CategoryMedicine and Health
‘Nonmedical’ Assisted Suicide This Way Comes
Some assisted suicide advocates promote a model where no medical personnel need be involved
The ‘Gender-Industrial Complex’ Makes Billions Annually
A new report produced recently by the American Principles Project sheds light on financial incentives
Boosters of Assisted Suicide Want It To Be Much More Common
Activists want assisted suicide normalized well beyond the terminally ill so that we become euthanasia enthusiasts
Medical Journal Pushes Training for Doctors on How to Kill
Chillingly, most of the doctors who participated in a small study on assisted suicide, and who prescribe poison as part of their job, like it.
What Brain Surgery for Epilepsy Taught Us About the Human Mind
Michael Egnor continues his discussion with Pat Flynn, noting that neither seizures nor Penfield’s brain stimulation provoked abstract thought
Universal Infant Genetic Screening Pushed in Science Journal
It’s hard to opt out of a procedure that you don’t know is going to be performed. Think of the eugenic possibilities!
Study: 25% of Coma Patients Showed Consciousness When Tested
Making contact with patients via brain scanning technology is a first step toward treatment of those who may now be deemed hopeless cases
The Difference Smartphones Make to People With Hearing Loss
Engineering is not an arm-chair exercise. Engineers mut get their prototypes out in the field where people they don't know will use them in ways they can't imagine
Not Suffering But Fighting: Dementia as a New Beginning
Writers, artists, and many others who must fight the late-life disorder are finding new resources to do so
How Believing You’ll Get Better May Affect Your Brain
A placebo effect experiment in mice pinpointed a change in an area of the brain not previously known to be involved in pain control
The Mind Is Not Annihilated at Death, Emergency Room Doctor Says
ER specialist Sam Parnia is making waves with his challenge, based on his clinical experience and research, to the claim that the human mind is annihilated at death
When Deep Forgetfulness Was a Death Sentence…
Memory care specialist Stephen Post reminds us of that dark but recent era, in conversation with Michael Egnor
A Status Report From the War on Late Life Dementia
Almost half of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed, researchers believe
Dementia: New insights in caring for deeply forgetful people
Dr. Stephen Post, an expert in memory disorders, talks to neurosurgeon Michael Egnor about when and how people suddenly remember again
At Least 60 People with Eating Disorders Euthanized or Assisted in Suicide since 2012
Most had other mental illnesses. How might those mental disorders have affected these poor people’s ability to “choose” to be killed or kill themselves?
Unborn Child Learns the Accents, Rhythms of Mom’s Native Language
There is, however, a dark, little-told tale about how we learned much of what we know about unborn children today
AI health coaching: Risk vs. benefit
As health care analyst Katie Suleta points out, familiar problems like bias and hallucination could impact the health advice the AI coach gives
Do We Need the Right Half of the Human Brain?
Generally, we do. Yet what happened when one woman lost the right half of her brain as an adult was unexpectedA little-reported 2021 case study published in Neurology Clinical Practice shows how resilient the human brain can be. A 29-year-old woman, CB, with no neurological or psychiatric history had a stroke, possibly due to medication issues. The damage was serious enough that a decision was made, with her consent, to remove almost all of the right side of her brain (hemispherectomy). As the study authors put it, “only a small disconnected right occipital pole was retained.” What impact would that have on her mind? The right hemisphere of the brain is thought by neuroscientists to play a specific role in “nonverbal” cognitive abilities. From Simply Psychology, we learn, Left hemisphere function The left hemisphere controls the right-hand side of the Read More ›
Heart attack doctor asks, is death now reversible?
If new findings in resuscitation techniques hold up, says Sam Parnia in his new book, brain conditions now deemed irreversible may be reversibleResuscitation specialist Sam Parnia, reflects in his new book, Lucid Dying (Hachette, August 6, 2024), on the recent discovery that brains can be resuscitated hours after death. From the sample pages offered at the book’s Amazon site, we learn that in 2019, a writer at prominent science journal Nature sent Parnia a copy of the embargoed results of a study of pig brains from a slaughterhouse, kept alive for hours after death. “I was left totally stunned and speechless” he recounts: For at least a decade, I had tried to draw attention to the fact that our concept of life and death should be redefined. Death should no longer be viewed as a specific black-and-white moment. Instead, it should be Read More ›