with one foot. A British professor believes that these children are victims of Chorionic Villi Sampling – a “search and destroy” prenatal test.
A prenatal test introduced about 10 years ago, and taken by women to ensure that their babies were safe from Down Syndrome and other genetic abnormalities, is being blamed for birth defects in dozens of children in Britain, and hundreds world-wide.
Leading doctors believe that chorionic villi ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 9:50 in
Bioethics, Health Risks | Author:
Geoffry F. Cauchi LL.B. st people have contemplated what might happen to them if they were injured in a car accident and ended up in a coma. Geoff Cauchi completes the second part of his series on the role Ontario’s new Consent and Treatment legislation would play should this situation arise and suggests that you shouldn’t sign a Power of Attorney without proper pro-life medical and legal advice.
Apart from the issue of consent to treatment for children and parental rights, the Substitute ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Apr, 1995 at 9:45 in
Abortion, Health Risks | Author:
Doreen Beagan Halifax. In December the Victoria General Hospital announced an expansion of its fetal brain tissue transplant program. Begun in 1991, it involves transplanting living fetal brain tissue into the brains of selected patients with Parkinson’s Disease. Cells from several fetuses are needed for each injection.
Implanted fetal tissue survived and slowed progression of the disease in the test patients, reports Dr. Bernard Badley, program head and hospital president. They remain significantly disabled, but “suffered not serious complications ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Mar, 1995 at 14:46 in
Health Risks | Author:
John Henry Westen Talking about vaccines, does anyone recall the horrors of the Mexico and Philippine anti-tetanus vaccine campaigns?
In October of 1994 Human Life International received a report from its Mexican branch “Comite Pro Vida di Mexico” on the anti-tetanus vaccine. About the same time, similar reports came from the Philippines via Sister Mary Pilar Verzosa, RGS, of Pro-Life Philippines, where 3.4 million women were vaccinated.
The groups were concerned with the strange implementation of the vaccination program. Only women of childbearing age (12-49) ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Mar, 1995 at 14:34 in
Abortion, Health Risks, Society & Culture | Author:
Geoffrey Cauchi In December, 1992, the Ontario Legislature passed the Consent to Treatment Act and the Substitute Decision Act , both of which are now expected to be proclaimed in force on April 3, 1995. In general terms, the CTA sets out the legal conditions under which “health practitioners” are permitted to administer “treatment” to patients. HPs are prohibited from administering a proposed treatment unless they have formed the opinion that either (a) the patient is capable of giving, and ... (Continue reading)
Written on 29 Mar, 1995 at 10:15 in
Abortion, Abortion Law, Health Risks | Author:
Abortion in Ireland
A new bill would “stem the flow” of Irish women seeking abortions in England, said Irish Justice Minister Nora Owen. However, the pro-life movement and the Catholic Bishops have their doubts. The Bill was introduced in February by the government to act on the results of a 1992 referendum which saw 60% of the country voting that abortion information be made legal. While allowing doctors to give out the names and addresses of English abortion ... (Continue reading)
Written on 1 Mar, 1995 at 16:41 in
Health Risks, Society & Culture | Author:
Sue Careless Volunteer-based groups which provide in-home service for the disabled and elderly question whether bureaucratic centralization will save money or pave the way to healthcare rationing.
Ontario has a long history of community-based, volunteer-supported agencies helping the disabled and elderly to remain in their homes.
All of this tradition was erased last December when the provincial government passed Bill 173. What were the 12,000 agencies, will be reduced to 150 multi-service agencies (MSAs).
Supporters argue that the MSAs will streamline the system and offer ... (Continue reading)
