Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Brain-Injury Patients Should be Used for Medical Experiments, Suggest Bioethicists
LifeSiteNews ^ | 10/5/06 | Gudrun Schultz

Posted on 10/05/2006 3:49:28 PM PDT by wagglebee

MELBOURNE, Australia, October 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Patients designated as in a “persistent vegetative state (PVS)” should be used for medical experiments, according to several top bioethicists, regardless of whether or not prior consent was obtained.

Several articles published in the recent issue of the Journal of Medical debated the potential use of patients with non-responsive brain function for such medical experiments as animal organ transplants—to bypass ethic prohibitions against using a living human being for medical experimentation, some even suggested designating such patients as “dead,” saying their cognitive impairments justified treating them as cadavers.

Dr. John Shea, medical advisor to Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com it would never be ethically or morally acceptable to use a living human being for medical research without their permission, regardless of their level of cognitive function.

“A person who has PVS is not dead! If you claim to respect the sacredness of human life, you can’t use a human person for medical experimentation—that would be grossly immoral.”

In fact, little is understood about the capacity for awareness and understanding of people suffering from severe cognitive impairment, Dr. Shea said. Documented cases of patients who have unexpectedly “woken up” from a supposedly permanent PVS state have refuted the argument that their condition is irreversible. (See: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06070409.html)

Dr. Steven Curry of the University of Melbourne, who supports experiments using PVS patients, said it would be too difficult to convince the public that PVS patients were “dead”, according to commentary by the bioethics news watch BioEdge on Oct. 3.

Regardless, he said, their bodies should be used for medical research. Repeating a common fallacy of the bioethics debate on PVS, Curry stated that such patients will not recover. “Those who are in a PVS will not ever wake up, they feel no pain or discomfort and have no continuing interest in their own survival…”

While making the argument that PVS patients have no right to mental autonomy since they have no apparent functioning mental capacity, Dr. Curry excused the medical “use” of their bodies by suggesting such patients should be allowed to choose to donate their bodies for the good of science, saying, “…these patients must also have a right to risk that life for the common good.”

As a further basis for his argument, Dr. Curry stated that PVS patients’ inability to bear children and their lack of any capacity for movement justified the “possible confinement” caused by experimentation.

“Also,” he said, “no risk of withdrawal of consent exists.” While stating that obtaining prior agreement to experimentation would be preferable, he pointed out that such agreements would be unlikely, since few people would anticipate living in a “comatose” state for several years.

Dr. Curry would support permitting family members to give permission for a comatose relative to be used for medical experimentation, “with reference to the person’s values and stated preferences.”

Read commentary from the Australasian bioethics newsletter:
http://www.australasianbioethics.org/Newsletters/currentbioe...

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Man Wakes from Two-Year Coma – was Aware and Remembers Everything
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05100604.html

New study questions “brain-death” criterion for organ donation
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06091502.html



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bioethics; braininjury; cultureofdeath; eugenics; prolife; pvs; wtf
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 181-182 next last
To: thoughtomator
"...should be used for medical experiments, according to several top bioethicists, regardless of whether or not prior consent was obtained."

I know what you mean. I've always said that if you're ever flat on your back in a hosital bed and you see a pink, bland, bspectacled face loom,ing over you and the word "ethicist," talk -- talk --- keep talking --- and reach for your gun.

61 posted on 10/05/2006 5:49:34 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (That was a joke, son. Sort of.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

Good Lord, Nazi Germany has returned.


62 posted on 10/05/2006 6:05:12 PM PDT by ladyinred
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Bump for life!


63 posted on 10/05/2006 6:55:54 PM PDT by Sun (Hillary had a D-/F rating on immigration; now she wants to build a wall????)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator

bingo

these people should be hanging from a gallows


64 posted on 10/05/2006 7:07:23 PM PDT by Charlespg (Peace= When we trod the ruins of Mecca and Medina under our infidel boots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

My first thoughts were also of the Nazis. Whoa!


65 posted on 10/05/2006 7:13:59 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Redcloak
Brain-Injury Patients Should be Used for Medical Experiments, Suggest Bioethicists

Perhaps, but Democrats are more plentiful.

Same difference, dontcha think?

66 posted on 10/05/2006 7:15:06 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
Once again affirming my deep conviction that anyone who styles himself an "ethicist" should be put to death for the well-being of humanity.

I used to read the "Hastings Report" from the Hastings Center, at our medical library. This nazi-inspired crap has been going on for many years, under the figleaf of "ethics." "Bioethicists" are truly the outlyers of the culture of death.

67 posted on 10/05/2006 7:32:55 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Irish_Thatcherite
Under the guise of 'quality of life'.

Lest it be forgotten, allow me to note that "hillarycare" had a Board on Quality of Life, a gaggle of anonymous government bureaucrats, who were to sit in judgment of "marginal cases" and play "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, you shall live and you shall go."

All for cost effectiveness, of course.

68 posted on 10/05/2006 7:38:26 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

oh I remember the names of freepers who said that teri should starve to death...the ones who said nothing would come of it.


69 posted on 10/05/2006 7:56:01 PM PDT by paltz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
Dr. Mengele has been reincarnated.

It's "NewSpeak." War is Peace. Love is Hate. And "bioethecists" have ethics.

Outside of states that sponsored mass murder, these so called "bioethecists" would have been tarred, feathered, run out of town on a rail, of possibly strung up in the past. Now they're made full professors and given tenure.

Mark

70 posted on 10/05/2006 8:31:03 PM PDT by MarkL (When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: paltz

Well then, I guess there's nothing to see here. Lalalala.


71 posted on 10/05/2006 9:09:36 PM PDT by BykrBayb (Be careful what you ask for, and even more careful what you demand. Þ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator

"Once again affirming my deep conviction that anyone who styles himself an "ethicist" should be put to death for the well-being of humanity."

LOL!!!
Agreed!


72 posted on 10/05/2006 9:11:17 PM PDT by Scotswife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
Patients designated as in a “persistent vegetative state (PVS)” should be used for medical experiments, according to several top bioethicists

And they call themselves ethicists??? @#$%^&*!

Again I'm wondering, are we really in Hell and just won't admit it?

73 posted on 10/05/2006 9:37:06 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp (Pornography kills - a man's soul, a woman's spirit, a child's body.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

terribly evil people


74 posted on 10/06/2006 6:09:05 AM PDT by woollyone (evolution- the ONLY convenient place where the 1st & 2nd laws of thermodynamics don't EVER apply)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
Regardless, he said, their bodies should be used for medical research. Repeating a common fallacy of the bioethics debate on PVS, Curry stated that such patients will not recover. “Those who are in a PVS will not ever wake up, they feel no pain or discomfort and have no continuing interest in their own survival…”

**************

Ghoul.

75 posted on 10/06/2006 6:39:37 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

Wow, I am speechless.


76 posted on 10/06/2006 8:06:28 AM PDT by Kaylee Frye
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Howlin

Ping to #34


77 posted on 10/06/2006 8:21:44 AM PDT by MineralMan (Non-evangelical Atheist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Hildy

Ping to #34


78 posted on 10/06/2006 8:22:13 AM PDT by MineralMan (Non-evangelical Atheist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Hildy

Make that #35. Sorry.


79 posted on 10/06/2006 8:23:21 AM PDT by MineralMan (Non-evangelical Atheist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

Comment #80 Removed by Moderator


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 181-182 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson