GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: ‘Deacon of death’ on trial in Belgium

domingo, 28 de enero de 2018

BioEdge: ‘Deacon of death’ on trial in Belgium

BioEdge: ‘Deacon of death’ on trial in Belgium

Bioedge

‘Deacon of death’ on trial in Belgium

by Michael Cook | 27 Jan 2018 |

Ivo Poppe in court

A Roman Catholic deacon and nurse may be Belgium’s worst serial killer. Taking advantage of his work in a nursing home, Ivo Poppe, 61, may have killed up to 50 people by injecting air into their veins. The deaths took place between 1978 and 2011.

His last victim was his own mother, who was suffering from depression, but he also dispatched his stepfather and two uncles. He normally gave his victims an injection of Valium with a bubble of air, which caused an embolism.

Poppe’s trial began this week in the city of Bruges. He has been formally accused of at least ten deaths, but police believe that there are many more. Poppe has made several partial confessions, admitting to different numbers of victims, ranging from 10 to 100.

He was arrested in 2014 after he consulted a psychiatrist about nightmares and confided that he had “euthanised dozens of people”. He told the court, “I wanted to end their suffering, these people weren’t really living anymore.”

Poppe also admitted that none of his patients had requested him to shorten their lives. He also expressed regret over his actions. “Now, I would seek assistance from a palliative care team,” he added.

Poppe, a married father of three, was ordained as a deacon in 1996 and was employed as a pastoral worker until 2011.

The Belgian trial coincides with further charges against a German nurse, Niels Högel, who has already been convicted of killing six patients in the northern German city of Oldenburg. He is now being charged with 97 further counts of murder.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

This week’s announcement by Chinese scientists that they had cloned macaque monkeys prompted a walk down memory lane for me. The scientists aver that they have no interest whatsoever in human cloning. One must take them at their word, I suppose, but the impulse to clone humans is a recurring lunacy.

Remember the Raelians? In 2002 Rael, the French-Canadian founder of the sect which believes that mankind was created by extraterrestrials and that cloning is a way to immortality, announced that his scientists had cloned a baby.

Remember Severino Antinori? The Italian gynaecologist announced that he had cloned babies in 2002. No proof was ever given. He is currently battling charges of kidnapping and forcibly removing eight eggs from a Spanish nurse.

Remember Hwang Woo-suk? The veterinary scientist claimed that he had cloned human embryos in 2004 and was featured on a South Korean stamp. Much of his work was fraudulent.

Remember Panayiotis Zavos? The Cypriot-American claimed in 2009 that he had implanted cloned 14 embryos and implanted them in four women. He has faded from the limelight in recent years.

I would wager that if the Chinese experiment is confirmed, there will be another wave of cloning attempts by rogue scientists. Watch this space.