Human Exceptionalism

Center on Human Exceptionalism

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Attractive female doctor in front of medical group
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Only Doctors Can Prevent Global Warming

Science, medical, and bioethics journals are setting themselves up as the new political resistance to Trump policies, most particularly around global warming controversies. JAMA has just published a column decrying Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and claiming that preventing climate change is now up to doctors. Read More ›
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Caucasian male police officer in uniform with gun on his belt walking down a brightly lit hospital hallway with back turned
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Swiss Canton Liberates Suicide Tourism from Police Investigation

Switzerland is the world's suicide tourism capital. Indeed, for the price of transportation and about $11,000, you can be helped to make yourself dead at one of the country's notorious suicide clinics. It used to be that each such assisted suicide had to be at least cursorily investigated by the authorities. But now, that minimal protection has been gutted. Read More ›
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Public domain image from the Executive Office of the President of the United States: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vice_President_JD_Vance_is_sworn_in_(01).jpg

Vice President Vance Defends Human Exceptionalism at Munich

Vice President JD Vance made news in Munich by accusing the European political elite of not really believing in democracy. But another line stood out for me that I think is also worth noting. Vance defended the unique dignity of human life. It's just one sentence in a 20-minute speech. But I think it is important and urge the vice president to expand upon that thought because human exceptionalism is under increasing attack by some of society's most powerful political and cultural forces. Read More ›
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Side view portrait of bearded gentleman lying in bed. Young woman in white lab coat on blurred background
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Washington Bill to Allow Non-MD-Prescribed Assisted Suicide and to Shorten Waiting Period

I previously wrote about pending Oregon and Vermont legislation to do away with the requirement that only doctors be allowed to legally assist suicides. Now, it's Washington's turn, with a proposal to allow "qualified medical providers" to prescribe poison, defined as a licensed physician, physician's assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse. Read More ›
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Rear view of young woman with bag standing against shelf in pharmacy searching for medicine
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JAMA Article Pushes for Over-the-Counter Abortion Pills

Taking abortion pills can lead to dangerous side effects, perhaps even death. Which is why the process of chemical abortion — called "medical" by pro-abortion advocates — is supposed to occur only under the guidance of a doctor. But the medical establishment is so invested in unlimited abortion that JAMA Internal Medicine just published an advocacy article calling for the two drugs used in chemical abortions to be available over the counter. Read More ›
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Close-up of hands
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Will We Starve Dementia Patients in Slow Motion?

Moves are afoot in bioethics to require caregivers to withhold food and water by mouth from a patient made incompetent by dementia if that patient, while compos mentis, has signed such a request — and even if the patient willingly eats, enjoys meals, or asks for food. It is sometimes called “voluntary stop eating and drinking [VSED] by advance directive,” in the parlance.

I have frequently criticized VSED by directive as inhumane to the patient, cruel to caregivers (as it forces them to starve people to death), and designed to open the door to lethally jabbing those with advanced dementia as the less onerous alternative to their being made to starve to death.

Now, as supposedly some form of compromise, there is a proposal on the table to barely feed — i.e., malnourish — dementia patients who have previously signed such a directive. From, “Mr. Smith Has No Mealtimes,” published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (citations omitted):

Minimal Comfort Feeding (MCF)…is the provision of only enough oral nutrition and hydration to ensure comfort. With MCF, eating and drinking is not scheduled; rather, caretakers offer food and liquids only in response to signs of hunger and thirst. Patients are neither wakened for regular mealtimes nor encouraged to eat or drink. Instead, they are offered frequent, fastidious mouth care, continued social contact, therapeutic touch, sensory distraction, and medications to relieve distress associated with apparent thirst or hunger before being provided with minimal amounts of liquid or food.

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