Catholic News 2
NICE, France (AP) -- The Latest on a truck that drove into the crowd in Nice (all times local):...
Oakland, Calif., Jul 14, 2016 / 03:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- You can’t put a price on most things in life. But you can, apparently, put a price on death - $2,000.That’s what Dr. Lonny Shavelson is charging patients at his brand-new physician-assisted suicide clinic in Berkeley, California.Last month, California became the fifth and most populous state to adopt a law legalizing physician-assisted suicide. The state's End of Life Option Act went into effect June 9.Shavelson, who had retired from practicing medicine, was drawn back after Calif. Governor Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act last year. Shavelson recently opened the state’s first End of Life Options clinic in the Bay Area, where he will consult with and provide lethal prescriptions for patients who request them – and who may not be given the prescription by other doctors who refuse to write such prescriptions.Under the California law, two doctors must agree that a mentally competent pati...
Oakland, Calif., Jul 14, 2016 / 03:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- You can’t put a price on most things in life. But you can, apparently, put a price on death - $2,000.
That’s what Dr. Lonny Shavelson is charging patients at his brand-new physician-assisted suicide clinic in Berkeley, California.
Last month, California became the fifth and most populous state to adopt a law legalizing physician-assisted suicide. The state's End of Life Option Act went into effect June 9.
Shavelson, who had retired from practicing medicine, was drawn back after Calif. Governor Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act last year. Shavelson recently opened the state’s first End of Life Options clinic in the Bay Area, where he will consult with and provide lethal prescriptions for patients who request them – and who may not be given the prescription by other doctors who refuse to write such prescriptions.
Under the California law, two doctors must agree that a mentally competent patient has six months or fewer to live. The patient then agrees in writing to administer the lethal prescription themselves. Currently, the law does not mandate doctors to provide lethal prescriptions if they choose not to do so.
Shavelson’s sudden reappearance in medicine and his past advocacy for assisted suicide has left many critics sceptical of his motivations.
“I think that what we have said about assisted suicide is predictably happening, which is [that] some individuals in the healthcare industry will take advantage (of these laws) and see this as a business opportunity, and take advantage of people and families at their most vulnerable time,” Tim Rosales, political director for the Patients Rights Action Fund, told CNA.
One of Shavelson’s most vocal critics is Wesley Smith, a lawyer, author, and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.
In the '90s, Shavelson wrote a book called A Chosen Death, in which he chronicles the deaths of five people who had asked for assisted suicide. Shavelson was present for each person’s death.
In the book, Shavelson recounts how he watched the murder of a man who is suffocated to death, and how he did nothing to stop it. Smith takes Shavelson to task in his own book Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, and the New Duty to Die.
In it, Smith writes of Shavelson: “The right, proper, ethical, and humane thing for Shavelson to do as he watched Sarah asphyxiate Gene would have been to knock Sarah off the helpless man and then quickly dial 911 for an ambulance and the police. But Shavelson did not do anything…as he watched the Sarah-Gene tableau, just before the old man tried to rip the bag off his face…”
Critics of legalized assisted suicide argue that it overwhelmingly targets the poor, elderly and disabled, that it creates a slippery slope to doctor-enforced euthanasias, and that there can never be enough safeguards in place to prevent abuse.
Although the California law only applies to the mentally competent and terminally ill, a terminal diagnosis can be uncertain, with many people living well beyond their initial prognosis.
Countries such as the Netherlands, where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been legal since 2002, have recently witnessed the erosion of such safeguards as mental competence. Earlier this year, a young woman in her 20s was euthanized in the country because doctors had determined her mental health condition was “insufferable.”
Rosales said he hopes that states considering legalizing assisted suicide or euthanasia will find Shavelson’s practice troubling.
“It’s targeting folks and seeing this as something that is profitable or a business venture, and that certainly is troubling, and I think instructive for states that are considering similar laws.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Left with few options as police tensions spiral, President Barack Obama is leading a national soul-searching on race that he once said would be unproductive for him to lead....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Emmy Awards nominations told us what is already evident - the power and reputation of streaming services Netflix and Amazon are on the rise, and broadcast networks and even longtime premium cable star HBO are paying the price....
