Randal McCloy, the sole survivor of the early January Sago mine disaster, went home March 30 after first coming out of a coma and then undergoing almost three months of recovery and intensive therapy. Doctors have called McCloy's recovery a miracle, unable to explain how he alone could survive carbon monoxide poisoning and other injuries while 12 other miners perished.

"What I believe is that the people who are there for you tend to create a world where you can get better," McCloy, 26, told the Associated Press (AP). "It's love, really." McCloy returned home to his wife, Anna, and his two children, Isabelle and Randal.

"It's basically almost like he was resurrected," Dr. Russell Biundo, medical director at HealthSouth Mountainview Regional Rehabilitation Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, said at a news conference, the AP reported.

After being trapped for 42 hours in the collapsed Sago coal mine, McCloy suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning, shock, hypothermia, dehydration, a collapsed lung, and significant muscle breakdown, according to the Charleston Gazette.

When he was finally rescued January 4, the prognosis from doctors was bleak. McCloy fell into a coma due to oxygen deprivation. Dr. Julian Bailes, chair of the West Virginia University neurosurgery department, told the Gazette that "many people with severe carbon monoxide poisoning end up with severe cognitive, personality, memory, visual and motor responses. So we just don't know."

Doctors decided to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat McCloy. He was transferred from West Virginia to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh January 5 for the treatments, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. This therapy surrounds the patient with pressurized oxygen, used for carbon monoxide poisoning or when deep-sea divers experience decompression sickness, according to the Post-Gazette.

After three hyperbaric oxygen treatments, McCloy returned to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, January 7, and began showing real signs of recovery, the Post-Gazette reported. He woke from his coma and was able to move to a rehabilitation center, for speech, physical, and occupational therapy.

"This is a miracle," Dr. Richard Shannon, Allegheny General Hospital's chair of medicine, told the Post-Gazette. "I cannot tell you why Mr. McCloy survived and the others didn't. He obviously suffered a serious injury. His age, his vitality and his overall health are definitely factors."


Netherlands Will Soon Allow Euthanasia of Children

Set to enshrine the "Groningen Protocol" into law, a Dutch government committee will meet soon to draw up official regulations for allowing children under 12 to be killed by doctors. The expected policy will make the Netherlands the first country to expressly allow "baby euthanasia," according to UPI.

The "Groningen Protocol" was developed by doctors at Groningen University Hospital. It states that doctors can actively end the lives of children under 12 who have "unbearable suffering," with parental consent and consultation with other doctors, according to the Sunday Times.

"It is a giant step forward and we are very happy about it," said Eduard Verhagen, clinical director of pediatrics at Groningen. He has publicly admitted to overseeing four "assisted neo-natal terminations," according to the Times.

In a chilling exchange with a Times reporter, Verhagen pointed to Baby Maryline, a premature baby only a few hours old being helped to breathe by a respirator in the Groningen intensive care unit. Instead of celebrating her fight for life, Verhagen could only envision her death. "At some point," he told the Times, "we will have to decide whether it is pointless from a medical point of view and whether we should not prolong treatment."

Verhagen said that his euthanasia protocol of active killing is morally equivalent to "passive euthanasia," or allowing a person to die without medical treatment, and he sees both as justified when a patient is suffering. "Is there any difference between watching someone drowning without doing anything and pushing them into the lake?" he asked, according to the Times.

The proposed Dutch policy has drawn severe criticism from others in Europe. "Nazi laws and Hitler's ideas are making a European comeback through Dutch euthanasia legislation and the debate on how sick children can be killed," Italian Minister for Parliamentary Relations Carlo Giovanardi said on a radio program March 17, according to the Associated Press.

Giovanardi defended his remarks even after Dutch government officials summoned the Italian ambassador and demanded an apology. "I do not intend to apologize," he said, according to Agence France-Presse. "To do away with people like drinking a glass of water is terrible."

Utah Governor Signs Parental Consent Law

Utah girls under 18 will need the consent of one parent before having an abortion, according to a new law signed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. March 16.

It replaces a previous law that only required the notification of at least one parent, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The new law requires the abortionist to obtain consent from one parent at least 24 hours before an abortion. Exceptions can be granted for cases of medical emergency or rape and incest, but the abuse must also be reported to the Division of Child and Family Services within the state's Department of Human Services. The minor girl could also seek a bypass by a judge's order.

