News Stories

[Samari]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Mercy for Mother who Murdered Son
TL Courtesy Of Sankaku



I know I am inviting negreps for this, but I stand by what the mother did. She's right.

The Hippocratic Oath had this line stating :



Seriously, what are the doctors doing? Shirking responsibilities in favour of avoiding liabilities? Or are they trying to earn the $3,000 extra per month?

I am a supporter of euthanasia though I do not believe in using it as a pretext for Human Organ Transplant Acts. However in this case, the patient isn't the one suffering, but the family is, not only under the sheer financial pressure, but also the emotional agony of seeing someone living and suffering. Where is the doctor's code of ethics? And what is wrong with the legal system?

That sounds like something that would happen here in the states. Medical companies trying to squeeze every dime out of you.

[justsomeguy]

Was it possible for the family to have simply refused to pay? The suicide victim was 40yo, why was his family responsible for paying for his medical treatment, or is this some Japanese culture thing?

[Samari]

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

Was it possible for the family to have simply refused to pay? The suicide victim was 40yo, why was his family responsible for paying for his medical treatment, or is this some Japanese culture thing?

If they refused to pay a bill...I'm assuming like anything else, a collection agency would be involved. Not sure how things work in Japan, but here that is what happens when you don't pay a bill you're responsible for. And if lawyers couldn't do anything in the scenario, then I'm sure it's really serious business if they decide not to pay.

[justsomeguy]

Originally Posted by Samari

If they refused to pay a bill...I'm assuming like anything else, a collection agency would be involved. Not sure how things work in Japan, but here that is what happens when you don't pay a bill you're responsible for. And if lawyers couldn't do anything in the scenario, then I'm sure it's really serious business if they decide not to pay.

In the US, all the family would have to do is declare that they don't have insurance coverage, and the patient would be dumped out on his ass. I'm surprised that the Japanese hospital would continue to provide care and charge, knowing full well that they are very unlikely to be paid and unlikely to restore the patient. I'm also surprised that there was no attempt to cover up that this was an attempted suicide, or that the hospital administration did not go "Oop, sorry, the patient passed away from his injuries," when the family complained.

[Autumn Demon]

In anime/manga I often see the theme of debt being shifted onto family members, usually from parents to children. Now I know it really happens.

[FateAnomaly]

Not sure how it is in Japan but legally wise a person is only responsible for his own debt unless someone acted as guarantor or something. Unless you borrow from loan sharks of course.

[mg1942]

another victory to free-speech!

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

In the US, all the family would have to do is declare that they don't have insurance coverage, and the patient would be dumped out on his ass. I'm surprised that the Japanese hospital would continue to provide care and charge, knowing full well that they are very unlikely to be paid and unlikely to restore the patient. I'm also surprised that there was no attempt to cover up that this was an attempted suicide, or that the hospital administration did not go "Oop, sorry, the patient passed away from his injuries," when the family complained.

No, he wouldn't be dumped out on his ass. He'd be transfered to a state hospital though and treatment would be paid for via medicade. Or is that medicare since this is a disability thing... Well one of those programs. Of course this wouldn't happen in the US at all, because everyone there was in agreement that life support should be terminated, and here families can make the decision to pull the plug. You only get cases like that where there's disagreement about whether or not to pull the plug.

[midgets1412]

lol,,,,,,well is the story about here whats the new mhfff?

[TooPurePureBoy]

I found this pretty interesting.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...ic-space-plane

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by TooPurePureBoy

I found this pretty interesting.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...ic-space-plane

So it is a space-based version of the AC-130?

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

So it is a space-based version of the AC-130?

I think this thing is flying to high for cannons. It'd probably be able to drop bombs anywhere in the world very quickly.

Sounds like it'd make an extremely effective means to deploy nuclear munitions...

Originally Posted by LynnieS

The quote does not say why the doctors refused. It could be for the reasons you considered, or it could be for others - like personal belief in holding life sacred to an unwillingness to face murder/manslaughter charges if they did take the man off of life support. Euthanasia isn't supported in many parts of the world, and till that happens - and for the right/ethical/etc reasons, I suspect you'll see many more of these cases.

It does bring up very strong questions about the legal/ethical system you have. I don't see how your morality system can reasonably argue it's trying to uphold the sanctity of human decency by driving people into such abject ruination.

[mg1942]

Originally Posted by TooPurePureBoy

I found this pretty interesting.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...ic-space-plane

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

I think this thing is flying to high for cannons. It'd probably be able to drop bombs anywhere in the world very quickly.

and i think the end result is this

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/wo...er=rss&emc=rss



there isnt a ton of info on it, but from what I can gleam this thing is beautiful. The only problem is that it's launch profile is pretty much the same as any minuteman3 ICBM. So despite the fact that this provides a wonderful new option for global strike without the need to nuke the shit out of something, it could still start a nuke war lol.

[SaintessHeart]

Note : China still has their ASat interceptor missiles. So does Russia, Iran, etc.

[mg1942]

Hitler is dead... again

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Note : China still has their ASat interceptor missiles. So does Russia, Iran, etc.

Wait, what? Iran can barely build a domestic ICBM, let alone an anti-satellite missile. Source that they have such capability?

Not that China's demonstrated anti-satellite capability is anything to write home about either.

[kittybear]

Originally Posted by mg1942

Hitler is dead... again

This is the reaction of the Pro-Copyright people

[TinyRedLeaf]

SEC staffers watched smut as Wall Street burned

Washington (April 23): It's not quite the same as having Roman emperor Nero fiddling when Rome was burning, but it's close enough.

Senior staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were supposed to be policing the nation's financial system, according an internal report.

The SEC's inspector-general conducted 33 probes of employees looking at explicit images in the past five years, according to a memo obtained by AP. The memo said 31 of those probes occurred in the 2½ years since the financial system teetered and nearly crashed.

The memo summarised past inspector-general probes and reported some shocking findings:

* A senior attorney at the SEC's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography. When he ran out of hard drive space, he burned the files to CDs or DVDs, which he kept in boxes around his office. He agreed to resign, an earlier watchdog report said.

* An accountant was blocked more than 16,000 times in a month from visiting websites classified as "Sex" or "Pornography". Yet he still managed to amass a collection of "very graphic" material on his hard drive by using Google images to bypass the SEC's internal filter, according to an earlier report from the inspector general. The accountant refused to testify in his defense, and received a 14-day suspension.

* Seventeen of the employees were "at a senior level", earning salaries of up to US$222,418.

* The number of cases jumped from two in 2007 to 16 in 2008. The cracks in the financial system emerged in mid-2007 and spread into full-blown panic by the fall of 2008.

The SEC is an independent agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the United States' federal laws that regulate the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the country.

- AP

[Nosauz]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

SEC staffers watched smut as Wall Street burned

Rabble, Rabble, Rabble

Let's Deregulate because clearly the government is incompetent and this was a failure in regulation.

[mg1942]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Note : China still has their ASat interceptor missiles. So does Russia, Iran, etc.

yeah they have their asat missiles, but this thing is in the atmosphere moving at near satellite speed. It can avoid missiles. I think its sexy.