British Judge Tells Doctors to Allow Child to Die
Charlotte Wyatt is to be allowed to die if she stops breathing again. The eleven-monthold has severe breathing and neurological problems after being born three months premature. She has already been resuscitated three times in recent weeks. The parents had taken doctors to court to attempt to force continued treatment the doctors called futile.
After hearing the parents’ impassioned plea to allow their daughter to live and the doctors’ argument that Charlotte would have a “terrible quality of life” if she survived, High Court Justice Sir Mark Hedley decided that the doctors should be free to not resuscitate her if her situation deteriorated and she stopped breathing once again. Hedley expressed “discomfort” at countering the parents’ wishes, but acted in the manner he believed was in the child’s best interest. Both the parents and the judge are professed Christians.
Merck Pulls Vioxx
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. pulled its blockbuster arthritis drug Vioxx from the market after it found that the drug may have caused more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths. Vioxx is one of the company’s most lucrative drugs with $2.5 billion in annual sales.
Experts have raised questions about how Vioxx was approved. Dr. Eric Topol wrote in New England Journal of Medicine that experts who recommended the drug’s FDA approval also strongly requested testing to determine whether the drug would increase heart risks. Such as study was never done. Similar questions now surround two similar drugs by Pfizer.
Dolly Scientists Apply for Human Cloning License
Despite previous promises that he would never clone human beings, Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned the sheep Dolly, has applied for a license from UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to begin cloning human embryos.
Wilmut wants to create cloned embryos who have motor neuron disease in order to study the disease’s progression. Each embryo would be allowed to live about six days before being destroyed. If approved, the team plans to begin work around Easter.
“Cosmetic Neurology” May Be Just Around the Corner
While normal, healthy students already take drugs like Ritalin to help them study for exams, we may soon see more and more healthy people taking drugs to make them “better” people. Doctors writing in the journal Neurology offered examples of what they are calling “cosmetic neurology”—the taking of drugs or treatments to enhance their brains.
Among the examples of what they soon expect us to see include commercial pilots taking Alzheimer’s drugs to enhance attention and memory; the administration of beta-blocking drugs to blunt the effects of emotionally traumatic events; and the performance of transcranial magnetic stimulation to improve the mood of those having an off day. The Center has already begun to address these issues with a new neuroethics working group. For more information, see the Center News section on page 8.
CBHD Review of Book by President’s Council on Bioethics Published in JAMA
The October 6, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, included an essay by CBHD Researcher Linda Bevington analyzing Being Human: Readings from the President’s Council on Bioethics. This book is an outstanding collection of writings that have more to say about what it means to be human than most analytical treatises on the subject—featuring excerpts from such sources as St. Augustine’s Confessions, J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Walker Percy’s The Loss of the Creature, and Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Copies of the book are obtainable from the Council (www.bioethics. gov).
