September 6, 2008
New Articles
Forecasting Your Weather
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will provide to anyone that requests the list, a copy of experimental weather modification programs ongoing (as well as historical), in the United States. This list is not complete due to the fact that many experimental weather modification programs are classified top secret by the U.S. military. These experimental programs are unregulated and are not subject to oversight by anyone. In addition, the public.......
http://www.newswithviews.com/Peterson/rosalind112.htm
by Rosalind Peterson
Should I Vaccinate My Child?
Vaccine talk is riddled with shoddy science, emotional arguments, convoluted explanations and all out quackery. Very little common sense shines its way through the murky vaccine debate.
Rather than question the safety and efficacy of vaccines, most physicians and parents blindly immunize children. Rarely do they ask the lifesaving question of, Will a vaccine protect my child? As a pharmaceutical chemist and parent, I researched that question.......
http://www.newswithviews.com/Ellison/shane141.htm
by Shane Ellison, M. Sc
Bottom Feeders vs. Sarah Palin
Shortly after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his VP running mate the media and blogosphere rumor mills went into full speed, printing everything from Sarah's baby, Trig, (born with Down Syndrome) was not her's but her daughter's, to her husband's DUI 22 years ago. Whether it was planned or as result of these and other vicious attacks against the Alaskan Governor and her family, Sarah and Todd Palin issued the.......
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hughes/sharon58.htm
by Sharon Hughes
My confrontation with Kevorkians lawyer
Columnist Leonard Pitts of (The Miami Herald) wrote that he tells journalistic students if you ever propound an argument, and all the other side can do is to have a tantrum, you can consider yourself the winner by default. One might add that whenever a reporter asks question and all he gets is a tantrum, it is of utmost importance that he keep asking questions, and consider looking into a few more. I had that experience last year at a press conference Jack Kevorkian held soon after he got out of prison........
http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest129.htm
by Ronald Siegel
Other
Rosalind
Articles:
FORECASTING YOUR WEATHER
By Rosalind Peterson
September 6, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
What meteorologists and the media are not telling you
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will provide to anyone that requests the list, a copy of experimental weather modification programs ongoing (as well as historical), in the United States. This list is not complete due to the fact that many experimental weather modification programs are “classified top secret” by the U.S. military. These experimental programs are unregulated and are not subject to oversight by anyone. In addition, the public, ranchers, watershed supervisors, forestry, the Environmental Protection Agency, states, agriculture food producers, fish and game agencies, local counties, and anyone else that depends upon the weather, are usually not notified in advance of these programs being initiated.
NOAA has, under its umbrella, the National Weather Service (NWS). If the NWS is notified about these experimental weather programs, they rarely put this information into their state and local weather forecasts, leaving the public to believe that their weather is “normal” or that “extreme and other weather events” are caused by climate change or “global warming.” The NWS provides weather information to local, county, and state meteorologists who then use this information to add to local weather forecasts in the area where you live, but most neglect to advise the public about these modification programs.
The National Weather Service uses weather models in their forecasting. These models are based on data which is collected from a variety of sources and historical information. There is just one glitch.
Their models may not include at least two factors: 1) Experimental weather modification programs, and 2) Climate changes, based on NASA studies and research. (NASA noted in an October 2005, newsletter that increasingly persistent jet contrails may turn into man-made clouds that are”…trapping warmth in the atmosphere and exacerbating global warming…” NASA goes on to state that “…any change in global cloud cover may contribute to long-term changes in Earth’s climate. Contrails, especially persistent contrails, represent a human-caused increase in the Earth’s cloudiness, and are likely to be affecting climate and ultimately our natural resources…”) Thus, state and local forecasts may be wrong, in many instances, because they don’t take into consideration these two factors which can dramatically change your state, county or local weather.
Since the late 1980s, these experimental weather modification programs have grown in scope and sophistication. The public has been denied access to this information, in most cases, and weather modification has usually not been reported by the media except on rare occasions.
The local weather forecasters usually don’t report on these weather modification programs, on the results of those programs, when giving local and regional forecasts. Many may not even be aware of these programs or may have been told not to report on them. This means that most weather forecasters are not giving the public the true facts about the weather they are experiencing as a result of these programs. Those meteorologists that know about these experimental weather modification programs and don’t report them in advance, during or after these events, are denying the public critical information, especially to those who depend upon the weather to grow the crops we depend upon for food, drinking water supplies, and tree health.
The majority of agriculture producers are never told about these weather modification programs which could cause adverse weather like drought or flooding. Current legislation is now pending in the U.S. Congress: Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s U.S. Senate Bill #1807 and Colorado Democratic Congressman Mark Udall’s Bill #3445. These bills do not contain provisions that require public participation in the decision-making process, public notification, congressional oversight at any level (other than notification of these programs after the fact), or any provisions to protect crop production, public drinking water supplies, watersheds or forestlands throughout the United States. Military programs and experiments are also allowed under these bills. The Environmental Protection Agency is not notified and therefore not able to protect the public and the environment from adverse weather affects or from some toxic chemicals used in some of these experimental programs.
On July 28, 2008, KTVU News (Oakland/San Francisco/San Jose, California), presented a new program on weather modification. [5] John Fowler, the Health & Science Editor for KTVU, conducted research into this subject after being given many government documents and other information. This Special Report was the result of his investigation and it is one of the very few you will see on this subject.
KTVU Program Advance Advertising Segments prior to the Broadcast of their Special Report:
1 - “Coming up we investigate a weather modification program underway here in Northern California.” (This implies there is only one ongoing program in Northern CA. NOAA experimental weather modification records indicate there were at least 13 California programs in 2007, and there are 5 or more ongoing programs so far in 2008.)
2 - Julie Haener (KTVU News Anchor): “Ever wish you could change the weather? What you might consider impossible is not only possible, but is happening here in Northern California. KTVU Channel 2 News reveals who is modifying our weather and why. Weather patterns have been around longer than man. Should they be tampered with now?” Rosalind Peterson: ‘Who plays God with our crops, who plays God with different areas of the State of California or (individual) counties?” Julie Haener: “See the upcoming program on KTVU Channel 2 News.”
(Transcript of the Special Report aired on July 28, 2008. Note: If there are errors in any part of this transcription – we apologize in advance as no transcript was provided by KTVU. The items in parenthesis below were not part of the program but added to clarify statements or visuals.)
Frank Somerville (KTVU News Anchor): “Should humans tamper with mother nature? Weather modification is a growing trend both here in Northern California and around the world. So, does it work? And why do some people say it could do more harm than good? KTVU Health & Science Editor, John Fowler, has tonight’s Special Report.”
John Fowler: “California sure could use more rain. Tinder dry forests are burning at a record pace…” (due to a highly unusual lightning storms which hit California between June 19-20, 2008.) “Drought proclamations have millions of Bay Area water users cutting back or paying more. And climate experts predict that we are in for decades of unpredictable supplies. The State’s top water forecaster says: ‘We are on the edge right now’…”
Maury Roos (California State Department of Water Resources): “If the next winter is wet, everything will be fine. And if it is dry we will be in a real drought.”
John Fowler: “So what about making rain?” (KTVU Shows a Paramount Move Clip from The Rainmaker showing actor Burt Lancaster yelling “Rain!”) “Burt Lancaster’s character was based on a real life Californian who claimed 500 rain making successes, including a San Diego flood. Charles Hatfield died a half century ago without revealing his secrets. But his successors are hard at work, here in downtown San Francisco, at PG&E’s (Pacific Gas & Electric Company), headquarters, up on the 16th Floor, in their weather office, where the utilities top weather man, Byron Marler, studies charts and satellite pictures. Marler’s job is to change weather, although he won’t say it that way.”
Byron Marler (PG&E): “Well, we are not really changing the overall picture of the weather in the Sierra Nevada with the exception of causing a little more snowfall over some of the watersheds. 5% to 10% additional water on an annual basis.”
