But Shahar is angry that most carers hit with unjust overpayments in the past will still have to repay them, for all the promise of a different future. And he notes that the cliff edge remains in place for four more years, potentially catching out more carers.
Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the deputy director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is leaving the agency after just four months on the job. Shuford, an infectious disease physician, was a former Texas health commissioner. She was appointed in April as part of a leadership team to support CDC…
Rep. Mark Takano criticized President Donald Trump for suggesting that the settlement of Camp Lejeune veterans' toxic exposure claims could depend on the outcome of the midterm elections.
Senate Democrats, led by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are pressing 10 major insurance companies about their decisions to work with the Trump administration to terminate coverage for thousands of ObamaCare enrollees due to alleged fraud. The letters, sent Monday to the CEOs of the 10 biggest Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurers…
The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, has used a scathing report from the commonwealth ombudsman to press the government to use the last two sitting weeks of parliament to restore human override to its “unfair” aged care assessment tool.
The 104-page ombudsman report, published on Monday, recommends the government change legislation so that aged care workers assessing older Australians for home support packages can amend the outcome when the algorithm-driven assessment tool makes an incorrect decision on funding.
Researchers found heart-related hospitalizations increased after marijuana legalization, raising new questions about cannabis and cardiovascular health.
Jacarés e crocodilos têm uma alimentação bem variada, devorando peixes, tartarugas, pássaros, cobras, moluscos, insetos, pequenos mamíferos que estejam dando sopa na água e até humanos – embora sejam casos raros. No entanto, um comportamento intrigava os cientistas: por que eles engolem pedras?
A crença inicial era de que elas ajudariam esses animais no processo de digestão, ou iam parar em seu estômago sem que percebessem. Mas um estudo publicado na revista “Integrative Organismal Biology” revelou que a atitude faz com que os jacarés e crocodilos consigam passar mais tempo debaixo d’água.
As pedras de granito ingeridas equivalem a 2,5% do peso corporal. Com elas no corpo, a duração média dos mergulhos aumentou 88% e a duração máxima, 117%. A hipótese é de que os gastrólitos, como são chamadas, aumentem a densidade mineral óssea e a capacidade pulmonar, permitindo imergir com uma reserva maior de oxigênio.
Vantagem
Como passam a maior parte do dia na água, ficar mais tempo submerso é uma vantagem. Para analisar a teoria, pesquisadores da Universidade de Utah, nos Estados Unidos, levaram 7 jovens jacarés americanos para comparar quanto tempo permaneciam embaixo d’água depois de engolirem um conjunto de pedras pequenas.
Após 42 mergulhos — 21 antes e 21 depois dessa “refeição” – os resultados apareceram em até 35 minutos. Sem pedras, eles conseguiam ficar submersos por, em média, seis minutos – número que passava de 11 minutos com elas dentro de si.
É como se as pedras passassem a exercer a mesma função que um cinto de lastro para os mergulhadores. Com isso, esses animais ficam à espreita, fora da vista de todos, e podem manter a presa debaixo d’água até que ela perca a respiração. Os pesquisadores creem que os jacarés e crocodilos utilizam a técnica há milhões de anos.
Jacaré ou crocodilo?
O maior jacaré encontrado no Brasil é o jacaré-açu, que pode alcançar 5 metros de comprimento. Também vivem no bioma brasileiro os jacarés-do-papo-amarelo, jacaré-coroa e jacaré-anão. Não há crocodilos no Brasil – eles costumam viver na África, na Austrália, sudeste da Ásia, América Central e norte da América do Sul.
E como reconhecer? A diferença física é visível no rosto: jacarés têm focinho arredondado (em formato de U), mais largo e curto, enquanto o do crocodilo é em formato de V, além de ser mais comprido, fino e longo. Jacarés vivem apenas em locais com água doce, enquanto crocodilos se adaptam a água doce ou salgada.
Cuba’s pediatric leukemia survival rate has fallen below 50% due to the intensified U.S. economic, commercial, financial and energy blockade, the president of the Cuban Society of Hematology, Olga Agramonte, denounced.
Cuban medicine had historically guaranteed survival rates of between 89% and 90% in pediatric patients, a figure now collapsing because of the impossibility of acquiring essential oncology drugs, diagnostic means and timely treatments, according to the report.
Agramonte denounced that the policy of asphyxiation considerably reduced cure and transplant rates and said the Caribbean nation faced severe obstacles to purchasing medical supplies due to the veto of bank accounts and sanctions on financial entities.
The specialist further warned that the crisis also deteriorated care for benign diseases associated with pregnancy and reduced blood donation, driven by complex living conditions and power outages, and said that although Cuban doctors adapted treatments, the pathologies responded to strict protocols and therapeutic timelines.
16000 personas en #Cuba necesitan radioterapia y 12000 quimioterapia.Lo han reconocido ONU y OMS.Dichos tratamientos requieren electricidad estable y Cuba, por el cerco energético,sufre prolongados apagones. El bloqueo no causa cáncer,pero obstaculiza tratamiento d la enfermedad pic.twitter.com/KSRKyZ3S1d
During the twenty-second Civil Society Forum against the blockade, organized by the Cuban United Nations Agency, civil society representatives exposed the widespread impact of these coercive measures on the National Healthcare System.
The head of the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Public Healthcare, José Armando Arronte, detailed that the surgical waiting list exceeded 100,000 patients, of whom 12,000 were minors.
The U.S. siege also affects ambulance transport and the wear and tear on health personnel in the face of blackouts and resource scarcity, allowing the country to guarantee only 30% of the medicines on its basic list, according to the report.
