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NRL News
Pro-Life
News in Brief German Group Honors Ex-Nazi Doctor Ignoring evidence that Dr. Hans Joachim Sewering, 92, sent over 900 disabled children to their deaths as a Nazi doctor, a German medical association gave him its highest award March 30. The Berufsverband Deutscher Internisten (BDI, or the Professional Association of German Internists) presented Sewering with its Guenther-Budelmann Medal for “unequalled services in the cause of freedom of the practice and the independence of the medical profession and to the nation’s health system,” according to the Daily Mail. Jewish groups expressed outrage that Sewering received such an award. “The decision to honor an accused war criminal, one who is alleged to have used medicine for harm, is an insult to those who have suffered under the Nazis, and besmirches the international standing of your organization,” Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote to BDI president Dr. Wolfgang Wesiack. Other medical organizations agreed. “The medical profession has a solemn and irrevocable obligation never to harm those entrusted to our care,” American Medical Association Board Chair Edward L. Langston, M.D., wrote to Wesiack. “Physicians who renounce this obligation, no matter how distant their crimes, forfeit their eligibility for professional awards.” According to the Daily Mail, Sewering joined the Nazi Party in 1933 at age 16. He graduated from medical school in 1941 and worked in Schonbrunn Sanatorium in Bavaria. In 1943, “he signed an order transferring a 14-year-old epileptic girl, Babette Frowis, to a ‘healing centre’ at Eglfing-Haar on October 23,” the Daily Mail reported. “A fortnight later, despite her admission chart stating that she was perfectly healthy physically, Babette was dead, probably as a result of an injection of phenobarbitol.” There is evidence that Sewering signed more than 900 similar orders. Tens of thousands of disabled children died at the Eglfing-Haar concentration camp, according to the Daily Mail. Sewering was put on trial after the war, but was only fined. He continued to practice medicine and was the president of the Bavarian Medical Association for 36 years, the Daily Mail reported. Asked by the Daily Mail why the BDI would give an award to such a controversial figure, Wesiack only responded, “He deserved it.” British Baby Survives Abortion After giving birth to two babies who had kidney disease—one baby lived for only 20 minutes while the second lives now with one kidney—Jodie Percival decided to abort her third child. However, despite an abortion attempt at eight weeks, little Finley Crampton defied the odds and is now over six months old. “I knew if that operation hadn’t failed he wouldn’t have been there,” Percival said, according to the Daily Mail. “I just couldn’t believe that this child had got through it all and looked so perfect.” Percival and her fiancé Billy Crampton, from Nottinghamshire, England, made the abortion decision fearing that Finley would have the same disease as their first two children—multicystic dysplastic kidney, which causes cysts on the organ, Nottingham Evening Post reported. Baby Thane lived for only 20 minutes after a premature birth, while Lewis, now 20 months, is living with the disease and one kidney. “Deciding to terminate at eight weeks was just utterly horrible but I couldn’t cope with the anguish of losing another baby,” Percival said, according to The Telegraph. Three months after the abortion, Percival could feel a “flutter” in her abdomen, and doctors confirmed she was 19 weeks pregnant. “I couldn’t believe it when the doctor said I was still pregnant,” said Percival, The Telegraph reported, “this was the baby I thought I’d terminated.” Percival said she was angry at first that the baby had not been aborted, but decided to continue the pregnancy once doctors told her the baby would probably survive, according to the Daily Mail. Finley was born three weeks prematurely in November, weighing six pounds, three ounces. “He may need an operation but as only one of his kidneys is affected he can survive,” Percival said, the Daily Mail reported. “I still struggle to believe just what he has fought through. Now he’s here I wouldn’t change it for the world.” Golubchuk Remains on Life Support Respecting the family’s wishes until a full trial can be held this fall, a Canadian judge ordered 84-year-old Samuel Golubchuk to continue to be treated with a ventilator and a feeding tube. Doctors at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, want to remove life support from Golubchuk, who suffered a brain injury in 2003 and was placed on a ventilator when his condition worsened in November, according to the National Post. Golubchuk’s children, Percy Golubchuk and Miriam Geller, took the hospital to court, contending that their father’s Orthodox Jewish faith requires every effort to be made on behalf of life. “If a person’s life is dependent on the removal of a ventilator, the decision to take them off the ventilator would be equal to homicide,” Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman, a leading expert in Jewish medical ethics, told the Jewish Star. “Mr. Golubchuk is clearly not brain dead. The overwhelming majority of rabbinic authorities maintain that it would be prohibited to remove the respirator, if that would lead to the individual’s death.” Justice Perry Schulman of Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench ruled February 13 that the hospital must continue treating Golubchuk. A trial date has not yet been set. “Doctors are not always right,” said Percy Golubchuk after Schulman’s decision, according to the Winnipeg Free Press. “God is the main doctor.” Hospital officials continue to maintain that Golubchuk’s care is “futile” and told the court he is “barely above a vegetative state,” the Free Press reported. However, his family disagrees strongly with this characterization, saying that his condition has not worsened. “He’s still living, breathing,” the Golubchuk family’s lawyer Neil Kravetsky told the Free Press in June. “His condition isn’t as bad as it was then, when we filed the injunction.” This case has brought to light controversial guidelines issued by the College of Physician and Surgeons of Manitoba that gives hospitals decision-making power over the life or death of a patient. According to the guidelines, a hospital can remove life support over the family’s objections as long as a four-day notice of removal is given, the Free Press reported. Terri Schindler Schiavo’s family has spoken up in support of Golubchuk’s children and against giving hospitals such power. “This is even worse than my sister’s situation because here, the family is in agreement with keeping him alive, where we were battling with Michael Schiavo,” Bobby Schindler told the Free Press. “This is alarming when you have hospitals making these decisions.” Brazilian Legislators Reject Pro-Abortion Bill Legislators in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies rejected a bill May 7 that would have expanded legalization of abortion in the country. Currently, abortion is only legal for the life of the mother or for rape. A commission in the Chamber of Deputies voted 33–5 against the bill, which has been proposed for 17 years, according to Latinnews Daily. Although the minister of health, José Gomes Temporao, publicly announced his support for the bill, it is not expected to proceed any further through the legislative process, Latinnews Daily reported. Brazil’s Catholic bishops began a campaign in February to lobby against any legislative proposals, with a focus on education and prayer. Parishes displayed fetal models during special Masses in Rio de Janeiro to stress the sanctity of life. “The fetus is presented with the chalice and host [consecrated wafer] before Communion,” Father Ramon of the Nossa Senhora da Paz church told Agence France-Presse. “The priest explains to the faithful that we are going to pray against abortion.” Michigan Abortions Decline to Lowest Ever The 24,683 abortions that took place in Michigan for 2007 represented a decline of almost exactly half from the high point in 1987. The total also represented a 3.7% drop from 2006. “We are extremely grateful for the large decrease in abortions in Michigan,” Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said in a press release. “The fact that fewer women are having abortions in Michigan demonstrates more and more women are coming to the realization that abortion is not the answer to an unplanned pregnancy.” The state Department of Community Health reported May 22 that the 2007 abortion totals declined 49.7% from 1987, the year with the most reported abortions at 49,098, according to the Detroit Free Press. Pro-lifers attribute much of the decline to parental consent and informed consent laws that give pregnant women in crisis the support to choose life. “We will continue to reach out to women in need so that they know abortion is not their only option,” Listing said. “There are far too many women who enter an abortion clinic thinking this is the only choice. Thinking abortion is your only choice is equivalent to having no choice at all.” Michigan right to lifers also hope that the 2006 Ultrasound Viewing Option law, which allows a woman contemplating abortion to see images of her developing baby, will contribute to even further decreases, Listing added. Non-Physicians Can Perform Abortions in Arizona Responding to a complaint that a nurse-practitioner in Tucson has been performing abortions since 2001, Arizona’s State Board of Nursing not only refused to discipline her but instead announced May 14 that it is acceptable for non-physicians to abort unborn babies up to 13 weeks, Capitol Media Services reported. With only one dissent, the state board decided that nurse-practitioners can perform vacuum-aspiration abortions in the first trimester without the supervision of a physician. Although the board did not directly address the case of Mary Andrews, who admitted performing abortions up to 16 weeks in a Tucson Planned Parenthood clinic, much of what she has been doing for years is now approved by the board, according to Capitol Media Services. Planned Parenthood officials downplayed the seriousness of vacuum-aspiration abortions, claiming it is an easy procedure that does not need a physician’s expertise. It “is only surgical in that a procedure is performed,” spokeswoman Michelle Steinberg told the Associated Press (AP). “It’s a relatively simple process.” However, many doctors have criticized the board’s actions and Planned Parenthood’s claims about the abortion procedure. “This is an invasive surgical procedure,” Dr. Michael Urig, a Phoenix obstetrician-gynecologist, told the AP. “It’s not a procedure to be taken lightly.” State legislators are attempting to override the board’s decision by passing a bill prohibiting nurses from performing surgical abortions, defined as “the use of a surgical instrument or a machine with the intent to terminate a woman’s pregnancy.” Sponsored by Rep. Bob Stump (R-Peoria), HB 2269 passed the House on a 32-28 vote in March, was approved by a Senate committee in April, and now awaits action by the full Senate, the AP reported. But even if the Senate passes the bill, it is likely that