The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network's complete 2010 Network News.

December

• Cal Thomas: Death Panels Are Just The First Step 12/31/2010 (The Examiner) - Sarah Palin deserves an apology. When she said that the new health-care law would lead to "death panels" deciding who gets life-saving treatment and who does not, she was roundly denounced and ridiculed.
• Music Therapy to Help Brain Injury Patients? 12/30/2010 (Serious Injury Law) - Music therapy could help patients recovering from brain injury, according to a review.
• No, Advertising Death Is NOT To Foster Debate, It's To Propagandize  12/29/2010 (Alive & Kicking) - Well, we all know by now that the pro-deathers are engaged in a full court press to market death just like hamburgers, hence this sign that's gone up in Pittsburgh.
• Health Care Rationing a Clear and Present Danger 12/28/2010 (First Things) - Much is being made throughout the blogosphere and on talk radio about the new Medicare regulation that compensates physicians for discussing end of life options with their patients. As I said yesterday over at The Corner, these are not "death panels."
• Understanding Wounded Brains Helps Soldiers: Top Army Official 12/27/2010 (The Raw Story) - The brains of US soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury remain a mystery to the US armed forces, according to a top US Army official.
• Teen Overcomes Brain Injury as Infant to Succeed 12/26/2010 (LaCrosse Tribune) - Vincent Payne was just an infant when he was thrown from his car seat during the crash.
• Mother Wants HIV-Positive Daughter, Being Starved to Death Released from Prison 12/24/2010 (Michigan Messenger) - An Indiana woman is fighting with the state of Florida to get her dying, HIV-positive daughter released from the Broward Correctional Facility.
• Finnish Nurse Murders Elderly Patients 12/23/2010 (First Things) - Euthanasia is in the air. We see stories of disabled people in the UK being assisted in suicide and the prosecutors look the other way. The Dutch are debating whether the elderly "tired of life" should allowed access to assisted suicide. The Swiss Supreme Court declared assisted suicide for the mentally ill. Dutch and Belgian doctors-and in Belgium, nurses-commit euthanasia without request or consent.
• America Owes Veterans Best Care for Brain Injuries 12/22/2010 (St. Louis Post Dispatch) - In February 2004, a roadside bomb tore through a Humvee assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq. The blast ripped off Sgt. Ted Wade's right arm above the elbow. The shock wave rattled his skull, causing severe brain damage. In earlier conflicts, a blast like that would have killed Sgt. Wade. That's the good news - and the bad news.
• Trial Set for Man Accused of Assisting Teen's Suicide 12/21/2010 (Vancouver Sun) - A Minnesota jury will decide next spring whether a disgraced former nurse in the U.S. is guilty of assisted suicide in the deaths of a British and Canadian citizen. Judge Thomas M. Neuville has dismissed two applications by William Melchert-Dinkel that would have waylaid a trial.
• Pentagon Health Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops 12/20/2010 (NPR) - During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation therapy – a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home.
• Guardsman Slowly Recovers from Brain Injury 12/19/2010 (Rapid City Journal) - Adam Ohman doesn't know why or even how far he fell on March 26, 2003. Military reports contradict each other. One said that he toppled 50 feet, hit an object and then fell another 30 feet.
• National Health Service (NHS) Meltdown: Treatment Denied! 12/18/2010 (First Things) - The NHS is cracking up. Now, patients are being denied treatments ranging from hip replacements to wisdom teeth extractions and routine scanning. Hundreds of thousands are involved.
• Boy in Serious ATV Crash Will Be Home by Christmas 12/17/2010 (NBCDFW) - A 14-year-old boy is about to get the only Christmas present he wants -- going home after four months in the hospital.
• Compound Shows Promise Against Brain Injuries 12/16/2010 (OH&S) - Two new studies indicate a synthetic derivative of the spice turmeric may be useful in treating traumatic brain injuries.
• No Charges in 20 Assisted-Suicide Cases 12/15/2010 (Daily Mail) - The Director of Public Prosecutions has declined to bring charges against at least 20 people suspected of helping others to commit suicide, it was revealed yesterday.