John Fowler: “PG&E uses what are basically big propane (ground based), gas flares in the mountains. But others use different methods, including airplanes to scatter tiny particles of silver iodide to seed clouds.” (There are other more sophisticated methods using a wide variety of chemicals but these were not identified in this program.)
Byron Marler (PG&E): “Most of this watershed in the Sierra Nevada are cloud seeded by someone.”
John Fowler: “Water districts, corporate farms, even private individuals, all modify the weather with little oversight and no government restrictions.”
Golden Gate Weather Consulting Meteorologist, Jan Null, advises cloud seeders: “You have a lot of people experimenting with the atmosphere, with only partially known sorts of effects that are going to come out of it.” (No mention of the synergistic effects of these multiple California programs or effects on California from experiments being conducted in adjoining states like Nevada.
Note: There are lawsuits with regard to weather modification programs in California.)
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John Fowler: “So are we messing with mother nature?”
Rosalind Peterson: “Who plays God with our crops, who plays God with different areas of the State of California or the counties? In other words, the weather belongs to all of us.”
John Fowler: “Former (California U.S.D.A. Agriculture Crop Loss Adjustor) Rosalind Peterson, of Ukiah (CA), spoke (as an invited guest speaker), at the United Nations (forum on Climate Change), last year (September 5-7, 2007), opposing weather modification (legislation due to negative impacts on agriculture and watersheds). Although some studies (three published prior to 1992) dispute it, she said pulling extra water from clouds in one place steals water from folks downwind (or in surrounding counties and states disrupting the micro-climates needed for crop production).” (This program did not specify which government studies dispute these claims.)
Rosalind Peterson: “If we are doing a lot (of weather modification), here… (pointing to a map showing the State of California).” (Rosalind Peterson presented a color map of the United States showing the number, from NOAA statistics, and the scope, number of square miles, of weather modification programs in the United States that are now part of the public record. KTVU declined to show the entire map or discuss the 60+ ongoing programs listed by NOAA. In addition, during the taped 1 hour, 45 minute interview, KTVU failed to mention the number of programs ongoing in California or the vote by the Los Angeles City Council (June 2008), to start a new weather modification program to put more snow, each year, on the San Bernadino Mountains in Southern California. A program that could impact rainfall and weather across the food belts in the Central Valley and in areas where agriculture crop production and surrounding forestlands depend upon fragile micro-climates and “normal” weather patterns for water and snow.)
John Fowler: “Peterson says that is sparking ‘weather wars’ across the Western states, expanding rainmaking programs that have unknown (synergistic) consequences. She says cloud seeding maybe making water problems worse.”
Rosalind Peterson: “I think that we could go to conservation, I think we could take others steps for better water usage and maybe limit those (experimental weather modification) programs, to only a very (regulated) few, if at all.”
John Fowler: “And what about unintended weather modification such as those persistent jet contrails that crisscross our skies. These are over Mendocino County where military jets practice.” (KTVU showed persistent jet contrails and a military jet onscreen).
Maury Roos: “They are blocking some of the sunlight coming in but they also trap, trap some of the heat, so the jury is out as to what the exact effects are…but those contrails do have an effect upon the weather and climate.”
John Fowler: “In Beijing (China), over the next few weeks, well funded Chinese weather modification experts will attempt to reduce smog by increasing air cleaning rain and will try to decrease rain during Olympic events. (August 2008). U.S. experts are skeptical.”
Maury Roos: “I can’t help but wonder if maybe they are exaggerating the amount of influence they have over weather.”
Jan Null: “It rains about half the days during the early part of August in Beijing. The effects are probably not going to be noticeable to anybody in the stands watching an Olympic event.”
John Fowler: “Professional rainmakers say they can increase or decrease precipitation anywhere conditions are right. Proof is elusive. Forecasters can’t predict precisely how much rain would fall anyway. Still proponents say California and the United States are falling behind the rest of the world in rain-making science (and) that we need to invest in technology that might help us avoid water worries. - Health & Science Editor, John Fowler, KTVU Channel 2 News.” End (Thank you KTVU & John Fowler for bringing to light this critical issue in your Special Report – Rosalind Peterson July 28, 2008.)
