Archive for July, 2005


16
July

Hazardous while driving

From Yahoo News

Phoning while driving quadruples crash risk: study

Mon Jul 11, 7:09 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) – Holding a mobile phone while driving more than quadruples the risk of an accident, and using a hands-free phone kit is almost as dangerous, according to research carried out in Australia. cont….

This is perhaps something that we have known all along. Handsfree kits certainly does not increase one’s concentration on the road while talking on the phone. Handphone usage while driving remains a distraction that can be fatal while driving. We now even see individuals with bluetooth headseats permanently embedded in their ears even while not in usage.

It is still safer to stop by the roadside while talking on the phone. And please take those bluetooth sets out of your ears before it becomes a permanent fixture for without it you will be unrecognisable!

16
July

Euthanasia Revisited

From bmj.com,

Dutch doctors adopt guidelines on mercy killing of newborns
Tony Sheldon

Dutch paediatricians have voted unanimously to adopt as national guidelines the so called Groningen protocol that covers the mercy killing of newborn babies who are incurably sick and are suffering severely. The Dutch Paediatric Society accepted that “in exceptional circumstances and under strict conditions… deliberate ending of life” of such newborns “can be an acceptable option.”… cont…

Mercy killing or murder. The term as controversial as the act itself. It is a debate that will go on for centuries. Perhaps, the rationale for the “deliberate ending of life” is acceptable when babies are born with defects incompatible with a good quality of life.

Its clinical director of paediatrics, Eduard Verhagen, told the BMJ at the time, “It is time to be honest; all over the world doctors end lives discreetly, out of compassion”

Perhaps he is right. How about the times treatment has been witheld when the situation has been deemed “palliative”? Does that equate mercy killing?

When one has seen great sufferings, mercy killings may not be that far fetched or sinful. However, a fine line exists between euthanasia and murder. You could intepret it either way.

Discuss in the MMR forum