President Trump announced Monday an initiative worth hundreds of millions of dollars to recruit and retain nursing home nurses. “The Trump Administration is proud to announce a 250 MILLION DOLLAR PLUS initiative to RECRUIT and RETAIN Nurses for Nursing Homes!” Trump said in a Truth Social post Monday evening. “This Federal and State Initiative will…
Patients diagnosed with progressive dementia may know exactly how much deterioration they are willing to endure. They can articulate their wishes, discuss alternatives, and put their instructions in writing. Should losing the ability to repeat those instructions invalidate them?
Canada is preparing to address that question. On October 23, its Justice Department announced planned rules that would allow adults diagnosed with an incurable illness expected to destroy their decision-making capacity to consent in advance to assisted suicide (or, as Canada calls it, medical assistance in dying (MAID)). Ministers will discuss the proposal on October 27, but it must pass both houses of Parliament and receive formal approval from Canada's governor general before becoming law. Parliamentary committees can hear testimony and consider amendments along the way. The announcement promises safeguards but offers few details. Those details will determine how well the proposal respects patients' choices.
A free society recognizes individuals as sovereign over their own bodies provided they respect the rights of others. That freedom includes deciding how much suffering they are willing to endure. A competent adult's decision deserves respect even when physicians, relatives, or public officials would choose differently.
Competent adults should be free to choose clinician-assisted suicide or clinician-administered euthanasia, provided they give fully informed, voluntary consent and those assisting them do so willingly. That freedom should include planning for the loss of decision-making capacity. A patient's loss of decision-making capacity should not automatically grant the government authority to override instructions given while the patient was competent.
Physician-assisted deaths are now authorized in 13 states and Washington, D.C. Twelve states and the district enacted laws; Montana permits it under a state Supreme Court ruling. American statutes generally follow the Oregon model: Patients must have decision-making capacity, have a terminal illness expected to cause death within six months, and self-administer the medication.
These restrictions exclude people who suffer greatly but cannot meet the government's timetable or physically perform the final act. Progressive dementia creates another barrier. By the time patients reach the condition they hoped to avoid, they may no longer qualify.
In 1999, Michigan convicted Jack Kevorkian of second-degree murder after he administered lethal drugs to Thomas Youk, a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ("Lou Gehrig's disease") who had consented to the procedure. As I wrote in Reason, patients' bodily autonomy includes the freedom to request a willing physician's assistance in ending their lives. Requiring patients to administer the medication themselves denies that choice to people whose illnesses have stripped them of the physical ability to act. Dementia raises a further question: whether an informed decision can survive the loss of the capacity to express it.
Other countries give patients more latitude. At least a dozen countries permit some form of assisted dying, though their rules vary considerably. Canada does not require a terminal prognosis. In the Netherlands, euthanasia is permitted for unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement, subject to statutory safeguards.
Some countries also recognize advance requests, though under different conditions. In the Netherlands, a written advance request can replace an oral request once a patient loses the ability to express a choice, including in advanced dementia. The remaining legal requirements, including unbearable suffering without prospect of improvement, still apply.
Belgium permits advance requests more narrowly, only when a patient becomes irreversibly unconscious. Patients who lose decision-making capacity due to dementia while remaining conscious cannot obtain euthanasia under an earlier directive.
Respecting a patient's earlier wishes raises difficult questions. How clearly must patients describe the circumstances in which they want assistance? Who determines whether those circumstances have arrived? What happens if a patient who can no longer understand the directive resists the procedure or appears content with life?
Legal scholars, working with clinicians and patients, must help lawmakers answer these questions. Finding the right answers is difficult, but the obstacles are not insurmountable. Lawmakers must develop careful safeguards that respect patients' choices rather than impose a blanket refusal to honor decisions made while patients were competent.
Patients already use advance directives to refuse life-sustaining treatment after losing decision-making capacity. Authorizing someone to administer life-ending medication requires additional legal consideration. But the principle of planning ahead deserves the same respect: People should have a meaningful say over what happens to their bodies when illness prevents them from speaking for themselves.
The law has a legitimate role in protecting patients from coercion, fraud, and life-ending procedures they never consented to. Before another person intentionally helps end a patient's life, the law must require reliable evidence that the patient gave informed, voluntary consent and that the applicable conditions were met. Neither a relative's preferences nor a clinician's assessment of whether a life remains worth living can substitute for the patient's decision.
Participation must also remain voluntary. Clinicians and private institutions should be free to decline participation on moral, ethical, or professional grounds. Respect for autonomy extends to all involved.
Oversight should focus on compliance with the law. An independent body could audit cases retrospectively, publish anonymized findings, and refer credible violations to investigators. It should not require patients to obtain bureaucratic approval for individual decisions, nor should it have the authority to rewrite eligibility standards.
Eligibility should hinge on a serious, incurable condition causing enduring, intolerable suffering and on reliable evidence of informed, voluntary consent. A six-month prognosis gives the government too much power over how long patients must endure suffering they consider intolerable.
Canada's proposal deserves careful examination once its details are available. A law that honors clear advance instructions while protecting patients against violations of those instructions would expand their control over the course of an incurable illness. A law that allows others to substitute their preferences would undermine the autonomy it purports to protect.
Dementia can rob people of their memories, judgment, and ability to communicate. The government should not use those losses to erase choices they freely made while competent. Patients who leave clear, informed instructions deserve laws that let willing clinicians honor them. Their bodies belong to them, even when they can no longer say so.
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