Watching the World

Fearful Surgeons

Surgeons face a perplexing dilemma with regard to operating on patients who test positive for AIDS. “At this time, it is our policy not to do the surgery,” says Dr. W. Dudley Johnson, a prominent heart surgeon. “We are dealing with a procedure that has a high blood profile. There is blood all over the place. There is an absolute danger from needle sticks.” A growing number of surgeons seem to have the same fear. In one survey, over 90 percent of the surgeons responding agreed with Dr. Johnson’s practice of turning such patients away. “In truth,” notes Newsweek magazine, “neither the ancient Hippocratic oath nor the modern code of medical ethics requires a doctor to treat a patient if he doesn’t want to.” Dr. Johnson did concede that as yet he knew of no doctor who had contracted AIDS from a patient. “I want to keep it that way,” he declared.

Clergymen Rebaptized

Two Protestant clergymen, Lutheran Reinhart Weber and Klaus Hoffmann of the United Church, “were rebaptized ‘biblically’” in Lensahn, Federal Republic of Germany, reports the Ecumenical Press Service. Infant baptism, explained retired pastor Weber, is “not according to the Bible.” Hoffmann even asked regional leaders of the Evangelical Church “to stop the baptism of very young children,” notes the report. The reaction? He has been suspended from his pastoral duties.

Psychotic Polar Bears

Penned-up polar bears become “psychotic,” reports The Sunday Times of London. More than half of the 15 polar bears now kept in British zoos are affected, it says. Keeping such an active and inquisitive animal in restricted zoo conditions seems to cause severe mental disturbance in the bears, which is evidenced by their meaningless pacing and swaying movements coupled with, in some cases, self-mutilation.

Both Mates Suffer

Men with marriage problems are more susceptible to disease than are those who are happily married, say researchers Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and her husband, Ronald Glaser, of Ohio State University. Though previous studies have shown this to be true of unhappily married women, until recently the extent to which the male immune system was weakened by marital stress was not known. However, blood tests on men with troubled marriages showed them less able to ward off two common herpes virus infections. In addition, a study conducted by researcher Christopher Coe, of the University of Wisconsin, suggested that “emotional influences on physical health can persist for a long time after the emotional problem has been resolved,” reports the New York Post.

Killer Stress

In 1987 in Japan, sudden deaths of top business executives in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s jumped to three times that of the same period the previous year. Their deaths were attributed to “unimaginable stress” that accompanies the post of today’s top executives, notes Tokyo’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. Though all were said to have had strong confidence in their health, harsh business conditions aggravated by inflation contributed to their stressful life. To counteract the trend, Japan’s Federation of Employers Association has issued eight rules to prevent stress. The rules include: Avoiding hard schedules, exercising more than 30 minutes every day, and laughing.