• Obamacare: Unconstitutional!-First Nail in the Coffin? 12/14/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - As promised, I have read Judge Henry E. Hudson's 42-page ruling invalidating the individual purchase mandate of Obamacare. In a nutshell, Judge Hudson ruled:
• Families of Wounded Veterans Shoulder Burden 12/13/2010 (Tampa Tribune) - The mother kneels at the edge of her son's bed and helps him tie his sneakers. "Come on, Josh, you can do it," says Christine Cooley, urging on her son. But Josh Cooley is no child. He is 6-foot-6 and weighs 280 pounds. His life changed July 5, 2005, in Hit, Iraq.
• Obamacare: Study Finds 40% of Doctors May Quit 12/12/2010 (First Things) - Obamacare's ambitions to control the entire health care system through a medical mega-bureaucracy endangers the health care system.
• Assisted Suicide Group Wants Charges Tossed in Georgia 12/11/2010 (Washington Examiner) - Georgia's high-profile case against four members of an assisted suicide group that helped a cancer-stricken man kill himself may hinge on what defense attorneys say is a fatal flaw in the state law used to prosecute them.
• "We Now Know That The Brain Can Make New Connections" 12/10/2010 (ABC Ballarat) - What would you do if your son was struck into a coma, and the prognosis was he remain that way until death?
• 'Neglected' Man Rescued by Law Firm 12/09/2010 (Times Herald) - The Montgomery County District Office took extraordinary steps to find a legal guardian for a 37-year-old Lower Pottsgrove man, whose family neglected to provide adequate nursing care, and the case prompted legislation aimed at protecting care-dependent persons.
• Obamacare: Waivers Double 12/08/2010 (AJC) - The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222.
• Swiss Court Effectively Legalizes Active Euthanasia 12/07/2010 (First Things) - I have warned and warned that legalizing assisted suicide leads directly to permitting active euthanasia, as I once put it, like the left leg follows the right, while walking. And now, in Switzerland, a court has taken the poisonous leap. From the story:
• Adult Stem Cell Research Brings Encouragement to Disabled 12/06/2010 (Delmarvanow.com) - When I began these wide-ranging weekly articles on various disabilities, my overriding goal has been one in which I've always tried to end each article with a positive something.
• Dutch Pat Themselves on the Back For Infanticide: We Have a Protocol! 12/05/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - This is the Dutch in a nutshell: If it is "transparent," then it is okay. That opens the door to a lot of wickedness. Take infanticide. Dutch doctors kill babies born with terminal and disabling conditions.
• Terri's Network Monthly e-Newsletter! 12/04/2010 (Terri's Network) - Recently, Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman went on record saying that the only way to get out of this debt crisis is by the use of "death panels" and a national sales tax. Krugman made his comments on ABC's "This Week" and has been causing quite a stir. Here's what he said:
• Remembering Terri on Her Birthday, December 3, 1963 12/03/2010 Today, December 3rd is Terri's Birthday. Terri would have been 47 years of age and there is not a day that goes by that we don't think of our beloved sister and daughter.
• Human Factor: A Doctor, His Injury, and Healing Insights 12/02/2010 (CNN Health) - Although I have been a practicing physician for 30 years, and always cared compassionately for my patients, this past year and a half as a spinal cord injury patient has made me rethink my approach to health care.
• Disabled Will Suffer From Assisted Dying Law 12/01/2010 (Telegraph) - The warning came as the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, launches a new investigation into the case for reforming the law on assisted dying.

November

• Father Granted Full Parole After Murdering Disabled Daughter 11/30/2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Robert Latimer (pictured), the infamous euthanasiast who murdered his disabled twelve-year-old daughter in 1993, has been granted full parole.
• Injured Soldier's Family Counts Blessings 11/29/2010 (Trib Local) - In August, U.S. Air Force Capt. Tony Simone's helicopter was shot down five days before he was scheduled to return to the United States.