The House passed the bill January 27 on a 65–8 vote, the AP reported. The Senate approved it March 1 by 28–1.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Kerry Gibson (R) told the AP that a decision such as abortion must be made within families. "We're trying to bring the rights and the decision-making process back into the living room," Gibson said.

British Groups Mobilize to Prevent Euthanasia

Major religious groups in Great Britain have joined with other concerned organizations in an alliance to defeat a proposed assisted suicide bill scheduled to be debated in the House of Lords in May.

Lord Joffe is sponsoring the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill bill, which would allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients, according to BBC News.

The Roman Catholic Church in England launched a campaign March 20 by sending half a million educational pamphlets and DVDs to parishes across the country, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The bishops are urging Catholics to speak out against euthanasia. "It's all very well for bishops to be giving out instructions," the Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff, told the Telegraph. "But we need ordinary Catholics to go to peers and MPs and say we do not want this law."

They are also encouraging Catholics to join the Care NOT Killing alliance, a coalition of pro-life, disability rights, and human rights groups that have joined together against assisted suicide.

Church of England officials have also condemned the bill, urging its members to work actively against assisted suicide. "With good palliative care, most deaths can be dignified and free from pain," said the Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, according to the Manchester Evening News.

"This country is a world leader in palliative medicine and our hospice movement is a prime example of providing care that enables people to die well.

"The consequences of a change in the law would include extra pressure on vulnerable people at a time when they have lessened ability to make judgements."

New Sources of Adult Stem Cells

Recent reports from Japan and Germany indicate that versatile adult stem cells able to be transformed into different types of cells can be found in previously unknown places: women's menstrual blood and men's testes. The research demonstrates once again that killing human embryos for cells is not only morally bankrupt but unnecessary.

Researchers in Japan have harvested stem cells from women's menstrual blood, inducing the cells to develop into heart cells, according to Reuters. The harvested stem cells had originated in the lining of the uterus.

This new source of adult stem cells, which can be obtained without harming the donor, produced 30 times more stem cells than from bone marrow, Dr. Shunichiro Miyoshi of Keio University in Tokyo announced at a March meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

Five days after inducing them to become heart cells, about half of the cells contracted "spontaneously, rhythmical and synchronously, suggesting the presence of electrical communication" between the cells, said Miyoshi, Reuters reported.

The new heart cells might then be used to repair failing or damaged hearts.

In Germany, researchers successfully obtained versatile cells from the testes of male mice, according to a report in the March 24 online edition of the journal Nature.

Although there are distinct differences between mouse and human biology, if the same results can be obtained from human men, it would provide many advantages, according to the Washington Post.

The cells were numerous and easy to find, and were able to be manipulated into many different types of cells.

Researcher Gerd Hasenfuss of Georg-August-University of Goettingen reported that his team has grown "liver cells, muscle cells, pancreas cells, dopamine-secreting nerve cells (the kind that die off in Parkinson's disease) and various kinds of heart cells, which spontaneously coalesced in a lab dish and started beating in synchrony," the Post reported.

"The evidence presented looks very good indeed," Allan Spradling of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute told the Post, "and we should welcome this new advance in stem cell research and the possibilities that it opens up."

Mother Seeks Damages for "Failed" Abortion

A Scottish mother is suing a hospital trust after one of her twin unborn babies survived an abortion attempt. The baby girl, Jayde, was born healthy seven months later. Stacy Dow, 21, is seeking pounds 250,000 (almost $450,000) for "loss, injury and damage," The Express reported.

Dow was 16 when she sought to abort her twin babies at Perth Royal Infirmary in January 2001, according to The Scotsman. After the procedure, doctors gave her a contraceptive injection, telling her that she could experience weight gain and irregular menstrual periods.

Because of these side effects, Dow did not know she was still pregnant with one of the twins until she returned to her doctor 33 weeks into the pregnancy, The Scotsman reported. Too late for a legal abortion, Dow instead gave birth to Jayde by Caesarean section in August. The babies' father died of a drug overdose in April 2003.

