Canada.com Health takes a look at a few stories you may have missed this week.
Should Dr. Oz be fired from Columbia University?
You may recall the time Dr. Mehmet Oz, celebrity medicine man and now-infamous hawker of quack “miracle” cures, endured a grilling before a U.S. Senate Committee. And you may recall John Oliver’s brilliant takedown of the TV doc (see above video), delivered on the heels of his appearance in Washington. Well, times continue to be tough for Dr. Oz: a group of ten physicians have now written a letter to the Dean of Columbia University’s medical school, urging him to fire Dr. Oz from the esteemed faculty.
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“Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops,” says the letter. “Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.” Seems there’s no love for pseudo-medical hackery these days.
New alternatives in bereavement care
When a loved one dies, many people often wish they had more guidance as they experience grief and loss. [Photographee.eu/Fotolia]
For those who have lost someone close to them, they may have endured some frustrations in the process of saying goodbye. To some, they don’t feel the typical institutional protocols give them enough time with the deceased person before they’re taken away. To others, they simply don’t find enough of a care structure available to them as they navigate through a difficult time.
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Enter a new concept known as “conscious dying,” the idea behind which is the encouragement of “conversation and decision-making, so that patients and families can make death and the bereavement process more meaningful and more intimate.” There’s a growing number of care workers seeking to further this goal. Sometimes referred to as “death doulas,” “death midwives” or “death and dying guides,” among other things, they seek to ensure a more personal experience to help walk the bereaved through their time of loss. The guiding principle is simple: no one wants to feel alone.
The ethics of finding an organ donor through Social Media
When it comes to organ donation, many countries continue to face chronic shortages. For those in need of transplants, it could take years before a match is found and they receive a life-saving transplant. Unfortunately, many patients can’t afford to wait that long. That was certainly the case for 39-year-old Roel Marien of Belgium, who was told he would have to wait three years for a kidney transplant he needed much sooner to stay alive.
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Desperate to expedite the process, he turned to Facebook and appealed directly to his friends for a donor. And while eight people agreed to donate a kidney if they were found to be a match, doctors ultimately refused to perform the transplant. They said it was unfair, since being popular on social media might give some people an advantage over less-liked individuals equally in need. No one, they argued, should be able to use their media-savviness, good looks or compelling personal story to jump the queue. They may have a point. But for others, such as Emily Rodenbeck (featured in video above), it’s simply a new way of seeking out people who may not have otherwise stepped forward.
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