Medical Musing

The question of euthanasia, like the death sentence is certainly a thorny one for many people. In the UK sufferers desperate to end their pain have gone to law only to have their plea consistently refused,  the reason given that it would be open to misuse; but then isn’t everything? I for one believe, despite the doubts as to possibly evil intent, that for humane reasons alone euthanasia should be legal and it surely can’t be long before it is. One hears tales of caring doctors who surreptitiously end patients’ lives when living for them has become a nightmare; despite the chance that in so doing they could face an accusation of murder. I would like to think that should life become unbearable I could be painlessly sent off into oblivion. It can be done. Switzerland, Holland allow it and Belgium made euthanasia legal in 2002. Now there are even discussions as to its availably for children. When many countries have come to the conclusion that euthanasia is sometimes the kindest course to take the UK will still be dithering with various factions maintaining life is precious and to end it before its natural time is both sinful of at least immoral. Suicide is no longer a crime, isn’t euthanasia the next step?

Weather records have been broken across North America, with Canada and all 50 US states experiencing freezing temperatures.

In Kentucky, an escaped prisoner turned himself in to get out of the cold while at least one polar bear at a zoo in Chicago had to be taken inside because of the plummeting temperatures.

ABC news correspondent Linzie Janis, in Buffalo in New York, told BBC News the area looked like a series of ghost towns with roads littered with overturned cars.

In Ohio worried residents took in dogs with frozen paws and people were warned that below a certain temperature the skin on their face could freeze.

This reminds me of stories one heard about prisoners in Soviet Siberian work camps who had to suffer amputation of the penis because their urine froze. True or false I’ve sometimes wondered how the Eskimo manages not only to urinate but defecate when a certain expanse of the body has to be exposed to the elements.

We cannot say we weren't warned. Most of us were born into a world containing antibiotics, so it is easy to feel they are permanent fixtures in the arsenal of medicines. In fact penicillin did not go into widespread use until the 1950s. But according to scientists and medical personal at the topmost level the golden age of antibiotics is coming to an end unless urgent action is taken. The growing threat of antibiotic resistant organisms: bacteria viruses and parasites is once again in the spotlight.The warnings actually started many years ago, more than five years for example when a strain of tuberculosis in South Africa became immune to the drugs. Whereas antibiotics have been around for less than a century, infectious agents are older than humanity, and are continually evolving.

There has also been an alarming increase in rates of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, which is becoming more difficult to treat.

Drug companies are in it for profit so they can't be expected to spend billions and years inventing new antibiotics on which they'll never be able to recoup their investment; but the price of some modern drugs is already reaching astronomical proportions and perhaps the companies may be persuaded to go back to the lab. Medical advance simply has to keep up if possible with the evolution of other species or we might as well all just give up.

For thousands of years the Chinese, adept in the fine art of torture, held executions with the “death a thousand cuts,” an excruciatingly painful and slow way to die, the pain sometimes accentuated by the administration of certain drugs.

According to a report in a Chinese newspaper Kim Jong Un, beloved leader of North Korea has had his uncle and five accomplices executed by being thrown to 120 ravenous dogs that had not been fed for three days. Says everything you need to know about North Korea.

In Afghanistan an eleven year old girl was strapped with explosives and ordered by her family to go and blow up a police check-point. She is now in protective custody which tells you everything you need to know about the religion of peace.