Dow is suing Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust, which administers the Perth hospital, for breach of contract, insisting the trust pay for the financial burden of raising Jayde, the "distress and anxiety" from learning the abortion left a survivor, and the "pain and discomfort" of the C-section, according to The Scotsman.

"I have a child I wasn't planning and I believe the hospital should take some responsibility for that," Dow told The Express. "The hospital knew it was twins when I went for the termination so they should have checked even more carefully before sending me home."

Hospital officials, however, said that because Jayde is healthy, and that the abortionist made the proper checks to be sure the abortion was "successful," the damages Dow seeks is excessive, The Scotsman reported.

Dow, who lives with her daughter in her parents' home, said that she would use the money to move to her own apartment and to take Jayde to Disneyland. "I'll tell Jayde when she's about 10 or 11 that I was young and scared and felt the best thing to do was to have a termination," she told the Press Association.

Michigan Abortionists Must Show Women Ultrasounds

Abortionists in Michigan who perform an ultrasound before an abortion must show the mother the images of her baby, according to a law signed by pro-abortion Gov. Jennifer Granholm March 23.

The law is an expansion of the state's informed consent legislation, which was passed in 1993 and only enforced nine years later after a lengthy court battle, according to the Detroit Free Press. It does not require an abortionist to take ultrasound images of the unborn baby, but if he does he must share the pictures with the mother.

"This is very good news," said Pamela Sherard, director of Right to Life of Michigan. "Now, mothers will see what's actually going on."

The law passed the state House March 8 on an 84–21 vote, and it was approved unanimously in the Senate March 15.

Pro-abortion groups did not actively oppose the bill, but criticized it after it was signed. The ultrasound bill, Kary Moss of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan told the Free Press, is one of several "small, incremental steps ... all designed to put up barriers" to legal abortion.

European Union Policy on Embryo Research Continues

The European Union (EU) policy on embryonic stem cell research, allowing embryo research to be authorized on a case-by-case basis only when the project proposers can show that the research could not be conducted using adult stem cells, will continue until 2013.

Six projects using embryonic cells have been approved for funding by the EU, according to Reuters.

The policy also bans funding of embryonic stem cell projects in EU member states that have laws against such research.

Member states such as Italy, Poland, and Austria oppose embryonic stem cell research, Reuters reported.

"We still think that adult stem cell research is preferable to embryonic stem cells," said Elisabeth Gehrer, Austria's minister for education, science, and culture, according to Reuters, "but we don't have a qualified majority in favor of this." Therefore, she said, the current policy is the best compromise.

A European Commission official told Reuters that 15 of the 25 member states favor the case-by-case policy.

British Medical Groups Criticize Care of Premature Infants

Two major British medical groups have suggested that very premature babies should not be given medical care, calling them "bed blockers" who take limited resources away from other patients.
The groups' statements came as the country is debating the response to a financial crisis in the National Health Service, Britain's government-run health care system.

According to the London Times, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) wrote in a report last July to a bioethics committee that "Some weight should be given to economic considerations as there is a real issue in neonatal units of 'bed blocking', whereby women have to be transferred in labour to other units compromising both their and their babies' care.

"One of the problems of the 'success' of neonatal intensive care is that the practitioners are always pushing boundaries. There has been a constant need to expand numbers of cots to cover the increasing tendency to try and rescue babies at lower and lower gestations."

In addition, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) will debate a motion next month declaring it "unethical" to provide intensive care routinely to babies born earlier than 25 weeks' gestation, The Independent reported.

"Many paediatricians would be in favour of adopting the Dutch model of no active intervention for these very little babies," said RCPCH president Sir Alan Craft, according to the Times. "The vast majority of children born at this gestation who do survive have significant disabilities. There is a lifetime cost and that needs to be taken into the equation when society tries to decide whether it wants to intervene."

Parents of premature babies expressed anger at the groups' statements. "The doctors behind the proposals must regard Joey as a number and an expense but to us he is our little boy," Daniel McCormich, whose three-week-old son was born four months early, told the Times.

Joey's doctor Paul Clarke agreed. "To me it all sounds too much like attempts to bring in involuntary euthanasia at the opposite end of life," he told the Times.