John Fowler’s statement that these programs might help us avoid “water worries” fails to address the issue of “who owns our weather and who will, or will not, profit from these experimental programs”? Since there is only a limited amount of water available at any given time, and since micro-climates and the weather needed for crop production and watersheds is critical in every county, this issue needs to be addressed by the media, the public, all agriculture production and water resources entities, and our elected officials.
Will KTVU Meteorologists now report on these ongoing programs and where they are modifying your weather today? And remember that United States weather modification companies are reported to be conducting weather modification programs in more than 50 countries around the world. It doesn’t appear that our science and weather modification programs are behind other countries or even that they are underfunded. U.S. Homeland Security is now funding Hurricane experiments starting in August 2008.
Who owns your weather and who decides who gets your rain or snow? The decision is not being left up to you. The news media and their meteorologists are not giving us all the facts about our weather. And more and more weather modification programs are planned in your future without your knowledge or consent.
For more experimental weather modification information and legislation:
1, Colorado Representative Mark Udall has introduced this weather modification bill #3445 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison U.S. Senate #1807. These bill could be passed at any time in 2008.
2, This is the link to the KTVU Channel 2 Program that aired on July 28, 2008 on Experimental Weather Modification (John Fowler)
3, The Telegraph.co.uk February 8, 2008 "U.S. Government (Homeland Security), Aims to Tame Hurricanes this August" "...The senior official responsible for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, Jay Cohen, has given his support to the new hurricane reduction programme…”
4, August 3, 2008 - New York Times Oppose this electronic voting bill.
© 2008 - Rosalind Peterson - All Rights Reserved
E-Mail: info@...
==========================
Vaccines are purported to work by triggering immunity. It is “thunk” by the experts that by exposing our immune system to weak or dead infectious agents, such as measles or a flu virus, that it creates the appropriate immune defense. This logic has been used to defend the use of every vaccine to date.
Other Shane Articles:
Health Fascism in The 21st Century
SHOULD I VACCINATE MY CHILD?
By Shane Ellison M. Sc.
The People's Chemist
September 6, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Vaccine talk is riddled with shoddy science, emotional arguments, convoluted explanations and all out quackery. Very little common sense shines its way through the murky vaccine debate.
Rather than question the safety and efficacy of vaccines, most physicians and parents blindly “immunize” children. Rarely do they ask the lifesaving question of, “Will a vaccine protect my child?” As a pharmaceutical chemist and parent, I researched that question six years ago. The answer was an astounding no.
Vaccines are purported to work by triggering immunity. It is “thunk” by the experts that by exposing our immune system to weak or dead infectious agents, such as measles or a flu virus, that it creates the appropriate immune defense. This logic has been used to defend the use of every vaccine to date. Yet, each vaccine has proven that the theory is nothing more than mental masturbation for nerdy scientists; it sounds good and feels better, but it’s not the real thing. At best, vaccines only temporarily boost our defenses, which hardly compensates for the myriad of potential side effects. Few people are aware of – or willing to accept - these cold, hard facts.
Polio is the most feared childhood illness. It has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. The world experienced a dramatic increase in polio cases beginning in 1910. Frequent epidemics became regular events. They were the impetus for a "Great Race" towards the development of a polio vaccine. It was developed in 1953 and an oral version soon after. Yet, unbeknownst to most, polio infection plummeted before the vaccines were introduced – thanks to better sanitation and nutrition. Good thing, because both forms were a total failure. In addition to causing the very same infection they were supposed to prevent – polio – they can also lead to sudden death and cancer.
The polio virus still exists today. But few of us suffer from it. Our protection resides in the same things that were responsible for its decline; a healthy immune system courtesy of proper sanitation and nutrition.
This same scenario was repeated in the case of the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine. Between the years of 1900 and 1935, mortality rates due to whooping cough dropped by 79% in the U.S. Yet, the vaccine wasn’t introduced until 1940 (DTP and DTaP). Today, those most susceptible to whooping cough are the “immunized.” In 2002, researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publicly stated that “The number of infants dying from whooping cough, once a major killer of children in the United States, is rising despite record high vaccination levels in the nation.”
