Church-affiliated institutions must cover free contraception for their employees, the Obama administration has announced. As a concession to outraged religious groups, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said their hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have an additional year to comply with regulations under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. The plan takes effect on August 1, but institutions who have sought an exemption will not have to comply until August 1, 2013 – after the election in November.
Ms Sebelius said that access to contraception was a fundamental part of healthcare: “Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs, and is the most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women.”
Despite protests, the Obama Administration seems confident that this will not become a religious liberty issue. “This decision was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty. I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services,” Sebelius said in a statement.
A number of important religious groups disagree strongly. A spokesman for an Orthodox Jewish group, Nathan Diament, complained about the “underlying rationale for its decision, which appears to be a view that if a religious entity is not insular, but engaged with broader society, it loses its 'religious' character and liberties.”
The National Association of Evangelicals said that employers with religious objections to contraception will be forced to pay for services and procedures they believe are morally wrong. “No government has the right to compel its citizens to violate their conscience. The HHS rules trample on our most cherished freedoms and set a dangerous precedent.”
"In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences," said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. "To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their health care is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty."
Politically, the move is puzzling. America, a leading Catholic magazine, observed that “the exemption will surely prove an election year headache for the Obama administration as it adds powerful fuel to the fire for those alleging that the administration's policies and practices often trample religious liberty… Clearly a lose-lose proposition in an election year.”
On the other hand, supporters of the measure insist that it is a women's rights issue. Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, pointed out in the Washington Post that nearly all women, including many Catholics, use contraceptives at some stage. Furthermore, religious institutions employ many who do not share their faith and many states already require contraceptive coverage. Religious freedom “does not give religious groups the right to impose their beliefs on others,” she said.
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In the first published results from a clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), 2 legally blind patients with macular degeneration who had been given an injection in one eye have suffered no harmful side effects and appear to have slightly better vision. The trial was sponsored by a Massachusetts biotech, Advanced Cell Technology.
The controversial practice known as “three-parent IVF” has drawn one step closer in the UK with the government’s announcement of public consultation into its acceptability. The Wellcome Trust has also announced that it would allocate extra funds to expand research into the technique, which uses genetic material from 3 parents – 2 women and a man – to build a baby. The procedure, which currently banned, is a response to mitochondrial disease – defects in the small frameworks called mitochondria which surround the cell nucleus.
Leading plastic surgeons in the UK have responded to the current crisis in cosmetic surgery by calling for a ban on advertisements for all types of cosmetic surgery, including breast enlargements and tummy tucks. They say the industry is an under-regulated “wild west”.
Former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and her husband have become parents through surrogacy. Once the editor of the now-defunct tabloid News of the World, the 43-year-old Ms Brooks was in the business of headlining celebrities’ private lives. Now her own 5-year battle with infertility is fodder for her colleagues, along with her arrest on charges of alleged phone hacking and corruption. The surrogate mother of Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks, whose name has not been released, was pregnant with twins, but one of them died early in the pregnancy. The story is likely to boost the profile of surrogacy in the UK. ~ BBC, Jan 26; BioEdge, Nov 19 {extended}
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“Dishonesty is common and institutionalized in medicine and medical research,” says a UK cardiologist, Peter Wilsmhurst, who has spent years trying to expose research misconduct and has reported more than 20 doctors to the General Medical Council.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has given a big boost to opponents of legalised euthanasia. This body, which (somewhat confusingly) is not part of the European Union, is an advisory body in Strasbourg with more than 300 delegates whose pronouncements on human rights are highly influential in the EU.
Is that rustling in the bushes a deer or is it my brother? What the hell. We’ll sort it out later… BANG! Most people would regard moral reasoning like this as potentially indicative of a deficit of ethical reflectiveness. Several paediatricians writing in the latest issue of Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine apparently agree. They have called for a moratorium on donating organs after cardiac death (DCD) until a number of troubling issues have been resolved. The pre-press, peer-reviewed article offers a good summary of the ethical issues.
More from the booming surrogate mother industry. A Philadelphia company is raising eyebrows by describing gestational surrogacy as a paying job. An email from Surrogate Services International says that "In this economy and particularly around the holiday season one would think a local business would not have any trouble filling job openings." It is offering "well paid, part-time positions" as egg donors and surrogate mothers.
A 3-year-old girl who was allegedly denied an opportunity for a kidney transplant because she was “mentally retarded” has sparked a debate in the US media. Amelia Rivera has a rare genetic disease known as Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome that can cause mental impairment, seizures and kidney failure. However, her parents were told by doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that there would be no transplant. Her mother, Chrissy Rivera, was enraged and posted her version of a conversation with the doctor and a social worker on a blog.
