Hillary Clinton writes that the Bush Administration’s impending clampdown on access to birth control and "morning after" pills is outrageous interference in the lives of women. She’s right, of course, although the decision also impacts men only a little less directly. These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking…
Category: Medicine
Medical Discrimination
Wisconsin Congressman Steve Kagen has what he thinks is a noble goal in mind: ending price discrimination in the medical insurance marketplace. Why? As Kagen writes at the Huffington Post, charging people different prices for health insurance is unconstitutional. Kagen uses some strong rhetoric in attacking insurance companies: That’s why I’ve introduced the No Discrimination…
Four Doctors and a Vet
One of my favorite movies is Four Weddings and a Funeral and the title inspired that of this post. Happily, no one was in any particular danger during the medical procedures described in this essay. These all new, all true stories were ripped, if not exactly from national headlines, then straight from the lives of…
Refusing Medical Care
In the U.K., Emma Gough, a young Jehovah’s Witness woman recently died after refusing to accept a blood transfusion that could have saved her life: She had signed a form refusing blood transfusions, and her family would not overrule her. Couldn’t doctors have intervened? If they had, they may well have been charged with a…
Funky Winkerbean Causes Controversy
From Fox News: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But did the creator of the comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" take the "awareness" part too far? … The decision by cartoonist Tim Batiuk to have Lisa Moore, the cartoon strip’s wife, mother and lawyer, succumb to breast cancer last week has sparked both praise and anger,…
Stem Cells
It’s not popular to say that Bush’s veto of the recent bill promoting embryonic stell cell research is for the best. But I’ll go on record saying it anyway. Bush said: “If this legislation became law, it would compel American taxpayers for the first time in our history to support the deliberate destruction of human…
Partial Victory on Abortion, Bad Pun Intended
By a 5-4 margin the US Supreme Court made the right decision Wednesday by upholding President Bush’s Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. From the Houston Chronice: Bush said that it affirms the progress his administration has made to uphold the “sanctity of life.” “I am pleased that the Supreme Court has upheld a law that…
Right To Die?
I’ve been mostly posting personal notes and whatnot lately because it’s easier (!) and probably more interesting to my few readers. But a good thing happened today and though it’s undoubtedly all over the news, I thought I’d discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling on assisted suicide. The question that big-government advocates like to ask is…
Who Decides When It’s Time to ‘Go’?
Florida Republicans, apparently. This is a terrible decision on the part of Jeb Bush. Republicans are supposed to be the party of less government, less interference in people’s lives, less of everything ridiculous. If only that were true! The Florida legislature had no business interferring in this matter. If any arm of the government needed…
Pot for Medical Use: Debate in California
Medical marijuana grower gets a day in jail. The two ironies of this case are that the dude was doing his job for the city of Oakland and that when charged, the judge’s withholding of this and other facts from jurors spawned a rebellion among the jurors after they convicted him. The problem with all…