Watching the World
Transfusion Decree in Italy
According to the Italian Constitution, no one can be subjected to a particular medical treatment against his will. A recent decree of the Italian Ministry of Health confirms that this constitutional regulation applies also to blood transfusions. In fact, this decree, dated January 15, 1991, states that “transfusions of blood, blood components, or blood derivatives, constitute a therapeutic practice that is not without risks; therefore, it requires the informed consent of the receiver.” In other words, patients should know the risks and have the right to refuse blood. An appendix to the decree acknowledges that transfusions can transmit “infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and AIDS,” and that “laboratory tests cannot always identify persons recently infected.”
Pope Credits Mary
During a recent visit to Portugal, Pope John Paul II made a special sojourn to the shrine of the Virgin of Fátima to mark the tenth anniversary of the attempt on his life by a gunman in Rome. The assassination attempt took place on the “Day of Our Lady of Fátima”—a day that commemorates the occasion in 1917 when three children in Fátima claimed to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary—so the pope credits Mary with having saved his life on the day of the shooting. In fact, on this anniversary one of the bullets taken from his body was used to adorn the diamond-studded crown worn by the Fátima statue of the virgin. The pope also thanked the virgin for the “unexpected changes” that have resulted in the end of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in recent years.
As Long as a Boeing 737 Jet
“Whatever it was, its remains are mighty big. Individual neck vertebrae are 1.5 metres [5 ft] across while ribs measure three metres [10 ft], leading scientists to estimate the animal’s over-all length at 27 to 30 metres [90-100 ft],” reports The Vancouver Sun of Canada. That is as long as a Boeing 737 jet! In 1986 the petrified neck of this monster was excavated at a site in Inner Mongolia by a team of Canadian and Chinese scientists. Four years later its huge skull was unearthed. “The real significance of finding the skull is that for the first time we’ll be able to determine whether this dinosaur is related to well-known dinosaurs in North America,” said Philip Currie of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.
Caste Brutality
India’s caste system was behind the recent public murder of three youths, reports India Today. In the tiny town of Mehrana, an 18-year-old boy of the Jatav caste became romantically involved with a 16-year-old girl of the richer, more powerful Jat caste. The girl’s parents, and many others of the Jat caste, were enraged. At a council, reportedly dominated by the wealthier Jats, the two youths and another Jatav boy who acted as their go-between were sentenced to death. The two boys were brutally tortured for hours, and then their fathers were allegedly forced to put the nooses around their sons’ necks. All three teenagers were hanged in the town square. India Today reports that the main culprits in the murders are now in jail but laments: “It was a tragic reminder that the country’s villages continue to be steeped in the medieval obsession of caste, which no amount of ‘modernity’ can erode.”
Crime Without Punishment
Britain’s Home Office Research and Statistics Department has recently released some dismaying figures regarding crime in that country. Consider 100 crimes. Of those, 59 are never reported. Of those that are, police follow up on only 26. Of these, they clear up less than a third—only seven are finally solved. And of these, only four lead to the conviction or even the warning of the offender! However, these statistics cover all crimes, including vandalism and theft. British police clear up 70 percent of the crimes involving violence and 90 percent of the murders.
Stress and Ethics
Ethical behavior may be linked to happiness, while unethical behavior may be related to stress, suggests a recent study. According to The Wall Street Journal, a consulting firm called London House subjected 111 executives, managers, and other professionals to a battery of tests to determine their overall emotional health. Test subjects also had to agree or disagree with such probing ethical propositions as these: “It is not necessary to associate with unethical business people in order to get ahead” and, “White-collar lawbreakers should get more lenient treatment . . . than criminals working the street.” The tests revealed that the executives who showed a more developed sense of ethics were also healthier emotionally. They were happier, more responsible, and less likely to feel tense, anxious, hostile, or fearful than their less ethical colleagues.
Mine Fraud Alleged
Some 500 mining companies in the United States have committed a type of fraud that could endanger the lives of thousands of mine workers, the U.S. Department of Labor charged recently. Mine companies are required by law to submit regularly the filters from small air samplers installed in their mines. The department analyzes these filters and may shut down mines that show dangerously high levels of coal dust in the air, which can lead to black lung disease and even death. The department charges that in the past year and a half, 847 mines have sent in 4,710 filters bearing evidence of fraud. Some filters had been coated with household sprays that prevent dust from accumulating. Others had been vacuumed to reduce the amount of dust appearing. Black lung disease afflicts hundreds of thousands of miners; every year, as many as 4,000 retired miners succumb to its gradually debilitating effects and die.
Shielding Pedophile Priests?
“Some dioceses still shield priests accused of pedophilia,” ran a recent headline in the U.S. newspaper National Catholic Reporter. The newspaper interviewed Jeffrey Anderson, a lawyer who specializes in cases of sexual abuse. He estimates that since 1985, when priestly pedophilia came under increased public scrutiny, there have been over a thousand cases in which priests molested children. Anderson had some harsh words for the church’s response to the ongoing crisis: “It is a continuing saga of avoiding responsibility,” he charges, decrying the church’s focus on protecting the accused clerics. “As a general rule, the institutional response of the church has been willfully inadequate both in tending to victims and dealing with risks.”
Disturbed Sleep
“Singles sleep best, married persons fairly well, and widowed or divorced persons living alone suffer most from disturbed sleep,” reports the German medical journal Ärztliche Praxis. A survey involving 1,500 patients between the ages of 18 and 65 revealed that 19 percent regularly had disturbed sleep that left them worn-out during the day, 31 percent had problems with their sleep, although less serious, and only half reported no problems with sleep. The incidence of disturbed sleep was high among retired persons, the unemployed, the emotionally disturbed, and the chronically sick. Generally speaking, “men sleep better than women,” comments the journal, and “the elderly worse than the young.”
Protecting Asian Wildlife
That is the challenge facing such Asian countries as Thailand. According to Asiaweek magazine, the World Wide Fund for Nature has singled out Thailand for its illegal trade in endangered wildlife, calling the country “the wildlife supermarket of the world.” Thai law apparently does not protect wildlife that is not indigenous to the country; thus, Thailand has become a preferred conduit for the traffic in endangered animals from surrounding countries. There are markets where exotic animals and birds are sold, and some restaurants even feature ‘jungle food’ on their menus, including the meat of such endangered creatures as crocodiles, barking deer, and wild boars.
Religious Scene’s Most Rapid Growth
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the most rapid growth of followers is not among the mainline churches or even among the energetic evangelical groups. Rather, the 1986 census revealed accelerating growth in the number who stated positively that they had no religion or who left unanswered the question about religion. The census indicated that nearly 25 percent of the Australian people are in this category, or nearly double the percentage of 20 years ago. But Dr. G. Bailey, a university professor of religion, told The Weekend Australian, a Sydney newspaper, that such people nevertheless do have a “surrogate religion.” He referred to a materialistic world view, “with its emphasis on greed and enterprise and its implicit goal of salvation through material possessions and material security.”