PRO-LIFE NEWS IN BRIEF

By Liz Townsend

Nurse's Aide Fired for Reporting Neglect

The death of a Colorado nursing home patient has become the source of controversy after a nurse's aide accused staff of improperly treating the woman. Aide Karmon Babcock has since been fired, and state officials are investigating the case, according to the Denver Post.

Babcock worked at Terrace Heights Care Center in Boulder, where 67-year-old multiple sclerosis patient Barbara Busch-Endres had been residing since February 21. Busch-Endres needed care after suffering complications from her condition, but she was scheduled to be returning home soon, the Post reported.

However, on March 9, Babcock said she watched as a licensed vocational nurse performed "rescue breathing" on Busch-Endres, who seemed to be in distress, according to the Post.

Busch-Endres then began to vomit, and the nurse stopped helping her, Babcock told the Post. "He said, 'I don't want to deal with vomit,'" Babcock said. "I couldn't believe it. I wanted to do something, anything, but it's stuff my scope of practice doesn't allow me to do."

A nursing supervisor and the nurse then examined Busch-Endres's chart to see if she had a "do not resuscitate" order. Babcock told the Post that she saw a paper in Busch-Endres's file that said she wanted everything possible done to save her life.

"(The nurse) saw the paper, too, and said that he wasn't really comfortable having that around," Babcock said, according to the Post. The nurse then threw away the request and replaced it with a blank form, the Post reported.

Nothing more was done to save Busch-Endres. Doctors interviewed by the Post insisted that, at the very least, a vomiting patient should be turned to her side to prevent suffocation.

Although Busch-Endres's death certificate states that she died of a heart attack, an autopsy performed by a doctor hired by her family showed that she died after choking to death on her own vomit, according to the Post.

Police, state health officials, and the state nursing board are all conducting separate investigations into Busch-Endres's death.

European Parliament Votes to Ban Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The European Parliament voted April 10 to ban the creation of human beings in order to kill them for embryonic stem cell research.

"From the moment of the conception, you create all the individual characteristics of a person," said Marialiese Flemming, the Austrian Christian Democrat who introduced the legislation, according to the Associated Press. "In my thinking you cannot kill that."

The ban still has a long road before it can be enforced in European Union countries. The 15 member states of the union have to support it, and the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will then have another opportunity to vote on the proposal.

Of the 15 states, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain clearly outlaw the creation of human embryos for research, according to European Report. Many of the countries do allow research on embryonic stem cells if the cells are imported or "left over" from in vitro fertilization treatments.

However, the United Kingdom allows experimentation on the tissues and stem cells of cloned embryos as long as the tiny humans are not allowed to live more than 14 days. It seems unlikely that Britain would vote to support the European Parliament's ban.

"The UK's national laws on embryo research and so-called therapeutic cloning are some of the most permissive in the world," Paul Tully of Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, told the BBC. "We applaud MEPs for their stand in support of the dignity of the human embryo today, which is in marked contrast to the morally bankrupt position of our own government."

Veterinary Drug Used for Euthanasia, Nitschke Claims

Australian euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke now claims that veterinarians in the country have been supplying a drug used to euthanize animals to people who wish to kill themselves.

Nitschke told the Seven Network, "I'm telling people to get friendly with a vet because vets are the only people that have access to the very best of the drugs.

"A vet who did that would be breaking the law ... but the point is that they do do that," he added, according to AAP. "Vets know full well that they have the ability here to really help people ... [and] some quite courageous vets are prepared to move a bottle or two sideways."

Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) president Jo Toia told the news agency AAP that vets would not give the anesthetic drug Nembutal to humans, which is illegal in Australia. The association released a statement saying Nitschke's claims were "offensive, provocative and very dangerous," according to Northern Territory News.

Other AVA members agreed. "I can't imagine any vet would do it," veterinarian Kevin Doyle told the Australian. "It would have to be some massive deception [by the patient], and frankly vets aren't that gullible."

"Suicide Tourists" Travel to Switzerland to Die

British couple Robert and Jennifer Stokes shocked their family and friends by killing themselves with a barbiturate overdose in a Swiss death clinic March 31. Due to very permissive regulations allowing assisted suicide, Switzerland has become a haven for so-called "suicide tourists," people with a one-way ticket from countries that ban euthanasia.

Swiss law allows euthanasia if the drugs are self-administered and if doctors declare the decision is "rational," according to the Daily Mail. The Stokes were assisted by a euthanasia advocacy group called Dignitas, which has "helped" 150 people to die since its founding in 1998, more than two-thirds of whom came from other countries, the Daily Mail reported.

The group charges the equivalent of 46 British pounds for an assisted suicide, plus a 10-pound fee to join the organization, according to the Daily Mail.

Robert Stokes, 59, and his wife Jennifer, 53, were not terminally ill, their families insisted. "I suppose it was in case something might happen to Bob," who was epileptic, Jennifer's sister Dorothy Killackey told the London Sunday Times. "Then she told us she was diabetic, but lots of people cope with that. Our family is devastated."

Jennifer Stokes's 86-year-old mother Doris Moorey expressed her outrage that the Swiss government would allow Dignitas to run a death clinic. "I would like to see Dignitas shut down and I would like the authorities both here and in Switzerland to investigate how this could be allowed to happen," she told the Sun. "What on earth was the clinic doing helping two people commit suicide without any proof that they had terminal illnesses? This has stunned us. They certainly never told us about their plans."

Some in Switzerland are also calling for an investigation into the activities of the euthanasia group. "We want to prevent the mentally ill from committing suicide when they are in the depths of depression," Zurich prosecutor Adreas Brunner told the Sun. "They arrive one day and within 24 hours they are dead. It is impossible for us to ascertain whether or not they have made a rational decision to die."

Unborn Baby Added to Oklahoma City Murder Charges

A 32-week-old unborn baby who was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing has been designated as the 161st victim in conspirator Terry Nichols's murder trial, which is scheduled to begin in early May.

Robin Ann Huff and her baby died in the Murrah Federal Building bombing on April 19, 1995. The baby was one of three unborn children killed in the attack, but was the only one who could be considered "viable" under Oklahoma law.

"The most appropriate and viable charge is first-degree murder," Oklahoma City Assistant District Attorney Lou Keel told the Associated Press (AP).

Nichols is already serving a sentence of life in prison on federal charges for helping Tim McVeigh plan and carry out the attack.