• Man Suffers for 24 Minutes After His Ventilator Became Dislodged 11/28/2010 (NY Post) - This makes Nurse Ratched look compassionate. A group of nurses at Medford Multicare Center on Long Island allegedly ignored for 24 minutes a warning light and buzzer that indicated the ventilator for quadriplegic Robert Knowles had become dislodged, a lawsuit charges.
• European Court of Human Rights to Decide if a Right to be Dead 11/27/2010 (SHS) - We live in a strange era in which Jefferson's "right to life" supposedly has a concomitant "right to death."
• Strangers' Helping Man Recover From Brain Injury 11/26/2010 (Des Moines Register) - Candi and Jeff Diercks will gather with family this Thanksgiving around a secondhand table that is not their own, in a temporary Ankeny home that is not their house.
• Euthanasia Bill Defeated 11/25/2010 (AAP) - South Australia's controversial voluntary euthanasia bill has been defeated in the state parliament. The bill, introduced by Labor backbencher Steph Key and the Greens, was defeated in the Legislative Council about 10.50 pm (CST).
• Real Death Panels Coming Our Way 11/24/2010 (Jewish World Review) - Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner in economics and an influential New York Times columnist, also has a blog, "The Conscience of a Liberal."
• Singer: Full Moral Status Not Earned by Babies "Until After 2 Years" 11/23/2010 (First Things) - I was alerted by Nat Hentoff about an assertion made by Peter Singer-as reported in the Catholic Eye-at a Princeton conference around the abortion question, in which he claims that human beings don't possess full moral status until after the age of two. 
• Our New Obamacare Masters 11/22/2010 (Weekly Standard) - The day after the Obama administration's shellacking at the polls, Peter Orszag, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, defended Obamacare from the ramparts of the New York Times.
• Bobby Schindler: From Unthinkable to Ordinary 11/21/2010 (Townhall.com) - Last week, former U.S. President, George W. Bush released a memoir of his tenure in office called "Decision Points." In this 500-plus page account, Bush revisits a number of official and personal events, as well as choices that shaped both his presidency and his attitudes in private life.
• Scotland Rejects Assisted Suicide Bill 11/20/2010 (Christian Institute) - An attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland has failed to gain the endorsement of a Scottish Parliament committee. The committee concluded that it was "not convinced" the law needed changing and said it could not recommend the Bill when it comes before MSPs for a crucial vote next week.
• Star Athlete Overcomes Brain Trauma to Help Children with Similar Injuries 11/19/2010 (Star-Ledger) - He was a star at Marlboro High School. Ranked in the top 10 percent academically. A varsity athlete in two sports. Member of the student council.
• Bishops to Prepare Assisted Suicide Document for Vote 11/18/2010 (CNS) - By a nearly unanimous vote, the U.S. bishops agreed to the preparation of a brief policy statement on assisted suicide, which they will debate and vote on at their spring assembly in June.
• Berwick Wants to Do Away With 80% of Patient/Doctor Office Calls 11/17/2010 (First Things) - First they did away with house calls, now Donald Berwick wants to dramatically restrict office calls.
• New Device 'Fingerprints' the Brain 11/16/2010 (National Post) - Breakthrough Canadian technology that uses virtual reality to analyze brain functions will give scientists new insight into the complex inner workings of the brain, according to its inventor, attending a San Diego conference where the system was revealed on Monday. 
• Krugman: Death Panels Will Fix Debt Crisis 11/15/2010 (NewsMax) - Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says the only way the U.S. will get its debt crisis under control is by the use of "death panels" and a national sales tax.
• Terri Schiavo Revisited: Brother Speaks to CU Students 11/13/2010 (CUAtower.com) - There was not a dry eye in McGivney Hall's Keane auditorium Wednesday as more than 150 students watched a short video of photos and footage from the life of Terri Schiavo-a Florida woman whose tragic medical condition riveted the nation and Congress five years ago.
• Survey Finds Physicians Divided on Ethical Issues‎ 11/12/2010 (Wall Street Journal) - We all run into ethical dilemmas on the job, but doctors probably get more than their fair share.
• Kids Make Up Largest Group with Traumatic Brain Injuries 11/10/2010 (LA Times) - Austin Story doesn't remember the late-summer outing at a friend's lakefront home in New Jersey, or the rocks he climbed near a waterfall. Or how he lost his footing and, as his horrified mother looked on, fell about 50 feet.
• A Life Beyond Reason 11/09/2010 (Chronicle Review) - My son, August, has a number of quirks that distinguish him from the typically developing 10-year-old. He lives with cerebral palsy, is a spastic quadriplegic, has cortical visual impairment (meaning he is legally blind), is completely nonverbal and cognitively disabled, has a microcephalic head, and must wear a diaper.
• Canadians Worry about Vulnerable People if Euthanasia is Legalized 11/08/2010 (LifeSiteNews) - A year of public debate about legal euthanasia has left Canadians with concerns about how vulnerable people - those who are elderly, depressed, disabled or chronically ill - will fare if the law changes.
• Vitamin E May Help Brain Injured Patients 11/07/2010 (Internal Medicine News) - High doses of vitamin E significantly decreased in-hospital mortality following a traumatic brain injury in the first-ever randomized, controlled clinical trial of this treatment. 
• Nitschke Explains How Seniors Can Kill Themselves 11/06/2010 (CMAJ) - In many ways, it felt like a typical church gathering, although it was a suicide workshop. The elderly crowd of about 50 exchanged hushed pleasantries while they settled into their seats at the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto in Ontario on Oct. 13.
• TBI: 'Brain Injury and War Go Hand In Hand' 11/05/2010 (KVAL) - It's a wound few understand or even see: Many of Oregon's service members are coming home forever changed by Traumatic Brain Injury, known as TBI for short.
• Vermont Governor Vows to Legalize Assisted Suicide 11/04/2010 (LifeSiteNews) - The Democratic candidate for governor of Vermont has told a pro-euthanasia lobby group that he would push to decriminalize the actions of those who help others kill themselves.
• Researchers Develop Fiber-Optic Device to Enhance Brain Imaging 11/03/2010 (Discovery News) - No, this brush is not a mind-reader in the psychic, ESP sense. What it does is take precise measurements of the levels of neurological activity in a brain.
• Locked-In Syndrome Woman Receives Award 11/02/2010 (Bioedge) - France has just awarded the Légion d'honneur to a woman who has been a locked-in quadriplegic for 30 years. Maryannick Pavageau received the distinction for her battle against euthanasia.
• What Happens After Traumatic Brain Injury? 11/01/2010 (Society of Nuclear Medicine ) - Results from a study published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) show that powerful imaging techniques-positron emission tomography (PET) fused with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-are helping researchers better understand the long-term functional and structural changes that take place after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

October

• Human Life Itself Has No Value: Britain's Leading Bioethicist 10/31/2010 (LifeSiteNews) - Unlike gold and platinum, life does not have value in itself, a member of the House of Lords and a campaigner for assisted suicide said in a televised debate last week.
• Terri's Network Monthly Newsletter! 10/30/2010 (Terri's Network) - This past month has been very busy with several speaking engagements throughout the country. I was honored to speak at the Monroe County Right to Life Dinner in Monroe, MI and then my family was blessed to be asked to speak to Mary's Way in Aurora, IL - Mary's Way ministry brings woman together in faith and closer to the Blessed Mother.
• Small Area of Brain 'Could be Key to Traumatic Brain Injury' 10/29/2010 (Serious Law) - A small area of the brain which has been linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) could help patients with traumatic brain injury, an expert has said.
• Oregon Residents Doctor Shop for Help with Suicide 10/28/2010 (BostonPilot) - A British think tank said a U.S. assisted-suicide law might have created a phenomenon of "doctor-shopping" for physicians willing to ignore safeguards to help healthy people kill themselves.
• Futile Care Theory: Physicians Say No to Patient Request to be Resuscitated 10/27/2010 (The Star) - As Mann Kee Li lies in hospital fighting dire prospects, his family is engaged in a life-or-death struggle, not with the cancer spreading through his body, but with the doctors treating it.
• Anti-Depressants and the Dying: Depression Can Be a Factor for Terminally Ill 10/26/2010 (Zenit.org) - Here is a question on bioethics asked by a ZENIT reader and answered by the fellows of the Culture of Life Foundation.
• It Takes a Long Time to Starve a Severely Disabled Infant to Death 10/25/2010 (First Things) - Tube supplied hydration and nutrition is deemed a medical treatment, like aspirin, surgery, or chemotherapy, and hence, can be denied or withdrawn under the law. Normal receipt of food and water, is not allowed to be withheld when it can be taken, since that isn't medical treatment.
• Let the Distraught Partners of Terminally Ill who Commit Suicide Die Too 10/23/2010 (Mail Online) - The founder of controversial Swiss clinic Dignitas has said a person whose terminally ill partner commits suicide should also be given help to die - even if they are perfectly healthy.
• Obamacare: It's Fear of Government Power That Drives Opposition 10/22/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - A piece in The New Republic wonders why people are so opposed to Obamacare and the mandatory purchase mandate.
• Wounded in Body But Not in Spirit 10/21/2010 (Pilot Online) - A little while before giving a speech Wednesday afternoon at Fort Monroe, Army Col. Gregory Gadson sat down to lunch with a few colleagues.
• Ways Traumatic Brain Injury Can Impair Cognitive Abilities 10/20/2010 (Helium) - Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has long been referred to as 'the Silent Epidemic'. There is good reason for this because TBI is not an injury that is often seen, and each year over a million people are affected by a head injury.
• Thinktank Warns Against Legalizing Assisted Suicide 10/19/2010 (The Guardian) -Change to law would put society's most vulnerable at risk of being bullied into an early death, says Centre for Policy Studies
• "Building-a-Bridge" Serves Brain Injured Victims 10/18/2010 (Injury Board Blog) - This writer has been fortunate enough to have served on the board of directors for a local (Charlottesville, Virginia) organization serving brain injured victims for almost two years. 
• Health Care Reform Blamed for Huge Hike in Premiums 10/17/2010 (NBC Connecticut) - The state has given Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield the go ahead to raise premiums by as much as 47 percent for some members, and says health care reform is the reason why.
• Doctor Touts Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy 10/16/2010 (Santa Fe New Mexican) - By now, Jessica Truesdale and her sister, Jackie Kielpinski, have the routine down - every weekday, wake up early, drive 50-some miles from Rio Rancho, pull into Santa Fe around noon, take an hour-long "dive" and head home.
• Nebraska Woman Accused of Assisting in Boyfriends Suicide 10/15/2010 (AP) - A woman accused of preparing a lethal cocktail of medications for herself and her boyfriend was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of assisted suicide
• New England Journal of Medicine Pushes NICE-Style Health Care Rationing 10/14/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - I have been warning you all until I am blue in the face that the goal of the medical intelligentsia is explicit and invidious health care rationing under Obamacare-just as NICE does in the UK for the NHS.
• Researchers Seek Ways to Communicate with "Locked-In" Patients 10/13/2010 (By Liz Townsend, NRLC) - Researchers in the United States and Britain are developing techniques to communicate with patients who are unable to speak or move by translating the electrical activity in the brain into words.
• Assisted Suicide Campaign Launched 10/12/2010 (UKPA) - Doctors and nurses who support assisted suicide for the terminally are launching a campaign to change the law on the right to die. Healthcare Professionals for Change (HPC), a group of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, aims to challenge the views of bodies such as the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) which oppose such a move.
• Long Road to Recovery for Brain-Injured Norfolk Mom 10/11/2010 (Eastern Daily Press) - Life has never been the same for Justin Seaman since a car accident a year ago left his wife and mother of his three children fighting for her life. Beckii Seaman, 29, survived the crash but has been left brain damaged. She is in a wheelchair, unable to speak and with limited body movement.
• Michael Caine: I Asked Doctor to Help My Father Die‎ 10/09/2010 (Daily Mail) - Sir Michael Caine has revealed that he asked a doctor to help his gravely ill father die. The doctor gave his father an overdose to end his suffering when he was dying in hospital from liver cancer - a secret Caine never revealed to his mother. The star - who has won two Oscars - has now expressed his support for mercy killings. (continue reading ...)
• NEJM Admits Obamacare on the Rocks-and Warns of a "Failed Republic" 10/08/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - Yes, it's the law-for now. But most Americans oppose it. The Republicans are running on repealing it. The democrats are running away from it. Obamacare is on the rocks and may yet die a'borning.
• Options and the Right to Live 10/07/2010 (By Judy Brown) - If you thought the debate over providing a patient food and water had ended with Pope John Paul II's 2004 address to health care professionals, you are sadly mistaken.
• Traumatic Brain Injury: The Legacy of Long Wars 10/06/2010 (Examiner.com) - After years of wars that regularly expose soldiers to huge blasts, the incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is continually on the rise.
• Open Advocacy for Killing Children with Disabilities 10/05/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - A lot of SHSers have written to me about this and I think it is worth highlighting: A public row in the UK has raised the fearful meme that we should be allowed to kill children with disabilities who are suffering. From the story:
• Tread Carefully When Dealing with Dying 10/04/2010 (Herald Sun) - Many people wish to die. Some may have a right to. But tread warily as you step over the cracks between life, death and what some people insist is their right.
• 'Vegetative State' Patients May Soon Be Able to Communicate 10/02/2010 (PhysOrg.com) - Researchers from Cambridge University in the UK have been able to communicate with brain-injured patients in "locked states" commonly referred to as persistent vegetative states (PVS).
• New Traumatic Brain Injury Research Starting 10/01/2010 (KXAN) - Traumatic brain injuries are debilitating to individuals who suffer from them - not only physically and emotionally - but economically as well. A study commissioned by the CORE Health Foundation, a local advocacy group, found that each year in Texas, brain injuries cause an estimated $6.8 billion worth of economic trauma in terms of deaths, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and disability.

September

• Yahoo Asks 1,671,267 Americans: Most Want to Repeal Obamacare - 9/30/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - An intrepid SHS news tipper sent me a head's up that Yahoo conducted a huge survey-it appears not to be a scientific poll-but I think it is significant.
• Terri's Monthly Newsletter! - 9/30/2010 (Terri's Network) - On September 16, 2010, the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation issued a press release with the exciting news that we've changed our name to the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network!
• Scientists 'Rewiring' the Brain After Injury - 9/29/2010 (SeriousInjury) - Sufferers of a traumatic brain injury may have their brain "rewired" to bypass the damaged area and restore normal function.
• Loved to Death - 9/28/2010 (MercatorNet) - Whether there are more Terri Schiavo's suffering a torturous death by starvation and dehydration these days, or we're just hearing more about them these days is uncertain. But the manner of such death should be made clear, and the media are certainly not doing that.
• Ad Campaign for Assisted Suicide Banned from Canadian Airwaves - 9/27/2010 (Globe and Mail) - Opponents of assisted suicide have successfully lobbied to ban from Canadian airwaves a TV commercial promoting the right to choose death, and now they're taking aim at the controversial messenger.
• With Euthanasia, 'Choice' is a Lie - 9/26/2010 (National Post) - With euthanasia and assisted suicide, the proponents of "choice" are rather naïve. A favourite of euthanasia proponents is the autonomy/choice argument. When not used as mere buzz words, autonomy and choice are truly signs of the rational spark that differentiates us from our pet birds and rabbits.
• Woman Dies After Surviving 8 Weeks with No Food or Water - 9/25/2010 (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) - For Trisha Rushing Duguay, tragedy arrived suddenly. Death was less hurried.
• Physician-Assisted Suicide Addressed in Montana - 9/24/2010 (KRTV) - The uncertain future of physician-assisted suicide in Montana drew a small crowd to the Civic Center in Great Falls on Tuesday afternoon.
• Medicare Czar Flees 'Rationing' Query - 9/23/2010 (Human Events) - After Donald Berwick's (left) controversial recess appointment to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), his allies claimed that he was preparing a "point-by-point" rebuttal to his critics. Berwick does have a lot of explaining to do, after all.
• Stop Harvesting Organs after 'Cardiac Death,' Say MDs - 9/22/2010 (LifeSiteNews) - A group of doctors have called on the medical community to cease harvesting organs from patients whose hearts have stopped pulsating, saying that doctors are misleading families to believe that the patient has died when in fact their loved one is still alive.The story was featured Wednesday on the cover of Canada's National Post.
• Media: Enablers of Death - 9/21/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - The UK is in the grips of an assisted suicide propaganda blitz, promoted, abetted, and encouraged by its often tabloid media. It was in this context that last February, a famous UK activist stepped forward with a shocking claim that he had assisted the suicide of his lover dying from AIDS by smothering him with a pillow.
• North Carolina Property Possible Site for 'Death House' - 9/20/2010 (OneNewsNow) - A proponent of assisted suicide has resurfaced and is hoping to establish his "services" in North Carolina. Rev. George Exoo, a 67-year-old Unitarian minister, claims his West Virginia "right to die" group, Compassionate Chaplaincy, has helped over 100 people take their own lives.
• Researchers Find Drug Combination May Treat Traumatic Brain Injury - 9/19/2010 (EurekAlert) - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious public health problem in the United States. Recent data show that approximately 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury annually. While the majority of TBIs are concussions or other mild forms, traumatic brain injuries contribute to a substantial number of deaths and cases of permanent disability. 
• Australia Bans Pro-Euthanasia Adverts - 9/18/2010 (Christian Institute) - A television and billboard advertising campaign for the pro-euthanasia group Exit International, which is headed by Dr Philip Nitschke, has been banned in Australia. The contentious TV advert was set to be aired on Sunday night but advertising regulators denied permission for the ad to go ahead.
• Traumatic Brain Injury Bill Offers Warriors New Hope - 9/17/2010 (PRNewswire) - Wounded Warrior Project applauds Congressman Tim Walz (D - MN) for introducing legislation today in the U.S. House of Representatives that would ensure fuller lives for warriors who sustained severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in Iraq and Afghanistan, and urges speedy action on this measure.
• Brain-Injured Wife Goes Without Food or Water for Seven Weeks - 9/17/2010 (Statement from Terri's Life & Hope Network) - It has been 49 days since Trisha Duguay has gone without any food or water after her feeding tube was removed. Her husband made this decision shortly after Trisha had unsuccessful surgery for a brain tumor that was discovered just after the couple was married.
• Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Change's Name! - 9/16/2010 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation has changed its name to the "Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network".
• Brain Injured Bride Clings to Life - 9/15/2010 (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) - More than six weeks after her feeding tube was removed, Trisha Duguay continues to hold onto life.
• Changed Forever By Head Injury - 9/14/2010 (express.co.uk) - As Olympic rower James Cracknell returns home after fracturing his skull in a cycling accident, cleric David Yabbacombe tells of his own continuing battle to recover a year after he suffered brain damage.
• Obamacare: NYT Says No Rationing Here as it Pushes Rationing - 9/13/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - I got a big chuckle a few weeks ago when the NYT editorialized against rationing supposed fear mongering-and then pushed rationing.
• Understanding Traumatic Brain Injuries - 9/12/2010 (Helium) - According to the Centers for Disease Control every year there are 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries in the U.S. alone, and based on past statistics, over a million of these injuries likely entail a trip to the emergency room.
• Euthanasia Brings Culture of Death - 9/11/2010 (Calgary Herald) - There's an all-party panel of Quebec politicians travelling across that province to gather public opinion on the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
• Assisted Suicide Advocates Don’t Like Straying From 'Euthanasia Land' Script - 9/10/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - The issue of euthanasia, if it is to be properly considered, must be looked at in the societal context in which doctor prescribed death would be carried out.
• Fact Sheet: Traumatic Brain Injury - 9/09/2010 (NPR) - What Is It? And How Does It Differ From A Concussion? Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is a sudden trauma to the brain caused by force. A severe TBI can leave a person almost incapable of functioning.
• Docs 4 Patient Care Mobilizes Against Obamacare - 9/08/2010 (First Things) - This isn't a political blog, but by all appearances those who arrogantly forced Obamacare down the nation's unwilling throat-remember Speaker Pelosi's in your face march across Capitol Hill?-seem to face a stiff electoral price.
• Quebec to Hold Public Hearings on Assisted Suicide - 9/07/2010 (CTV News) - Quebecers will delve into the thorny and emotionally charged debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide this week as public hearings into dying with dignity get underway.
• Two Arrests Over Assisted Suicide of Disabled Man - 9/06/2010 (Christian Institute) - Two people have been arrested in connection with the death of a severely disabled man at the highly controversial Dignitas facility in Switzerland.
• Compassion & Choices Uses Murder/Suicide to Advertise Doctor Prescribed Death - 9/05/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - The pro assisted suicide group Compassion and Choices, along with a compliant media, continues to romanticize self destruction as an answer to the problem of human suffering.
• A Son's Journey Back from Traumatic Brain Injury - 9/04/2010 (Injury Board Blog Network) - Sunday morning a phone rang ... a call from a hospital hundreds of miles away.
• Palliative Care and Compassion - 9/03/2010 (MercatorNet) - This medical specialty is intended to relieve extreme suffering in the final stages of advanced illness and give the dying patient personal care and human dignity.
• UK's NICE Rationers: Plush Office Remodel-YES!-Pay for Life-Extending Cancer Drug-NO! - 9/02/2010 (Secondhand Smoke) - NICE-the rationing board for the UK's NHS-is the model that Obamacare's major supporters want for us, and the potential to create such centralized control was passed under Obamacare.
• Injured Pastor Given Food, Water - 9/01/2010 (World Net Daily) - Nine days after his food and water were halted in the hospital where he is being treated, and less than 24 hours after WND highlighted the plight of Pastor Joshua Kulendran Mayandy, he has been fed.

August

• Playing Dr. Death Wins Emmy for Pacino - 8/31/2010 - (InfoCuts) - The Emmy Award for the best miniseries went to "You Don't Know Jack". This is the story of Dr. Jack Kevorkian who starts a struggle against the law to stop assisting the suicides of terminal illness patients.
• Judging the Value of a Life - 8/30/2010 (The Globe and Mail) - The fact is that most people, whatever their condition, don't want to die
• Kevorkian Movie Up for Several Emmys - 8/29/2010 - (Freep.com) - "You Don't Know Jack," HBO's biopic on Dr. Jack Kevorkian, earned 16 Emmy nominations in 15 categories, including outstanding made-for-TV movie.
• Atheist Doctors More Likely to Hasten Patients' Deaths - 8/27/2010 - (Christian Institute) - Atheist doctors are almost twice as likely to make decisions which speed up the deaths of their patients than their religious colleagues, according to a new study.
• Medical Care Facts and Fables (8/25/2010): (National Review) - Obamacare threatens the unparalleled success of US medicine.
• A Mothers Undying Love (8/23/2010): (The Daily Press) - It's been 20 years since she's heard her son's voice, that day he was supposed to bring back a coffee, but Jeannine Lajeunesse-Beaulne still holds out hope she will hear it again one day.
• Blows to the Head Linked to Disease (8/22/2010): (Wall Street Journal) - Repeated blows to the head from playing sports are linked to signs of a brain condition similar to Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a small study published Tuesday that bolsters concerns about the long-term damage of traumatic head injuries.
• We Need to Make the V-Word as Unacceptable as the N-Word (8/21/2010): (Secondhand Smoke) - Dr. Laura Schlessinger is retiring from radio after a flap over her use of the N-word on her radio program.