pro-abortion Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) would veto it, according to Capitol Media Services. California Euthanasia Bill Passes Assembly Characterized by supporters as merely providing “information” about “end-of-life choices,” the California state Assembly passed a bill May 28 requiring physicians to discuss death options with terminally ill patients who they determine will die within a year. The vote was 42–34. The bill, known as the “Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act,” is enthusiastically supported by the pro-euthanasia group Compassion and Choices, which was formerly called the Hemlock Society. Compassion and Choices touts AB 2747 using rhetoric that stays firmly away from any hint of euthanasia or assisted suicide, saying on its web site that the bill is all about the “need for patients to know all of their options so they can live their last days in comfort.” Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D), who has tried three times to pass laws directly legalizing physician-assisted suicide, claims the new bill will promote “honest talk” between doctors and patients in a hospice-care situation, according to the Christian Examiner. Pro-life and disability groups are not fooled. “On the surface, AB 2747 seems like a simple bill benefiting the hospice care industry,” wrote the California Pro-Life Council in a legislative alert. “However, it contains a sneaky loophole that will permit doctors and health care providers to transform the rarely used practice of ‘palliative sedation’ into a vehicle permitting assisted suicide. This bill changes the standards surrounding its use. This is a way around current law,” CPLC wrote. “The real ‘honest talk’ about AB 2747 is that it has very little to do with improving care,” Marilyn Golden, a policy analyst at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, wrote in Capitol Weekly. “For this bill, the devil is really in the details. Close inspection reveals it to be a vehicle for Compassion and Choices’ long-term agenda: facilitating assisted suicide. ... The bill includes many elements that would significantly undermine end-of-life care in service of this goal.” The bill expressly requires physicians to discuss “palliative sedation”—administering so much pain medication that the patient falls unconscious—and “voluntary stopping of eating and drinking,” according to the Times-Standard. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it was read for the first time May 29. Woman Wakes While Being Removed from Life Support After doctors said she had “no pulse, no blood pressure, no brain frequency” and nurses were removing her from a respirator, Velma “Val” Thomas suddenly woke up and began speaking, according to the Charleston Daily Mail. “There are things that physicians and nurses we can't always explain,” internist Dr. Kevin Eggleston told ABC News. “And I think this is one of those cases.” Thomas suffered a heart attack in the early morning hours of May 17. Transported to the Charleston Area Medial Center, she was treated in an Arctic Sun, “a new hypothermia-inducing tool designed to lower the body’s core temperature to about 75 degrees Fahrenheit to improve the neurological outcome,” the Daily Mail reported. Despite this treatment, Thomas had two more heart attacks and was placed on a respirator. Her family gathered to pray, but it was soon obvious to them that she was dying. “Her skin had already started hardening, her hands and toes were curling up, they were already drawn,” her son Tim Thomas told the Daily Mail. “There was no life there.” Her family said their goodbyes, and headed home to make funeral arrangements. But suddenly Tim Thomas got a phone call from a nurse, he told the Daily Mail: “Tim, I don’t want to give you false hope, but when we were taking her off the ventilator, her right arm moved. Then her foot moved. And then all of a sudden she had a heart rate!” Since she woke up, Val Thomas has continued to recover. “I know God has something in store for me, another purpose,” she told NewsNet5. “I don’t know what it is but I’m sure he’ll tell me.” Harvard Students Urged to Opt Out of Abortion Harvard Right to Life (HRL) is urging students to ask for a refund of part of their health insurance plans that pays for elective abortions, according to the Harvard Crimson. The Abortion Opt-Out Campaign has become an annual event for HRL. Although the refund only amounts to about $1 per term, it is more a matter of principle for the pro-life students. “We’re trying to allow students that have a moral objection to abortion to have the right to opt-out of paying for an elective abortion,” Jeffrey Kwong, 2008–09 HRL president, told the Crimson. “We’re not in the business of restricting people’s health care and rights, but in the business of people having their rights respected.” Although the refund is specifically offered by Harvard University Health Services to students who have the university’s Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance and object to abortion, many on the campus criticized HRL’s campaign. “It’s dangerous and incredibly scary for special interests to dictate the health needs of the Harvard community,” Students for Choice president Sean P. Mascali told the Crimson, “especially when those interests don’t seem to appreciate the gravity of the health concerns that students face.” Kwong clarified that the opt-out program does not concern medically necessary abortions. “I think it’s a key distinction,” Kwong told the Crimson. “Only non-medically necessary. A lot of people would say it’s okay when the mother’s life is in danger, but we’re not talking about that.” |