[ JBEM Index / Volume 5 / Number 4 ]

Dander

Stephan Jay Gould informs us in a new book entitled The Meaning of Life (Little, Brown Co.) that human evolution is “quirky, improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable.” Yet, he maintains that “human evolution is not random.” He is described as a paleontologist, essayist and humanist. Perhaps. Logical, he is not.

Drs. Mary and Gary Jewell, co-authoring “How to Assess the Risk of HIV Exposure” in the American Family Physician (July 1989), tell us that “some physicians have personal prejudices, fears or discomfort in discussing sexuality” with various types of patients, including homosexual patients and those engaging in extramarital sex. “Physicians must identify their own weaknesses and at least present a neutral attitude to the patient while asking questions” about sexual behavior. It is also important that we not let our “body language” reveal “value judgments.” The Jewells seem inconsistent in that they evidently don’t mind expressing their value judgment that value judgments regarding these sexual behaviors are improper in a medical setting.

Dr. A. Kenneth Fuller, writing in a question and answer section of Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality (Feb. 1991, p. 25) tells us of a proposed new sexual disorder – “paraphilic coercive disorder” – which is said to describe some rapists or would-be rapists. The “disorder” would include a six month or greater history of “fantasies and sexual urges involving sexual contact.” Understandably, those suffering from such disorders might be expected to act on their urges, more than once. It should be interesting to observe the collision between the liberal feminist agenda item against rape and the liberal agenda item medicalizing sin. No one can live consistently with an ungodly philosophy.

Letters to The Lancet (October 19, 1991, pp. 1010-1011) pass along data maintaining that Dutch doctors assist in the suicide of 386 people a year, kill 2,318 at their request, and kill 1,030 patients without their explicit and persistent request. Euthanasia and assisted suicide deaths constitute 2.9% of all deaths in the Netherlands, and 54% of Dutch doctors have participated in these deaths.

In the AAPS News, March, 1991, we are given the formula for determining physician Medicare fees:

MFS = {[PW x PWi] + [OH x OHi] = [M x Mi]} CF

PW is the physician work component of the RBRV

Pwi is the physician work index

OH is the overhead component of the RBRVS.

OHi is the overhead index.

M is the malpractice component.

Mi is the malpractice component .

CF is the monetary conversion factor.

Your task is to find patient satisfaction in the formula.

Offering an alternative to “a meat market proposal” that patients be allowed to sell their organs for transplantation, B.D. Colen proposes a “national organ draft.” Explaining his plan in the Medical Tribune of April, 4, 1991, he proposes that all of us be tissue-typed at birth. When the time comes to take one of us off a respirator, the hospital will be required to notify the National Organ Draft data bank and we will be stripped of useful parts. Unless you initiate action to seek “conscientious objector” status, the presumption would be that your “brain dead” body belonged to the state. Your task is to find the patient in this plan. I left my heart in San Francisco. Try Des Moines for my bones, Tampa for my liver, Rochester for my lungs …

Intercessors for America notifies us that there is a “move underway to place sonogram machines in crisis pregnancy centers.” The hope is that the view of unborn baby may convince pregnant women of the humanity of the infant even when other information won’t. The machines are expensive — about $30,000. For more information regarding the machines write: Sound Wave Images, 2422 Harness, Union Lake, MI 48387, or call (313) 360-0743.

Two physicians in Vienna, speaking to each other: “What really bothers me is the role we complacently preempt. The human body is our human body. Medicine is our medicine. It’s like a carpenter looking with a proprietary air on all lumber and regarding carpentry as his property. To get away with this we draw on the ancient priestcraft. We dress mysteriously, we have our special costumes. We have our own language, our own magic gibberish. We have had laws passed to protect the omniscience to which we pretend. We protect one another like members of a priestly fraternity. We foster the belief that we are a mystery. The hold we have on people is their own fear, pain, terror, and ignorance. And we, too, are ignorant. We can say only that we know more than they know. We are pitifully ignorant.” [Taken from Morton Thompson’s The Cry and the Covenant (London: Heinemann, 1951, p. 126), a novel about Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis.]

Dr. Jennifer Schneider tells us that sex addicts are “unable” to change their sexual practices, exhibiting “compulsivity” which is the “loss of the ability to choose freely whether to stop or to continue.” She identifies shame as “a major issue of sex addicts.” [Postgraduate Medicine, 90, Nov. 1, 1991, pp. 171-182.] Taking the lessons into practice, a publication of a treatment center for alcohol and drug dependency tells us that “addicts are caught in a well of shame because for them it is no longer a matter of choice.” The Lord is righteous, He is in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails, But the unjust knows no shame.” Zeph. 3:5.

From the current issue of Parenting magazine, Penelope Leach gives us some reasons to quit spanking children as a means of discipline. Included among them is that “almost everybody agrees that it’s wrong for people to settle arguments or impose their will on each other with blows.” We are further told that “physical punishment used to be an accepted part of all relationships that gave one individual legitimate authority over another — master over slave, servant or wife; officer over enlisted man; law enforcer over lawbreaker. But that has all been consigned to the history books by a society that prides itself on universal human rights.” Almost everyone but God (II Sam. 7:14, Prov. 22:15, Prov. 13:24).

[ JBEM Index / Volume 5 / Number 4 ]