The measles vaccine is no different. In 1957, the MMR vaccine became widely used in an effort to eradicate measles, mumps and rubella. Rather than prevent measles, it elicited a widespread epidemic. Between 1983 and 1990, there was a 423% increase in measles cases among those vaccinated. Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) actually warns that vaccinated individuals are 14 times more likely to contract this disease compared to the unvaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control insisted that the MMR vaccine would also eliminate mumps in the US by the year 2010. Then, in 2006, the largest mumps outbreak in 20 years occurred. Among those who suffered from mumps, 63% were “immunized.”
From its inception to now, the flu vaccine has proven just as worthless. In 2007, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the flu vaccine had “no or low effectiveness” against influenza or influenza-like illness. The analysis of data showed that the vaccine protected from zero to fourteen percent of vaccine participants.
Considering the overt failure of vaccination, the idea of main lining an ineffective and dangerous vaccine into our vulnerable children is chilling. Regardless, Big Pharma is hell bent on pushing more. Be forewarned, each and every vaccine will follow the same ineffective trend simply because they work against our immune system, not with it.
Vaccines will never be the panacea they are marketed as. Fortunately, as long as a child has proper eating and sanitation, their immune system can ward off biological threats. And in the rare case it doesn't, emergency medicine can tackle the infection. This is health made simple. But, in a society hell-bent on trading health for wealth, it is often over looked; just like the logic that teaches, “Vaccines don’t protect children.”
© 2008 Shane Ellison - All Rights Reserve
Shane Ellison, M.Sc. is an author and organic chemist. He is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology. An internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition, he is the founder of The AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery package. At one time, he was TOTALLY against diet pills. Now he is 100% for them! Learn why here.
Learn more about his books Health Myths Exposed and The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs.
Get 6-months of his FREE Life-Saving Health Briefs at www.healthmyths.net.
E-Mail: shane@...
====================================
Shortly after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his VP running mate the media and blogosphere rumor mills went into full speed...
Other
Hughes
Articles:
BOTTOM FEEDERS vs. SARAH PALIN
By Sharon Hughes
September 6, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Shortly after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his VP running mate the media and blogosphere rumor mills went into full speed, printing everything from Sarah's baby, Trig, (born with Down Syndrome) was not her's but her daughter's, to her husband's DUI 22 years ago.
Whether it was planned or as result of these and other vicious attacks against the Alaskan Governor and her family, Sarah and Todd Palin issued the following statement regarding the pregnancy of their 17-yr old daughter, Bristol:
"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support. Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."
See interesting Human Events article: Sarah Palin's Amazing Grace.
The media rumor mills then accused the Palins of pressuring Bristol's boyfriend into marrying her, but the 18-yr. old's mother set the record straight:
Levi's mother, Sherry Johnston, told the AP that her son would join the Palin's at the GOP, and when asked by reporters if the Palin's had put pressure on Levi to marry Bristol, she replied, "Absolutely not." And called the reports "absolutely bogus."
The boyfriend's mother said that Levi, 18, and Bristol, 17, had planned to wed before it was known that she was pregnant. (Hey, nothing wrong with PRESSURING young men who fornicate with young women to MARRY, anyway, even without pregnancy. She's supposed to have babies, but he isn't supposed to be 'pressured'? Gimme a break!--"Cheyenne Cin"- P.S. They don't want to marry, keep their pants on!)
I hope you will join me in helping voters to know the facts during this election, because the rumor mills, which are the product of bottom-feeders, are in full gear, against both sides, which seek to deceive more than just those with 'itching ears'.
To that end please feel free to copy, link to and forward information from our Election Center, and Issue and Candidate page.
The race is close, exciting and I believe one of the most important elections of our time.
© 2008 Sharon Hughes - All Rights Reserved
Sharon is the President of The Center for Changing Worldviews, and hosts Changing Worldviews TALK Radio which is heard on KDIA AM1640 San Francisco; WITA AM1490 Knoxville,TN, nationally on Rightalk.com and internationally on Oneplace.com. Her column appears on several online news sites including American Daily.com, CaliforniaRepublic.org, ChronWatch.com, Ediblog.com, MichNews.com, Newsbull.com, NewsWithviews.com, RaidersNewsUpdate.com RenewAmerica.us and others. For further information on her lineup of guests and topics visit:
Website: www.changingworldviews.com
Blogsite http://changingworldviews.blogspot.com
E-Mail: sharon@...
Other Guest Articles:
her when she was caught in a fire.
MY CONFRONTATION WITH
KEVORKIAN'S LAWYER
By Ronald Seigel
September 6, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Columnist Leonard Pitts of (The Miami Herald) wrote that he tells journalistic students “if you ever propound an argument, and all the other side can do is to have a tantrum, you can consider yourself the winner by default.” One might add that whenever a reporter asks question and all he gets is a tantrum, it is of utmost importance that he keep asking questions, and consider looking into a few more. I had that experience last year at a press conference Jack Kevorkian held soon after he got out of prison. The tantrum did not come Kevorkian himself, but from his usually mild mannered lawyer, Mayer Morganroth.
In the middle of one of my questions, Morganroth launched Into a tirade, suggesting he did not believe that I was really a freelance writer. He stated that he really felt I was a great imposter engaged in a conspiracy to embarrass his client. He forbade me to say anything further, in effect, preventing me from performing my function as a journalist under the first amendment.
When asking these questions, I made no personal criticisms of Kevorkian himself. My questions merely dealt with the political positions he expressed at the press conference. Since Kevorkian is now running for congress and will undoubtedly attempt to put his ideas into law, it is even more important that these questions be raised.
While Kevorkian was best known for assisting people in committing suicide, he went to jail for going further and actively performing the killing himself. During the press conference Kevorkian advocated legalizing such active killing in order to assure patients “ freedom of choice”
However, he opposed enacting laws that set up regulations or doing so. He wanted the regulations set up by groups of doctors or as he phrased it “ organized medicine” I have no such wish to attack doctors. I have a strong respect for the dedication and intelligence of the doctors I know and those I have been treated by. However, I also have deep reservations about allowing any group of people to operate without legal restraints and become a law unto themselves.
I feel definite alarm about giving people in any profession a License to kill. So during the press conference I raised some Questions about occasions where groups of doctors failed to Behave like platonic philosopher kings or Olympian gods and demonstrated some frightening prejudices. I asked about how scholars and physicians from Georgetown University wrote (New England Journal of Medicine Feb. 25th, 1999) how when doctors were presented with hypothetical cases in a survey, they were unwilling to give the same treatment to Black patients as they were to White patients, and were reluctant to give women the same treatment they were ready to provide for men. African American women came out worse of all.
I also asked how decades ago staff members in one branch of “organized medicine “ the University of Oklahoma health Science, wrote in a national medical magazine (Pediatrics Oct 1983) that they denied life saving treatment to certain babies, because they were following a pseudo mathematical formula designed to “measure” their “quality of life” among the traits determining whether a baby lives or died was their parents! Income.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) protested such hospitals practices, noting family income could often be a “ proxy for race,” and under such policies children were being allowed to die on the basis of “race and class.”
African Americans have long been concerned about neglect in hospitals. After an experience with her daughter, the late civil rights champion, Fannie Lou Hammer, spoke out against denial of hospital treatment as passionately as she did about denial of voting rights. After my confrontation with Kevorkian’s lawyer, an African American woman told me, “People have to watch out for those who want to disconnect their love ones life supports.” When Kevorkian’s attorney was smearing me, he may have been consciously meant to cover up abuse in medicine. He may have been lashing out because of the unconscious fear that I was opening the door to questions he was psychologically unable to face about the movement that he identified himself with.
Questions might have come up about prejudices doctors have shown against patients with disabilities of all races. Years ago Sondra Diamond wrote about how doctors were reluctant to treat
her when she was caught in a fire. Because she was largely paralyzed from birth, the doctors assumed she was incapable of living a “normal life.” Her parents insisted she receive the same routine treatment as other burn patients. She survived and lead a normal enough life to graduate from college, and become an educational consultant.
