PRO-LIFE NEWS IN BRIEF
By Liz Townsend

Study Reports 22 Dutch Children Killed by Doctors

A study published in the January 22 Dutch Journal of Medicine found that doctors in the Netherlands reported 22 "mercy killings" of babies born with spina bifida between 1997 and 2004.

Although the Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2001, children under 12 were specifically exempted from the law's provisions. However, prosecutors who looked at the 22 cases did not bring charges against the doctors, deciding that they would not be convicted if brought to trial, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

According to Reuters, the doctors followed four unofficial rules when deciding that the babies should die: "the newborn had no chance of survival and was suffering unbearably, the doctor had to consult at least one other, the parents had to agree, and the life must be ended in the correct medical way."

The Dutch medical association, KNMG, has asked the government to form a board that would review euthanasia cases "for terminally ill people 'with no free will,' including children, the severely mentally retarded, and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident," the AP reported.

Dutch legislators are also considering guidelines known as the "Groningen Protocol" as potential law, according to Knight Ridder. These guidelines, used at Groningen University Hospital, state that doctors "have the authority to end the child's life" if the child has a terminal condition and is suffering; that parents have only limited involvement in the decision, and doctors have the final say; and that they can be applied to any child up to age 12.

Critics of such proposals fear the implications of legalizing euthanasia for those who cannot express a desire to die. "Applying euthanasia to children is another step down the slope in this debate," Henk Jochemsen, director of Holland's Lindeboom Institute, told Knight Ridder.

New Brunswick Refuses to Pay for Private Abortions

Despite demands from the Canadian government and abortionist Henry Morgentaler, New Brunswick officials insist they will not pay for private abortions in Morgentaler's clinic.

Elvy Robichaud, the province's health minister, said in a January 26 news conference that New Brunswick currently pays for abortions if they are deemed "medically necessary" by two doctors and performed in a hospital, according to the Canadian Press (CP). Being forced to fund private abortions, however, could remove these restrictions. "We don't agree with providing free services for abortion on demand," Robichaud said.

Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjih told reporters that he discussed the issue with Robichaud and warned that the Canadian government could begin a dispute resolution process to force New Brunswick to provide free private abortions, CP reported.

Dosanjih said that he and Robichaud "talked about the issue around choice and abortion and that being a medically necessary service and I advised Mr. Robichaud that we'd be enforcing the Canada Health Act on that and any other issue around the country," according to CBC.

Many, however, disputed Dosanjih's contention that free private abortions are required under national law. "Mr. Dosanjh is on thin legal ground," Peter Ryan, executive director of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association, told CP. "New Brunswick is not violating the Canada Health Act. The Act says nothing about abortion. Constitutionally, the federal government has no business dictating to the provinces whether they fund abortion or not."

Morgentaler has also filed a lawsuit against the province, which is now in the pre-trial stage, according to CP. About 600 abortions each year occur at his Fredericton, New Brunswick, clinic, and Morgentaler wants the province to pay for the abortions through the government-run Medicare system.

British Doctor Killed Over 250 Patients

British doctor Harold Shipman, a convicted serial killer who hanged himself in prison in January 2004, killed at least 250 patients by lethal injection in his 28-year career. A report issued January 27 found that Shipman began his killing spree soon after he finished medical training, according to The Guardian.

The British government asked Dame Janet Smith to conduct an inquiry into Shipman's murders. In her sixth and final report, Dame Janet detailed deaths that occurred between 1970 and 1974, when Shipman began his career at Pontefract General Hospital, Manchester Online reported.

Shipman used lethal morphine injections to kill his victims, who were usually elderly. Most of the deaths occurred in hospitals between 6 p.m. and midnight, when few staff members were on duty, according to The Guardian.

"I think he might well have killed patients late in the evening in order to avoid being called out in the middle of the night," wrote Dame Janet, The Guardian reported. "I think he might well have killed patients who would soon die but who were occupying beds that were urgently needed for other patients. I also think he might well have killed because he was annoyed with a patient or regarded him/her as in some way 'unworthy.'"

Shipman was finally caught in 1998 and received a sentence of life in prison in January 2000. He killed himself four years into his sentence.

In her report, Dame Janet called for the government and the medical profession to implement reforms that would provide better safeguards of patient safety. "His profession not only enabled him to kill, but it allowed his killing to go undetected," she wrote, according to The Guardian. "I hope that steps can be taken to implement [reforms], and it is my hope that some lasting good will come out of the report."

Adult Stem Cells Treat Heart Failure

Researchers from the United States and South America reported that adult stem cells successfully treated patients with congestive heart failure, according to Reuters. Details of the study were presented at a meeting of the Society for Thoracic Surgery in January.

"We've taken a patient population for which there's no good medical or surgical treatment and helped them to improve in terms of day-to-day living and actual cardiac function," said Dr. Amit Patel of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

This small study, involving only 30 patients in Argentina and Uruguay, showed such promise that the researchers hope to conduct larger trials in the United States later this year, the Tribune Review reported.

The patients all suffered from congestive heart failure, which means their hearts were progressively pumping less and less blood. Currently, the only cure for the worst cases is a heart transplant.

Half of the patients received injections of their own bone marrow cells into the heart. The other half were only given a placebo, according to Reuters.

"The idea is for us to give you normal stem cells that the body uses normally to repair the heart, but in concentrations a lot greater than the body can mobilize on its own," said Dr. Harold Urschel, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Baylor and one of the study's authors, according to the Tribune Review.

The 15 patients receiving the stem cells showed a 35% improvement in their hearts' pumping action, while those who had the placebo improved by only 5%, Reuters reported.

"It is remarkable the level of improvement we've seen in these patients, who came to us with no other medical or surgical options available to them," said Patel, according to Reuters. "However, we don't yet fully understand how these cells work, whether they differentiate to become heart muscle cells or cells that promote vessel growth, or whether they serve as homing signals to other cells and substances that help with repair."

Patel and his colleagues in Pittsburgh are also conducting studies using adult stem cells during heart bypass surgery and when pacemakers are implanted in patients awaiting heart transplants, Reuters reported.

New Jersey Clinic Abortionist and Receptionist Arrested

The abortionist and receptionist at a New Jersey abortion clinic were arrested and charged with separate crimes within a week of each other.

According to police, Liza Berdiel, receptionist at Pleasant Women's Pavilion abortion clinic in Lakewood, New Jersey, injected three women with abortion-inducing drugs and received $380 from each of the women, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The clinic's abortionist, Flavius Thompson, informed police about the illegal abortions soon after he discovered what Berdiel had done, according to Asbury Park Press.

Prosecutors charged Berdiel January 13 with three counts of performing abortions without a license and three counts of theft by deception for accepting money for the abortions, Asbury Park Press reported. She has also been charged with theft and forgery for stealing prescription forms and writing illegal prescriptions.

"She was injecting individuals with methytraxate or rhogam, substances used to induce abortions," Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Robert Gasser told Asbury Park Press.

After Berdiel's arrest, police obtained a warrant and searched the clinic. They found aborted babies dumped down toilets and bloody medical waste in garbage bins.

Thompson surrendered to police January 19 on charges of operating an abortion clinic without a license to process or store medical waste, according to Asbury Park Press.

Thompson was charged with disposing of "medical waste, mainly human blood products and items saturated, dripping or caked with human blood into the trash to be carted to a place not authorized to accept medical waste by the state Department of Environmental Protection," Asbury Park Press reported.

Authorities are continuing to investigate both cases.