As further proof that we haven't progressed much, ethically, from the days when unsavory characters made midnight forays into graveyards to provide medical researchers with cadavers for dissection, I offer this macabre story of tissue removed from bodies entrusted to various mortuaries in New York City, without consent and without proper safety precautions. The tissues were then implanted, in the form of bone and skin grafts, in hundreds of unsuspecting patients across the country.
I'm beginning to suspect that "factory medicine" is as dangerous a practice as factory farming.Because I have a friend who is an avid deer hunter, the New York Times article on chronic wasting disease caught my eye. CWD is the deer and elk equivalent of mad cow disease, and has spread so far to 11 states and two Canadian provinces.
The news is not all bad for hunters. Bruce Morrison, chairman of the National Chronic Wasting Disease Plan Implementation Team is himself a hunter and asserts, "I'm not worried." However, he also recommended that hunters in states where CWD has been found have their deer and elk meat frozen while the brain is tested, and warned that no part of an infected animal should be eaten.
Which is not good news for the rest of us. I fail to see a material difference between this warning and a call to increase greatly the testing of animals that end up in the meat departments of our grocery stores. We have not learned well from Great Britain's sad experience with mad cow disease, and need to stop burying our governmental heads in the sand. Japan's recent renewal of the ban on U.S. beef is not the most important reason for tightening the regulations, although it is the one grabbing the headlines.
Personally, I'm awaiting news from Symantec and McAfee that they will be implementing special protection measures for Gateway computers.A few months ago we added a Maxtor OneTouch 200G external hard drive to our system, which excited me greatly because it made backing up my files much easier. Then one day last week we heard a sudden "pop!" and...nothing. No recognition of the drive by the computer, no light on the drive, no light on the power supply. The last was actually good news, as it gave us hope that it was the power supply that had given out, rather than the drive itself with all our data.
Our first attempt to determine the full extent of the damage was frustrating. I called CompUSA (from which we had purchased the drive) and was told (1) yes, they did carry replacement power supplies for our Maxtor drive; (2) they were in stock; and (3) the cost would be $9.99. I thought that was very reasonable, and we headed out to the store.
Only to be met with incredulity: No, we don't have such a thing; we don't sell them and never have. But I just called and was told, etc., etc. Sorry, even though you called our local number, you were actually speaking with a call center and they were just plain wrong.
To the credit of the CompUSA manager, he did offer to sell us a device he thought would be compatible for the quoted $9.99, instead of the marked price, which was twice that. To take advantage of his offer would have been a mistake, however; we were spared thanks to reading the fine print and knowing 1 amp = 1000 milliamps (i.e. 300 ma is not the same as 3a.).
Maxtor itself was much more helpful. To our pleasant surprise, the drive was still under warranty, and they immediately sent us a new ($30) power supply. (Actually, I'm grateful to CompUSA, since if we'd been able to purchase the power supply that night we wouldn't have thought to check the warranty!) The package arrived today, and thanks be to God the drive itself was fine, and all our data with it.
We're up and running again, and struggling with the moral of the story: Back up your data, but quis custodiet ipsos custodes? How to back up the backup? If it's data you really don't want to lose, better have redundant backups, preferably not all in the same room, house, or city.
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Category Random Musings
That's what happened to Claudia Meija. Somehow during what should have been a very brief stay at the hospital, in an area (labor and delivery) where the patients aren't even sick, she acquired an "aggressive streptococcal infection," a.k.a. flesh-eating bacteria.
There were no complications with the birth: "Everything was normal." But then she developed a rash ("possible allergic reaction to the sheets") and severe stomach pain ("normal for someone who had just given birth"). Two days later, doctors performed a hysterectomy. Twelve days later they amputated all her limbs, having given her the choice between that and dying. Even so, it was months before she was healthy enough to leave the hospital.
Is it any wonder that when Jon was in the hospital with viral meningitis I prayed as much that he would not acquire a new infection as I did that he recover from the original?
Is it any wonder that, despite its own inherent risks, home birth is looking more and more like the safer alternative?Here's a local version of the story:
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Category Everyday Life
I doubt I would have found The Giver had it not been required reading for two of my nephews. One read it as a class assignment in seventh grade; for the other it was read aloud in fifth grade. Intrigued, I borrowed the book from our library.
The Giver makes me wish I belonged to a literary discussion group. Without a doubt there is plenty here to discuss, and I can see why teachers might be eager to share this Newbery Award winner with their classes. I would love to talk about it in a group, to toss about various interpretations and implications. And yet, despite the "young adult" designation, despite the fact that the main character has not yet reached his teens, I question the value of such a book in the elementary or middle school curriculum.My friends and family know all too well how strongly I believe children are much more capable than we give them credit for, and are all too familiar with my rants about how society—especially school—holds them back, does not respect them, and deprives them of important opportunities for growth and learning. Certainly a 10-year-old could contribute intelligently to a discussion of The Giver, if he had the background and experience. However, modern American education—which definition I extend backwards at least as far as my own experience—will rarely if ever allow such a child to develop. To speak intelligently on the serious issues that emerge from this book requires more knowledge of history, philosophy, religion, literature, and ethics than many adults possess. Without such a background, how can a discussion rise above the level of the readers' feelings?
I'm reminded of the first Gulf War, during which our local elementary schools made a point of engaging their students in discussions about the war, querying them on such issues as why we were fighting and whether or not the war was justified. What, other than confusion and a false sense of self-importance, can come from asking such questions of people who know nothing of history, let alone economics, politics, and religion?
Before we ask our children to wrestle with life's difficulties, ambiguities, and moral dilemmas, let them have a strong course of history and logic, at least. To do otherwise is to send them unarmed into mortal combat.