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Tommy Meadows, a former chair of the Detroit City Council Task Force on Disabilities said one doctor was reluctant to treat his wife, Shereian, because he did not like the way she looked. Then the doctor doubted she was worth keeping alive, because he considered her “deformed.” It might have also came out that the distinguished American Medical Association (AMA), which is close as anything in This country to organized medicine, wanted to sacrifice Kevorkian’s scared principle of freedom of choice for those who want to live.
In a 1996 resolution, AMA members declared they wanted to “accommodate” doctors, who wished to deny life saving treatment, when they believed a patient did not have a “worth-the-effort” quality of life. In such cases, the AMA advocated giving hospital appointed ethical boards the power to overrule patients and their families.
They advocated board members determine the value of a patient’s Life by “ subjective values.” There is one word for “subjective value” And this is prejudice. AMA style ethical boards could make this a far more dangerous world for victims of prejudice, whether those with disabilities, African Americans and women, particularly those like Shereian Meadows, who may fail to live up to their “subjective” standards of beauty. One wonder who would be safe.
Tommy Meadows noted, “Today we’re fighting for us. Tomorrow we may be fighting for you. If you don’t stand with us today, who Will stand with you tomorrow? This raises a more fundamental question. If prominent figures in organized medicine are willing to disregard patient choices in regard to saving their lives, how can we trust them to respect patients freedom of choice when they are allowed to make the rules for active killing?
This might give rise to an ultimate question on the nature of the so-called “rights to die” movement. I patients wishes can be set aside so easily, might not “freedom of choice” simply be a code word for getting rid of lives that some do not want around? How far is this talk of “quality of life” an attempt to subvert the principle on which this nation was founded that all men are created equal? Is this an attempt to replace this with a doctrine that there are some inferior quality second and third class, Grade, B, C, and D lives that is all right to destroy?
How far are attempts to whittle away the long held safeguards that protects human life sabotaging our guarantees of equal protection of the law? For the past decade I and other disability rights advocates have been trying to head off the AMA’s master plan by working for a passage of a law making involuntary active and involuntary passive euthanasia hate crimes, when committed by health care institutions or providers receiving federal funds and done because of disability, race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. It would also define as hate crimes acts of brutality and cruelty in hospitals and nursing homes. The Bill is called the Shereian Meadows Amendment.
Those journalists who are allowed to attend Kevorkian’s press Conferences might well ask him how he stands on this issue of freedom of choice. Readers might want to write or e-mail their Senator, or Representatives, and ask the same. One hopes we will also ask ourselves the most important question of all. Is this arrogant elitism in our institutions of healing a symptom of malady in our society? The late Rosa Parks said before her death that we must “respect and care for each other” if we are to “live and be free.” Do we all receive respect and caring?
Certainly most of us do not have to convince special ethical boards of value of our lives. However we do have to struggle for acceptance, whether in school playgrounds, teen-age cliques, in getting and keeping a job, “Keeping up with the Joneses,” or maintaining our dignity in old age homes. Some find it difficult to gain acceptance in their own families.
Often we feel the only way we can gain acceptance and respect is by putting others down. In such atmosphere, is it not easy to discount the worth of others, and see their lives expendable? In such an atmosphere, some come to reject themselves and feel that their own lives are worthless. How many of the “voluntary” suicides Kevorkian talks about might caused less by the physical pain or suffering of illness than by the emotional pain and suffering of society’s rejection, and self-rejection?
At any rate in the future columns, this writer intends to raise many questions about human rights and human dignity no matter what tantrums or tirades may result. (WATCH OUT, older women, esp. baby boomers, and esp. if poor and/or alone! THIS IS FOR YOU! --"Cheyenne Cin")
© 2008 - Ronald Seigel - All Rights Reserved
---------------
NOTE THAT I AM GOING TO BE OFF OF THE COMPUTER FOR MOST OF TODAY, and you can go here for prophetic news: (HAPPY SATURDAY!)-- "Cheyenne Cin")
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