Health Care and the Laws of Nature

LOS ANGELES

www.dailyjournal.com

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2018

PERSPECTIVE The laws of nature and health care in the United States By Craig B. Garner differently in the context of science, of addiction and drug overdose, too. mother and the genetic background but to hospital patients with incurable Whether used for medicinal purposes, of each parent, doctors can provide a f there is no God, disease, this distinction is little more recreationally or to legally assist with statistical model, the product of which everything is permitted.” than semantics. death, make no mistake, barbiturates provides parents with peace of mind — Fyodor Mikhailovich Whether or not we believe in are back, and unless a compounding if the chance of defect is low, or an “IDostoevsky miracles, certain advances in medicine pharmacist prepares the drug cocktail, opportunity to pursue other options if are nothing short of miraculous. In there is a risk of failure which could the outlook is not favorable. The Laws of Nature 1944, doctors performed heart surgery then lead to certain conditions listed in When science prevails over the laws for the first time. In 1952, Jonas Salk the previous paragraph. Judgment Day of nature, controversy is near. Stories The Book of Revelation (13:16- from antiquity warned against such Medicine is a work in progress, and perhaps these fading 17) with its unique spin on the laws hubris, like poor Icarus who plunged lines between life and death were never really clear at of nature describes a certain mark to his death during a maiden voyage all. For the laws of nature we portend to break, they on the hand or forehead that will with wings made from feathers and bear unimaginable significance on wax. Zeus intervened twice on the remain without even a scratch, evolving over time while Judgment Day. For health care in the side of nature, first when he sentenced redefining that which is unknown today and raising new United States, Judgment Day is every Prometheus to eternal torment for questions previously unasked. day, even if the actual mark remains delivering the gift of fire to humanity, elusive. Medicine is a work in progress, and again when he struck down took the first step toward eradicating At the other end of the spectrum, and perhaps these fading lines between love-stricken Orpheus with a bolt of the dreaded polio virus. Today, as the media prepares for what life and death were never really clear at lightning before Orpheus escaped scientists can administer vaccines some declare to be the end of Roe v. all. For the laws of nature we portend from Hades. to cure many diseases, some even Wade, medicine’s understanding of to break, they remain without even Whether divine warnings or stories after infection, not to mention the life has changed considerably since a scratch, evolving over time while told to invoke fear, science celebrates controversial practice of injecting a 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court redefining that which is unknown today similar transgressions as evidence that patient with his or her own cells to help protected a woman’s decision to and raising new questions previously God may be manmade. Whether we repair vital organs. To this Aeschylus terminate a pregnancy. In 2014 doctors unasked. Rather than defining health live in a universe forged over billions may suggest infirme, cura ipsum (the delivered an infant girl weighing 410 care as life or death, the emphasis of years or in just under seven days, ill, cure yourself). grams just 21 weeks and four days should be on progress. Religion can what are the malleability of nature’s into her mother’s pregnancy. The stay in the operating room, provided laws? In 1903 Orville Wright elevated Life and Death third trimester, a seminal event in it casts no stones at those responsible above the ground for 12 seconds in a Still, life and death are not quite Roe v. Wade, begins around week 28. for creating exceptional or even gasoline-powered, propeller-driven what they used to be. While Locked- Throughout the next three decades, meaningful progress. biplane, but his legacy exists today In Syndrome may have been mistaken some advances in medical technology in the context of war, travel and for death in the past, it is different from minimized risk and pain to the mother Craig B. Garner is principal of commerce. The impact from fire on an ordinary coma (medically induced who made her choice, but in 2000 the Garner Health Law Corp. and an an evolutionary timeline often omits or from illness or injury), a persistent U.S. Food and Drug Administration adjunct professor at Pepperdine reference that 10,000 years ago a spark vegetative state or brain death. To finally approved the use of medication, University School of Law, where he may have transformed tuberculosis those without any medical training, which today is about 98 percent teaches courses on hospital law and from an environmental microbe to a such nuances may not halt preparation effective when taken early in the first the Affordable Care Act deadly disease that has killed more of the funeral pyre, although the trimester. than 1 billion people. When science spontaneous autoresuscitation after Also new to pregnancy since finally resurrects the dinosaurs, we can failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Roe v. Wade, it is standard practice ask them about nature’s resilience. also known as Lazarus syndrome, just to administer a series of tests to simply befuddles medicine. There is assess the baby’s health throughout The Practice of Medicine technically no rush to make a patient’s development. The end result comes The practice of medicine is no last medical determination, but ethical through statistical information for the different. Modern health care saves and legal events such as autopsies and would-be parents to consider if they lives and blurs the resolution of organ harvesting depend upon this as should be. Without debating the ethics our moral compass. While love a necessary and unavoidable condition and morality of abortion, many of these lost to another is a common theme precedent. tests seek to ascertain the health of the throughout history, few are prepared The right to die has also evolved fetus and predict the odds of certain to accept love lost to death. Medicine from what was once commonly known birth defects. The number of things has made herculean leaps in cheating as “suicide” into a constitutional issue about which a pregnant couple can death, but how far will it extend before integral to the ways in which our worry is staggering. By incorporating losing love to illness or disease? The nation defines federalism. These same these tests with such relevant factors previously unexplained is now seen laws shed some light on the dangers as the age and overall health of the GARNER