DETROIT (AP) -- Consumer Reports said Thursday that Tesla Motors is misleading car owners by calling its semi-autonomous driving system "Autopilot," potentially giving them too much trust in their car's ability to drive itself....
MOSCOW (AP) -- The United States on Thursday offered Russia a broad new military partnership in Syria, hoping the attraction of a unified campaign against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida - and a Russian commitment to ground Syria's bombers - could end five years of civil war. If finalized, the deal could dramatically alter America's role in the conflict....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump abruptly postponed plans to announce his vice presidential pick following a day of rampant speculation, citing the "horrible attack" in Nice, France, that left scores dead....
NICE, France (AP) -- A truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of Bastille Day revelers who'd gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice late Thursday in what some officials and eyewitnesses described as a deliberate attack. The president of the Nice region said at least 60 people were killed....
NICE, France (AP) -- The Latest on a truck that drove into the crowd in Nice (all times local):...
(VATICAN RADIO) Save the Children has released a shocking report titled: “Unequal Portions. Ending Malnutrition for Every Last Child”.The report contains information about the 159 million children who are suffering from chronic malnutrition across the world. According to the report, despite a global commitment to eradicate malnutrition by 2030, current trends indicate that there will still be 129 million children under the age of five with stunted growth worldwide.Katie Ascough spoke with Simona Seravesi, consultant at Save the Children Italy, who first highlighted the main factors which influence child malnutrition.Listen: “In many countries, malnutrition is linked to poverty, to very low hygienic and health conditions, lack of access to education…even inequality due to the different ethnic groups,” said Ms. Seravesi. She also mentioned that sometimes gender, crises, migration, civil war, and natural disasters can contribute to the ...
(VATICAN RADIO) Save the Children has released a shocking report titled: “Unequal Portions. Ending Malnutrition for Every Last Child”.
The report contains information about the 159 million children who are suffering from chronic malnutrition across the world. According to the report, despite a global commitment to eradicate malnutrition by 2030, current trends indicate that there will still be 129 million children under the age of five with stunted growth worldwide.
Katie Ascough spoke with Simona Seravesi, consultant at Save the Children Italy, who first highlighted the main factors which influence child malnutrition.
Listen:
“In many countries, malnutrition is linked to poverty, to very low hygienic and health conditions, lack of access to education…even inequality due to the different ethnic groups,” said Ms. Seravesi. She also mentioned that sometimes gender, crises, migration, civil war, and natural disasters can contribute to the level of child malnutrition.
When asked if the situation is improving, Ms. Seravesi said, “Despite some progress, this progress has been quite slow and unequal.” She then explained how some ethnic groups or rural areas within the countries showing progress can be left behind and do “not reflect” this image of improvement. “So we have to be extremely careful,” she warned.
When asked what Save the Children recommends that governments do to help stop this crisis of child malnutrition, Ms. Seravesi advised: “First of all, we actually think that it’s quite important to have a multi-factorial analysis to understand which are the drivers and constraints that lead the malnutrition in different countries.” She then emphasized the importance of governments getting serious about malnutrition by setting a “nutrition target”. She concluded her answer with: “We strongly believe that the commitment to address malnutrition should start with a moral and legal imperative for the right to food and nutrition for all people.”
Ms. Seravesi encouraged people to remember that fighting malnutrition is “a responsibility of all of us in our daily life…[to] make an awareness about the fact that we are living in a world of 159 million [malnourished] children, which is a shame.”
When asked if eliminating child malnutrition is a realistic goal, Ms. Seravesi exclaimed: “Of course from my heart I would like to say yes, but at the same time this world is so unstable that maybe in some countries or in some regions of the world you reach relevant progress, and then suddenly on the other side of the world you lose this progress because of civil wars, because of events like ‘El Niño’ that happened recently. So it’s very unpredictable, but at the same time I think that it’s not impossible…Something must be done and something could be done, I think.”
