From Reuters:

A survey commissioned by ELDR magazine found that over 80 percent of Americans surveyed believe the choice to end one’s life is a personal decision.Two-thirds said they favor the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Nearly half of the 1,000 people polled said they could eventually become the primary caregiver to elderly family members or friends. The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks.

Survey results here.

From the Washington Post:

Nearly 18 months into Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration, a court monitor has found continued “serious deficits” in the care of mentally and physically disabled residents of the District’s group homes.

The District’s performance is worse than it was a year ago on more than half of 13 health-care indicators, including effective tracking of residents’ food consumption and the supervision of mind-altering medications, according to the latest report by federal court monitor Elizabeth Jones.

“The findings overall are very troubling. Our monitoring concludes that the health care provided . . . fails to meet minimally acceptable standards of care,” Jones wrote. Residents “remain at very serious risk.”

… The monitor’s report is the latest in a series of dismal evaluations in recent years that are part of a three-decade-long lawsuit … In previous reports, Jones has said the care by some providers was so deficient that people have died.

From the Philadelphia Business Journal:

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is getting ready to open what it says will be the first comprehensive medical unit in the world for pregnant women carrying a baby with a known birth defect.

The $20 million Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit is being established so CHOP’s fetal medicine and surgical specialists can provide care — from prenatal diagnosis to surgery or other medical intervention to postnatal follow-up care — all in one location.

The unit will open in stages over the next three weeks with deliveries expected to begin on or after June 9.

“Nobody else has this kind of dedicated space for the delivery of babies with birth defects,” said Dr. Lori Howell, executive director of Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at CHOP.

From Bloomberg News, the New York Times and elsewhere:

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal to be eligible to compete in the Olympics using the carbon-fiber prosthetics that have gained him the nickname “Blade Runner.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport today overturned a ban on the 21-year-old South African runner by the International Association of Athletics Federations, which said studies found the prosthetic blades gave him an unfair advantage.

… Pistorius, a South African, was born without the fibula in his lower legs and with defects in his feet. His legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. He has set Paralympic world records in the 100, 200, and 400 meters.

“I am ecstatic,” Pistorius told reporters in Milan, Italy, The Associated Press reported. “When I found out, I cried. It is a battle that has been going on for far too long. It’s a great day for sport. I think this day is going to go down in history for the equality of disabled people.”

See also: Amputee Du Toit qualifies for Beijing.

South African amputee Natalie Du Toit qualified for the Beijing Olympics on Saturday after she finished fourth in the 10km race in the Open Water World Championships.

The 24-year-old, who lost her left leg when she was hit by a car while riding her scooter in 2001, clocked a time of two hours two minutes 7.8 seconds, just 5.1 seconds behind winner Larisa Ilchenko of Russia.

Earlier posts here.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required), an article by Lila Guterman about prenatal screening for thalassemia on the island of Cyprus.

Cyprus has a high rate of thalassemia, an inherited blood disease, and people there are required to get tested before marriage to find out whether they carry the gene. Prenatal genetic screening is voluntary, but the state pays for abortions when thalassemia is diagnosed.

Even though the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus views abortion as a sin, it seems most people are taking that path. Without the screening program, approximately 70 babies would be born with thalassemia each year — one in every 158 births on the island. But no more than one or two such babies have been born in any year since the mid-1980s.

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, a professor of the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania, has worked to document how and why Cypriots came to adopt and support the screening program. (Earlier post here.) After dozens of interviews on both sides of the island, she came to realize that people in every sector of society had strong reasons to consider the program ethical.

Some Western Europeans and Americans, however, have voiced doubts. They wonder whether reducing the number of people born with the disease will undermine medical care for existing patients. Others worry that the program sits on a slippery slope leading to screening programs for less-deadly diseases.

But the success on Cyprus proves those concerns are hollow, contends Ms. Cowan.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

Author Ruth Schwartz Cowan defends prenatal genetic screening against claims of eugenics, rejecting claims by disability activists that it is a form of discrimination against people with disabilities. She says academics and journalists should stop making good people feel unnecessarily guilty about prenatal genetic screening.

Genetic screening was developed by medical geneticists to help the genetically “unfit,” precisely the people the eugenicists would have sterilized, have as many children as they wanted.

… Disability activists claim that genetic screening is a form of discrimination against the disabled — but it seems unlikely that the parents who banded together to form associations like the National Tay-Sachs Disease Association or the Cyprus AntiAnaemic Society or the National Association of Retarded Citizens would agree. (more…)

From the Associated Press, USA Today, ABC News and elsewhere:

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor took her family’s private battle with Alzheimer’s disease public Wednesday as she urged Congress to speed research and aid to fight the coming epidemic of the mind-destroying illness.

“Our nation certainly is ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease,” she told the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

She has a personal stake. “My beloved husband John suffers Alzheimer’s,” she said. “He is not in very good shape at present.”

… More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. The number is poised to skyrocket, with 16 million people forecast to have it by 2050 thanks to a graying population. It already afflicts one in eight people 65 and older, and nearly one in two people over 85.

… Already, 10 million people are estimated to be sharing the overwhelming task of caring for a relative or friend with dementia, juggling jobs and other family responsibilities with little formal training, support or financial help available. The Alzheimer’s Association says the unpaid care they provide is valued at $89 billion.

O’Connor stepped down from the high court in 2005, saying she needed to care for her husband

Interview with O’Connor is here.

See earlier posts here and here.