Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge
Editor
BioEdge
Hi there,
I wonder if the next frontier in the practical side of bioethics will be elder care. With the number and proportion of over-65s growing everywhere, opportunities for abusing defenceless elderly are multiplying.
Take the scandal in Mississippi over its June 3 Republican Senate primary. The incumbent is 76-year-old Thad Cochran, a 36-year veteran of the Senate with a thatch of white hair. In the eyes of Tea Party Republicans the Senator is extremely liberal. And extremely old. Money is pouring into the state to knock Cochran off his perch and replace him with a 41-year-old breath of fresh air, Chris McDaniel, a state senator.
However, some of Mr McDaniel's supporters have been too eager to prove just how decrepit Senator Cochran is. A pro-McDaniel blogger, Clayton Kelly, entered a nursing home where Senator Cochran's bed-ridden wife Rose, who suffers from dementia, is being cared for. He took photos of her, added them to a video, and posted it on the internet. The message: an old liberal guy with a ailing wife shouldn't represent the great state of Mississippi. The strategy has backfired. Senator Cochran is holding his own after the invasion of his wife's privacy. Mr Kelly has been charged with "exploiting a vulnerable adult". Two other men have also been arrested.
Mr McDaniel has been reduced to complaining that Senator Cochran is exploiting a "sick individual" (ie, Kelly) for electoral advantage. Since this is precisely what Kelly did to Mrs Cochran, it's hard to see how this will get traction with voters. The breath of fresh air has been tainted by a burp from the sewer.
Another week of mud-slinging in American electioneering. For media junkies, it's very entertaining and will soon be forgotten. But it may foreshadow a society where the elderly are routinely discriminated against, exploited, vilified and abused. Geriatric bioethics will be a growth area.
Cheers,
| This week in BioEdge | |
by Michael Cook | May 23, 2014
British children as young as nine are eligible to board the train for a sex reassignment surgery, according to the Mail on Sunday.
by Michael Cook | May 24, 2014
The world's most prestigious science journal, Nature, has thrown its weight behind the legalisation of "three-parent embryos".
by Michael Cook | May 24, 2014
Are anti-procreation orders constitutional in the United States? A case in Ohio is working its way to the state Supreme Court.
by Michael Cook | May 23, 2014
News that the chairman of the Belgian government's euthanasia control commission has organised a study tour of Auschwitz has outraged a leading Jewish organisation.
by Michael Cook | May 23, 2014
It is unethical for American physicians to participate in executions, according to a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
by Michael Cook | May 23, 2014
A shortage of a lethal drug is stopping both executions and assisted suicide in the United States.
by Xavier Symons | May 23, 2014
What role do genes and the wiring of the brain play in criminal action? A new study from researchers in the Netherlands offers a first-person...
by Xavier Symons | May 23, 2014
A new article in the Journal of Medical Ethics argues that preimplantation genetic diagnosis can be morally obligatory in some cases. The author suggests we...
by Michael Cook | May 23, 2014
Spain's number one university has been slammed for mistreating cadavers donated for medical research. Hundreds of bodies were piled on top of each other in...
by Xavier Symons | May 23, 2014
A car crash victim who doctors thought had no chance of survival has made an amazing recovery.BioEdge
Suite 12A, Level 2 | 5 George St |
North Strathfield NSW 2137 |
Australia
Phone: +61 2 8005 8605
Mobile: 0422-691-615
Email: michael@bioedge.org
.png)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario