OxyContin: How America Got Hooked On Legal Heroin (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post, Sep. 26, 2012

The highly addictive painkiller OxyContin is the top selling branded drug in its category, raking in over a billion dollars last year. HuffPost Live hosted a discussion Tuesday about who takes responsibility when we get hooked on painkillers -- The addicts? The doctors prescribing the drugs? The pharmaceutical companies? -- and how many inadvertent addicts and deaths the drug is responsible for.

Frank Morris, a recovered addict from Brooklyn, New York, assesses that the healing effects of OxyContin can easily be exploited.

"The problem for me was that the company produced it in a way where I could actually freebase the pill," he shared. "The effect immediately hit a light switch in my brain and I couldn't stop."

Frank joined HuffPost Live host Janet Varney in a conversation about the addictive nature of OxyContin and other prescription drugs along with Dr. Lora Brown, a pain management physician and founder of Wake-Up-Now.org, Dr. Gregory Smith, the producer of the documentary American Addict, and Cindy Harney, a mother in Sarasota, Florida.

Related Articles:

U.S. Senate probes painkiller makers, allied groups

Painkiller sales soar around US, fuel addiction


"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Based in Greece, Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.)

Drug giants fined $11bn for criminal wrongdoing

Fines are not enough to reform drug industry, warn lawyers

The independent, Jeremy laurance, 20 September 2012   

Trust in the pharmaceutical industry among doctors has fallen so low that

they dismiss clinical trials funded by it (Alamy)

The global pharmaceutical industry has racked up fines of more than $11bn in the past three years for criminal wrongdoing, including withholding safety data and promoting drugs for use beyond their licensed conditions.

In all, 26 companies, including eight of the 10 top players in the global industry, have been found to be acting dishonestly. The scale of the wrongdoing, revealed for the first time, has undermined public and professional trust in the industry and is holding back clinical progress, according to two papers published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. Leading lawyers have warned that the multibillion-dollar fines are not enough to change the industry's behaviour.

The 26 firms are under "corporate integrity agreements", which are imposed in the US when healthcare wrongdoing is detected, and place the companies on notice for good behaviour for up to five years.

The largest fine of $3bn, imposed on the UK-based company GlaxoSmith-Kline in July after it admitted three counts of criminal behaviour in the US courts, was the largest ever. But GSK is not alone – nine other companies have had fines imposed, ranging from $420m on Novartis to $2.3bn on Pfizer since 2009, totalling over $11bn.

Kevin Outterson, a lawyer at Boston University, says that despite the eye watering size of the fines they amount to a small proportion of the companies' total revenues and may be regarded as a "cost of doing business". The $3bn fine on GSK represents 10.8 per cent of its revenue while the $1.5bn fine imposed on Abbott Laboratories, for promoting a drug (Depakote) with inadequate evidence of its effectiveness, amounted to 12 per cent.

Mr Outterson said: "Companies might well view such fines as a quite small percentage of their global revenue. If so, little has been done to change the system. The government merely recoups a portion of the financial fruit of firms' past misdeeds."

He argues that penalties should be imposed on executives rather than the company as whole. He cites a Boston whistleblower attorney, Robert Thomas who observed that GSK had committed a $1bn crime and "no individual has been held responsible".

Following GSK's admission that it had withheld safety data about its best-selling diabetes drug Avandia, the company pledged to make more clinical trial information available. But the pledge has "disturbing exceptions", according to Mr Outterson, and in any case is made under the corporate integrity agreement, which expires in five years.

Trust in the industry among doctors has fallen so low that they dismiss clinical trials funded by it, even when the trials have been conducted with scientific rigour, according to a second paper in the journal by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. This could have serious implications because most medical research is funded by the drug industry and "if physicians are reluctant to trust all such research, it could hinder the translation of … research into practice," said Aaron Kesselheim, who led the study.

Andrew Witty, the chief executive of GSK, said at the time of the $3bn settlement last July that it had resolved "difficult, long-standing matters" for the company and that there had since been a "fundamental change in procedures" including the removal of staff engaged in misconduct and changes to incentive payments.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said practices in the industry had improved and more changes to "build greater levels of trust" would be made. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said it monitored the conduct of companies and took "appropriate action" when it uncovered malpractice.

Alzheimer's funding 'must continue'

Governments, universities and charities should step in to ensure funding is maintained for research into Alzheimer's disease, following a series of failed drug trials, experts said yesterday.

They were responding to a report in The Independent that the world's leading drug companies are giving up on the search for a cure, scaling back their neuroscience departments and focusing on symptomatic, rather than disease-modifying, treatments.

A spokesman for the Alzheimer's Society said: "This is not the time to back away from dementia research. Despite costing the economy more than cancer and heart disease, funding for research into dementia is only a fraction of these conditions. More funding is urgently needed if we are to defeat it."

Jeremy Laurance

Dementia risk from sleeping tablets: Pensioners on pills taken by 1.5m are 50% more likely to be hit, warns Harvard study

Daily Mail, Sophie Borland, 27 September 2012 

• Academics say side effects could be so harmful doctors should avoid prescribing them
• Scientists believe sleeping pills may interfere with neurotransmitters in the brain, possibly causing dementia
• Doctors made 10million sleeping pill prescriptions last year

Around 1.5m Britons are thought to be
taking  sleeping pills at any one time,
with over 10million  prescriptions handed
out every year

Sleeping pills taken by more than a million Britons significantly increase the risk of dementia, researchers warn today.

Pensioners who used benzodiazepines – which include temazepam and diazepam – were 50 per cent more likely to succumb to the devastating illness, a Harvard University study found.

Academics believe the side effects of the drugs may be so harmful that doctors should avoid prescribing them.

Around 1.5million Britons are believed to be taking the pills at any one time and more than 10million prescriptions are handed out a year.

The researchers also estimate that up to 8 per cent of the over-65s have used them within the last few years to treat insomnia or anxiety.

But there is growing evidence that they have serious side effects and a number of studies have linked them to falls, memory problems, panic attacks and early death.

Academics from Harvard University in the US and the University of Bordeaux in France discovered that over-65s who had taken the drugs within the last 15 years were 50 per cent more likely to get dementia.

The drugs can only be obtained by a prescription. They work by changing the way messages are transmitted to the brain, which induces a calming effect.

But scientists believe that at the same time they may be interfering with chemicals in the brain known as neurotransmitters, which may be causing dementia.

Professor Tobias Kurth, who works jointly at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and the University of Bordeaux, said: ‘There is a potential that these drugs are really harmful.

More...

• Researchers reveal the hidden proteins that could hold the key to dementia and MS
• I lost my dad to dementia. Now I must find out: Will it kill me too? One woman's quest to discover her medical fate
• NHS spends £4m a week on elderly who block beds with managers blaming cuts for problems getting worse
• Drugcompanies 'giving up' on Alzheimer's treatment after series of expensive failedtrials

‘If it is really true that these drugs are causing dementia that will be huge. But one single study does not necessarily show everything that is going on, so there is no need to panic.

‘These drugs certainly have their benefits and if you prescribe them in a way they should be prescribed they treat very well.’

The study, published today in the British Medical Journal, involved 1,063 men and women over the age of 65 for a period of 20 years in south west France. Initially none of the participants had dementia and no one was taking benzodiazepines.

Risk: Academics believe the side-effects of some sleeping tablets could
be so harmful doctors should avoid prescribing them

The researchers followed them up after 15 years and found that 253 had developed dementia. They worked out that out of 100 not taking the drug, 3.2 would be expected to get the illness.

But among 100 patients on these drugs, 4.8 would get dementia – a significantly higher proportion. The patients had taken the pills at least once – over the course of a week or so – at some point in the previous 15 years.

The study concluded: ‘Considering the extent to which benzodiazepines are prescribed and the number of potential adverse effects, indiscriminate widespread use should be cautioned against.’

In the last 20 years the number of prescriptions for benzodiazepines has fallen by 40 per cent, largely due to concerns that patients were becoming addicted.

But they remain one of the most commonly used drugs and there are fears some patients are taking them for far too long.

A spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘This is the not the first time it has been suggested that these drugs could have a negative impact on cognition. With this long-term study adding to the evidence, it emphasises how important it is we properly monitor how treatments for anxiety or sleep problems are used.’

A study last year from Cardiff University found that Britons who had used the pills were 60 per cent more at risk from dementia. The study of 1,160 men aged 45 to 85 found that 9 per cent had taken them at least once over the last two decades.

Earlier this year American researchers found the drugs heightened the risk of early death. Their study showed that even patients taking between four and 18 pills a year were 3.6 times more likely to die prematurely. Those on more than 132 pills a year were 5.3 times more likely to die.

Dementia is one of the biggest burdens facing the NHS. Some experts believe the cost of caring for patients will rise to £35billion annually within the next two decades.

There are currently 800,000 Britons with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. 

Bizarre tumor case may lead to custom cancer care

Associated Press, Marilynn Marchione, Sep. 26, 2012

This 2008 picture provided by Georgetown University shows Richard Schlegel,
 M.D., Ph.D., left, and research associate Aleksandra Dakic, Ph.D., in his
laboratory  at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. A discovery
 allows doctors to grow "mini tumors" from each patient's cancer in a lab dish,
 then test various drugs or combinations on them to see which works best. Although
 the approach needs much more testing, researchers think it could offer a cheap,
simple way to personalize treatment without having to analyze each patient's genes.
 "We see a lot of potential for it," said Schlegel, one of the study leaders. "Almost
everyone could do it easily." (AP Photo/Georgetown University)

It's a medical nightmare: a 24-year-old man endures 350 surgeries since childhood to remove growths that keep coming back in his throat and have spread to his lungs, threatening his life. Now doctors have found a way to help him by way of a scientific coup that holds promise for millions of cancer patients.

The bizarre case is the first use in a patient of a new discovery: how to keep ordinary and cancerous cells alive indefinitely in the lab.

The discovery allows doctors to grow "mini tumors" from each patient's cancer in a lab dish, then test various drugs or combinations on them to see which works best. It takes only a few cells from a biopsy and less than two weeks to do, with materials and methods common in most hospitals.

Although the approach needs much more testing against many different types of cancer, researchers think it could offer a cheap, simple way to personalize treatment without having to analyze each patient's genes.

"We see a lot of potential for it," said one study leader, Dr. Richard Schlegel, pathology chief at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington. "Almost everyone could do it easily."

An independent expert agreed.

For infections, it's routine to grow bacteria from a patient in lab dishes to see which antibiotics work best, Dr. George Q. Daley of Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute said in an email. "But this has never been possible with cancer cells because they don't easily grow in culture," he said.

The new technique may reveal in advance whether a person would be helped by a specific chemotherapy, without risking side effects and lost time if the drug doesn't work. "Pretty nifty," Daley wrote.

In the case of the 24-year-old, described in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, lab-dish tests suggested that a drug used to treat a type of blood cancer and some other unrelated conditions might help.

It's not a drug that doctors would have thought to try, because the man technically does not have cancer. But his lung tumor shrank after a few months of treatment, and he has been stable for more than a year. He still has to have operations to remove throat growths that keep coming back, but only about once every five months.

The man, an information technology specialist in suburban Washington who asked to remain anonymous to protect his privacy, has recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, or RRP. It's usually due to infection at birth with certain types of a virus, HPV, that causes genital warts.

The condition causes wartlike growths in the throat, usually around the voice box. These growths usually are noncancerous but can turn malignant, and even benign ones can prove fatal if they spread to the lungs. The main treatment is surgery, usually with lasers to vaporize the growths and keep them from choking off the airway or making it hard to talk.

About 10,000 or more people in the U.S. have the disease, said Jennifer Woo, president of the RRP Foundation. Woo, 29, is a medical student at Georgetown and one of the researchers on the study. She also has the condition but said it is confined to her throat and has required only about 20 surgeries so far.

The man in the study has a much more serious case.

"I was diagnosed when I was 3 or 4. At first, I had to have surgery every 7 to 10 days," the man said in a phone interview. "I get short of breath and my voice will get more hoarse."

Two years ago, the growths to his lungs became extensive and life-threatening, and his physician, Dr. Scott Myers, described the condition at a meeting of Georgetown hospital specialists. "It's crushing the airway," Myers said.

Doctors suggested that the new lab method pioneered by Schlegel and others might help. It borrows an idea from stem cell researchers: adding mouse cells for nourishment, plus a chemical that prevents cell death to an ordinary lab culture medium. That enabled healthy and cancerous cells to keep growing indefinitely.

Researchers grew "mini tumors" from the man's lung mass and from healthy tissue and screened various drugs against them. One proved ineffective. Another worked against the tumor but at too high a dose to be safe. The third did the trick.

A similar approach could let doctors screen drugs for cancer patients.

"What could be more personalized than taking this person's cell, growing it in culture, finding a drug to treat them and then treat them?" said Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The Georgetown method gives an answer quickly enough that it could save lives, he said.

Tyler Jacks, a cancer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former president of the American Association for Cancer Research, said the next step is to show that this could work for many different cancers and that it leads to better outcomes in patients.

"It seems to have worked in this one instance, but other tumors might prove to be more challenging," he said.

The National Institutes of Health paid for much of this work and has already sent research teams to Georgetown to learn the method. About a dozen other universities have done the same, Schlegel said.

So far, his lab has grown prostate, breast, lung and colon cancer cells.

Georgetown University is seeking a patent on the method.

AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter contributed to this report from New York.

Online:

Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org

Throat disease: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/laryngeal.aspx

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Reported Dutch Euthanasia Cases Rise

Associated Press, Sep 26, 2012

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- The number of doctor-assisted suicide cases reported in the Netherlands grew by 559 between the years of 2010 and 2011, a commission says.

Euthanasia was decriminalized in the Netherlands in 2002 for patients who are terminally ill, in great pain, and ask to die.

The Euthanasia Commission, set up by the government, found that doctor-reported cases made up about 2.7 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2011, from 2.3 percent in 2010.

Nicole Visee, the secretary general of the commission, said Wednesday her organization investigates whether doctors followed the law, and she could only speculate about possible reasons for the increase. They might include better reporting by doctors; more deaths from terminal illness, as a result of an aging population; and changes in ethical views.

Related Articles:

Nine myths about euthanasia in the Netherlands

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Two: What happens when you die?

This is so complicated, but I'm going to divide it into two parts, both spiritual. The death of a Human, which all of you in the room have experienced, is not the end. This is intuitive within you, because you've gone through it before. But the truth of it hides just under the surface. You're not really quite sure what will happen to you, but your intuition tells you it's not the end.

There is no sting in death. Not for you. But for the ones around you, there is. So the first thing I want to tell you about death is that those around you often suffer. Sometimes that is appropriate, for it brings them to their knees, especially when you leave too soon. Sometimes, because of that, they will discover what is inside of them, incredible spiritual solace, and then realize that your death was the catalyst for their enlightenment. Do you understand that process? Sometimes you are partners in this, with agreements in advance for potentials to help each other even through Human death. So it's not something to mourn at all. Often, it's the completion of a beautiful arrangement.

What happens when you die physically? That's easy - you return to the dust of the planet. What more do you want to know? Corporeal? Easy. That's just part of the Gaia process. But let me tell you about the moment of transition. You lose three ounces of something that no one knows about. The three ounces is quantum information. It's the quantum part of your spiritual core, everything that ever was of you, and it doesn't go up, it goes down. It goes back to the Cave of Creation and beyond.

We've told you this before. Part of it also goes to the Crystalline Grid. Some of it even goes to the cetaceans of the earth. There is a system here that allows Gaia to remember your life, and it's stored in the planet. Your spirit comes home, but not your Akashic Record. It stays on the planet because the planet owns it. You have changed the planet by what you've done, but you don't bring it home with you. When you come home, however, we have a party. I've told you that before. Oh, dear one, there's no sting in death. Not your own. You will know it right away, within three days. By then, you are "fully aware" that you're a piece of God. You remember. You hear the music again.

Then soon, you come back here (Earth), and when you do, it's sometimes faster than you've been told, for things are speeding up. Sometimes you come back born into your own family as grandchildren within your same karmic group. That's a process of the Lightworker so that your grandparents can teach you things that only they can teach you.

And when you take your first breath, you pick up something. You pick up all of the soul energy from the Cave of Creation and the Crystalline Grid that you stored there when you left. That is called Akashic inheritance. Artists become artists. Policemen become policemen. It's in your genes. It's in your DNA, who you used to be. Even the proclivities for the things you like and don't like - like food, choices - come in with you from the past Akashic inheritance.

Sometimes the question is asked, "Should I be a vegetarian? What is correct for my body spiritually?" I will tell you what is correct for your body spiritually - the thing that makes sense to you! If you've spent lifetimes in Tibet or India, you're probably craving different foods than that which is in the United States. That's how it works, dear ones. Your body reacts to what it remembers, and if that serves you by not eating meat, then that is what you should do for your health. Do not project it onto your friends, for they have their own Akashic health remembrance. They have their own system that works for them.

Humans love to compartmentalize everything and, therefore, when someone finds something good for them, they wish everybody to do it. Do not criticize others because they don't have your unique remembrance. This also applies to the belief systems of others. The ones who have found God or have found joy in a system that works for them is because they are tuned to it. Perhaps they were the very disciples of the masters! They're tuned to it and they want for everyone what works for them. Much of it has integrity, but it may not be for you.

What happens at death? It's a system - beauty, honor, and you become the piece of God that you know you are. When Elijah ascended, you got to see it through the eyes of Elisha. Elijah turned into a light so bright that Elisha couldn't even look at it. Then it split into parts. Elisha saw the Merkabah, the field around the Human, the chariot that Elijah rode in. He saw it and reported it. What do you think it was? The Human got to see ascension. That's death. ...."

Russia suspends import and use of American GM corn after study revealed cancer risk

Daily Mail, Sean Poulter, 25 September 2012

• The European Food Safety Authority orders review in to the research, conducted at a French university
• Russia's decision could be followed by other nations
• Experts at the University of Caen conducted an experiment running for the full lives of rats - two years
• The findings found raised levels of breast cancer, liver and kidney damage
• The same trials also found minuscule amounts of a commonly used weedkiller, Roundup
• Both the GM corn and Roundup are the creation of US biotech company Monsanto

Russia has suspended the import and use of an American GM corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage.

Separately, the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA), has ordered its own review in to the research, which was conducted at a French university.

The decision by Russia could be followed by other nations in what would be a severe blow to the take-up of the controversial technology.

Cancer risk? A farmer shows two corncobs of genetically engineered corn
 by U.S. company Monsanto, right, and two normal corncobs from Germany, left

Historically, biotech companies have proved the safety of GM crops based on trials involving feeding rats for a period of 90 days.

However, experts at the University of Caen conducted an experiment running for the full lives of rats - two years.

The findings, which were peer reviewed by independent experts before being published in a respected scientific journal, found raised levels of breast cancer, liver and kidney damage.

More...

• Outrage as Pennsylvania high school marching band commemorates 1917 Russian Revolution at half time
• An emotional Gwyneth Paltrow backs 'Stand Up To Cancer' campaign after losing her father to the disease ten years ago

The same trials also found evidence that consumption of minuscule amounts of a commonly used weedkiller, Roundup, was associated with a raised risk of cancer.

Both the GM corn, which carries the name NK603, and Roundup are the creation of US biotech company Monsanto.

The decision by the Russians to suspend authorisation for the American GM corn threatens to trigger a transatlantic commercial and diplomatic row.

Contentious: A combine harvests corn in a field near Coy, Arkansas. The
decision  by the Russians to suspend authorisation for the American GM
corn threatens to trigger a transatlantic commercial and diplomatic row

Russia’s consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said today that it has suspended the import and use of the Monsanto GM corn.

Rospotrebnadzor said the country’s Institute of Nutrition has been asked to assess the validity of the study.

It has also contacted the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health & Consumers to ask for the EU’s position on the corn’s safety.

Consumer scepticism in the UK and Europe means GM corn is not on supermarket shelves here, however it is fed to farm animals, including hens, pigs and dairy cows. 

Important: In the USA, and much of Europe,
 corn is used to make an array of food
products including cornflakes (picture
posed by model)

Last week Monsanto said it did not think the French study would affect its license to export the NK603 to Europe but would wait to hear from EFSA.

The company said: ‘Based on our initial review, we do not believe the study presents information that would justify any change in EFSA’s views on the safety of genetically modified corn products or alter their approval status for genetically modified imports.’

The biotech industry and university researchers involved in GM research have mounted a major PR campaign over the last year to win over sceptical consumers.

In the past week, pro-GM scientists have been lining up to undermine the French experiments and criticise the way they were conducted.

However, a number of independent academics have praised the French team’s work, describing it as the most thorough and extensive feeding trials involving GM to date.

Mustafa Djamgoz, the Professor of Cancer Biology, at Imperial College, London, said the findings relating to eating GM corn were a ‘surprise’.

Prof Djamgoz, who describes himself as a neutral on GM, said: ‘The results are significant. The experiments are, more or less, the best of their kind to date.’

However, he said that it is now important to ensure they are repeated with more animals by independent laboratories to confirm the outcome.

‘We are not scaremongering here. More research, including a repetition of this particular study are warranted,’ he said.

The professor said it will take two to three years to get a definitive answer.

Related Article:

Monsanto and Genetically Modified Crops - Is there a cover-up?

Uruguay poised to legalize abortion

Associated Press, Pablo Fernandez, Sep. 25, 2012

People demonstrate against abortion legalization in downtown Montevideo,
 Uruguay, Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. Demonstrators protested the day before
 a congressional bill legalizing abortion is voted on. The signs read in
Spanish "not to abortion." (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's congress appeared ready on Tuesday to legalize abortion, a groundbreaking move in Latin America, where no country save Cuba has made abortions accessible to all women during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Compromises made to secure votes disappointed both sides of the abortion divide, which gathered in protest. Once it gets through Uruguay's lower house, the measure would go back to the Senate for approval of changes, but President Jose Mujica has said he will allow it to become law.

The measure would give women the right to a legal abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and decriminalize later-term abortions when the mother's life is at risk or when the fetus is so deformed that it wouldn't survive after birth. In cases of rape, abortions would be legal during the first 14 weeks.

The goal is to reduce the number of illegal abortions in Uruguay, Congressman Ivan Posada of the center-left Independent Party told his fellow lawmakers Tuesday. Posada wrote the measure and is expected to provide a key 50th vote against the opposition of 49 other lawmakers.

"They talk of 30,000 a year, a hypothetical number, but whatever the number is, it's quite dramatic for a country where 47,000 children are born each year," Posada explained earlier in an Associated Press interview.

A poll this month showed 52 percent of Uruguayans would vote to legalize abortion if the question were put to the people, while 34 percent would vote against it. The survey of 802 people nationwide by the CIFRA consulting firm had a 3.4 percentage point margin of error.

Compromises include requiring women seeking abortions to justify their request before a panel of at least three professionals — a gynecologist, psychologist and social worker — and listen to advice about alternatives including adoption and support services if should she decide to keep the baby.

Then, she must wait five more days "to reflect" on the consequences before the procedure.

"It's important that the woman who decides to have an abortion attend this meeting where she will be informed, where they'll explain all the options including alternatives that she is free to choose from," Posada told the AP.

The review panel should obtain the father's point of view, but only if the woman agrees. Women under 18 must show parental consent, but they can seek approval from a judge instead if they're unwilling or unable to involve their parents in the decision.

The measure also allows entire private health care institutions, as well as individual health care providers, to decline to perform abortions.

Such requirements raised objections from Amnesty International and other groups, which say layers of bureaucracy will create barriers and delay abortions until more than 12 weeks have passed, thus forcing women and health care providers into criminal territory.

"This is not the law for which we fought for more than 25 years," complained Marta Agunin, who directs Women and Health, a non-governmental organization in Uruguay.

Also opposed are Uruguay's Catholic and evangelical institutions, which along with public hospitals provide much of the available health care in Uruguay.

A statement from Uruguay's Catholic University says it makes no sense to punish a woman for killing a fetus that is 12 weeks and 1 day old, but to decriminalize abortions before then. Conservatives also object to the removal of a proposal to require the father's consent before any abortion.

Cuba, which decriminalizes abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, is the only country in Latin America where legal abortion is common. Argentina and Colombia allow it only in cases of rape or when the mother's life is endangered. Colombia also allows it when there is proof of fetal malformation. Mexico City has legalized first-trimester abortions, but there are restrictions in most other parts of the country.

Many countries ban abortions under any conditions.

Uruguay's lawmakers have no desire to make their country a destination for women from other countries seeking abortions. The measure says only Uruguayan citizens and women who can prove at least one year's residency can apply. "This is a solution for those who live here, not that Uruguay becomes a place that attracts people from other countries for this procedure," Posada told the AP.

Opposition Deputy Javier Garcia of the center-right National Party accused lawmakers of treating living embryos as if they were "disposable," which he equated with murder.

The margin for the law was razor-thin on Tuesday after Deputy Andres Lima of the ruling Broad Front coalition said he would refuse to vote. With Posada joining the coalition, the measure appeared headed for passage by a 50-49 vote margin.

Dr. Marie Gonzalez, bioethicist at the University of the Republic, called the measure "evil" and vowed to work to persuade her fellow gynecologists to refuse to perform the procedure if it becomes law.

"The embryo-fetus is a human being, and as such has rights, like the human right to live," she said.

Related Articles:

‘Stop backstreet abortions: change the law’

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.

A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.

But let's discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath. The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained. Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.

The quantum instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,, getting ready for the first breath. ..."

Man’s Failing Heart Heals Itself on Day of Emergency Transplant

ABC News, Erin McLaughlin, Sep. 25, 2012

Getty Images

A miraculous thing happened the day Michael Crowe was set to receive a potentially life-saving heart transplant. Doctors had determined the surgery would be ineffective — but his heart suddenly started beating again.

Crowe, a 23-year-old pharmacy student from Omaha, had been diagnosed with acute myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, likely caused by a viral infection. When his mother brought him to the emergency room at his local hospital on Aug. 14, doctors found his heart was only functioning at about 25 percent efficiency. The hospital referred him to the Nebraska Medical Center, and by the time he was admitted to the intensive care unit there, his heart’s efficiency had dropped below 10 percent.

“If he had come to us any later, his heart would have just stopped,” Dr. John Um, Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation at Nebraska Medical Center told ABC News.

Doctors hooked Crowe up to a heart-lung machine that would essentially act as his heart for him, pumping blood throughout his body.

“When the heart stops, that’s defined as clinical death,” Dr. Um said. “In this case, his body only stayed alive because the machine was pumping his blood for him.”

Crowe was immediately placed on a list for an emergency heart transplant, and remained on the heart-lung machine in a medically induced coma until an appropriate donor heart became available.

After nearly three weeks, a heart was found.  The good news was followed by bad, though: tests revealed he had contracted a blood infection. Doctors said he probably would not survive the transplant surgery.

About an hour later, one of his doctors noticed something strange — his blood pressure was going up, something that would be impossible if his body was only receiving blood through the machine.

“His heart started working again on its own,” Dr. Um told ABC. “The left side of his heart was pumping blood again. The right side was still weak, so we slowly eased him off the machine. At this point, he was in pretty good shape.”

Dr. Um said this was the first time one of his patients has been on an external heart-lung machine for this long before his heart started beating again.

“He’s home now, doing great,” Dr. Um said. “He’s really, really lucky.”

Um said doctors seem to be seeing more cases similar to this, in which a failing heart heals itself.

“The interesting thing is that if he had gotten a transplant right away, we would have never known if he could have recovered on his own,” Um said. “Now that we have technology that allows people to remain on external heart machines longer, we could see this more.”

In the simplest terms, Dr. Um explained, the heart got sick, triggering an immune response that shut the heart down to fight the infection, and eventually healed itself.  Technology kept Crowe’s body alive while his heart healed.

