Odds and Ends 10/19/2010

DepEd suspends classes in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Education suspended classes in the elementary and high school levels in both public and private schools in Metro Manila starting at noon Tuesday in light of continuing inclement weather following the passage of super-typhoon “Juan” (international codename: Megi).

Here we go again, suspending classes starting at noon. All the while we had the impression that the typhoon was going to hit hard much earlier, and this supension happens just at the time when the typhoon is weakening AND the students are already in class. With the numerous typhoons hitting our country over and over again since time immemorial, one thinks that we should have mastered the art of suspending classes by now.
Oh well, some things never change.
/

Malaysian king's palace to cost $258 million

KUALA LUMPUR – A massive new palace being built for Malaysia's king is expected to be completed next June, at a total cost of $258 million, parliament has been told.

The "Istana Negara," or national palace, is taking shape on a hilltop in a Kuala Lumpur suburb and is an enormous complex of dome-topped buildings linked to the city's highways with special access roads.

Just another one of those reasons that says that the world has more than enough resources to support all of its inhabitants.
/

Octuplet mom's doctor faces license revocation hearing

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A California fertility doctor implanted a dozen embryos in Nadya Suleman, resulting in "an unsafe octuplet delivery" last year, a lawyer for the state's medical board said Monday.

Dr. Michael Kamrava, the fertility doctor who treated Suleman beginning in 1997, appeared before an administrative law judge Monday for a hearing that could lead to the loss of his medical license.

Kamrava "will say she demanded all 12 embryos and, because it was the weekend, he did not know what to do," said California Deputy Attorney General Judith Alvarado. "But he knew it was unsafe."

Suleman -- known in the media as "Octomom" -- was 33 years old when she gave birth to eight babies in January 2009. She was a single woman who already had six young children conceived through in-vitro fertilization administered by Kamrava..

..for a hearing that could lead to the loss of his medical license...

Crazy. A doctor who intentionally and willfully subjects his patients to an unnecessary, grave physical danger not only deserves loss of his medical license. He deserves penalty for a criminal act as well. According to the report, Suleman already has 8 children -- six boys and two girls born nine weeks premature. That should be enough reason to question the psychological state of the mother who it appears, is in no financial condition to support even her current children.
They are already all under welfare. What was this fertility doctor thinking when he implanted a dozen embryos into a financially distraught woman, who already has eight children she cannot support, who is not even married, and who will be placed in grave physical danger? I wonder if this doctor has the good sense to plead insanity.

(Note: for the Catholic position against IVF, read Donum Vitae and Dignitas Personae)
/