Although there could be effects on his heart in the future, Dr. Um said young people who suffer from acute heart problems like Crowe’s tend to make a full recovery, healing fully.

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Bloomy's latest 'nanny state' crackdown will curb junk food in hospitals

New initiative gets private medical centers on board with healthier offerings

New York Daily News, Rachel Silberstein, Edgar Sandoval and Simone Weichselbaum, Sep. 23, 2012

Hospital vending machines, like this one, will soon be filled with healthier
offerings under a Bloomberg Administration initiative

Long Island College Hospital even
 has a Taco Bell -- but not for much
longer, apparently. (Photo: Rachel
Silberstein/NY Daily News)

It soon may be easier in a New York hospital to get an extra blanket or a bedpan than a Snickers bar or a can of Coke.

Mayor Bloomberg’s Health Department, which has already done Hizzoner’s bidding by banishing sugary and fatty foods in public hospitals, has convinced a number of private health-care facilities to junk the junk, the Daily News has learned.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Hector Cruzado, a spokesman for Wyckoff Heights Medical in Bushwick, Brooklyn, one of the private hospitals that have voluntarily signed onto the program. “Starting October 1, we are switching them all out,” he said of vending machines that now are stocked with soda and sweets. “Only healthy options will be offered.”

Nutrition experts say it’s a smart move, considering many hospital patients are suffering from illnesses linked to diets laden with salt, fat and sugar.

Critics will say it’s another example of Bloomberg’s nanny instincts — which have already done away with smoking in most public places and trans fats in city restaurants, and are zeroing in on super-size sodas at fast-food joints.

The participating hospitals know the changes won’t be universally popular. “I haven’t told the staff yet that their sweet rolls are going away,” said an exec at one facility that’s about to overhaul its offerings. Public hospitals have already slimmed down their vending machines, to the chagrin of some calorie-craving visitors.

“What’s wrong with chocolate?” groused Jerome Tyler, 48, who was visiting a pal at Harlem Hospital Sunday. “Bloomberg should mind his business. He’s trying to be like my father.”

The Health Department declined to say how many private hospitals have signed onto its Healthy Hospital Food Initiative, which a source said calls for participants to adopt the city’s food standards for vending machines, cafeterias and patient meals, such as:

* No meals featuring deep-fried food, trans fats, 2% or whole milk, fruit in syrup, or salty food.

* All full-size portions of sandwiches, salads, and entrees must contain 650 calories or less.

* All beverages will be 12 ounces or smaller, except water and seltzer — and water and seltzer will be at least 25% cheaper than other drinks.

* Baked chips, nuts or pretzels instead of candy bars in vending machines.

* Desserts and other sweets will contain 250 calories or less.

A survey by The News found many private hospitals will need to tighten their belts to follow the guidelines.

At Brooklyn Hospital Center’s emergency room in Fort Greene, visitors can buy $1.75 ice-cream cones. SUNY Downstate’s Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, has a Taco Bell.

“Terrible. They should serve healthy food,” said flower deliveryman Eduardo Johannesen, 23, as he dropped off a bouquet to a sick patient at LICH. “Isn’t the hospital supposed to be a healthy place?”

At Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park, Brooklyn, junk food outpaced water, cereal bars and nuts in the two ER vending machines. Maimonides is joining the city’s initiative and has already cut down on empty calories in some machines and plans to increase the effort, a spokeswoman said.

Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx also endorsed the standards and said it’s eliminated sugared beverages and candy in all machines and trans fats in the cafeteria. “We are always looking to improve, make things healthier,” said spokeswoman Helene Guss. “We have done so much already.”

While hospital cafeterias may offer healthy options like fresh fruit, salad bars and lean sandwiches, most are not open around the clock or are not near the ER.

At SUNY-Downstate in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Mildred Broughon, 64, was frustrated by vending machine choices as she waited for doctors to check a feverish grandchild. “I have to take medication at certain times, but I need something like a sandwich to take it with. And all I have is chips and soda,” she said.

A check of public hospitals found vending machines stocked with healthier options — though there were chocolate bars and cookies at Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital.

With Heidi Evans

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