flyingzumwalt

Friday, June 30, 2006

Just a thought, brought on by some trees, a wind chime, and the breeze

The existence of external phenomena and the existence of a creator God are equally impossible to prove or disprove. The only difference is that the difficulty of establishing the latter is more noticeable.

External Phenomena: (1) Phenomena which are perceived to be external to the mind. (2) Events and objects that are ultimately material in nature and thus inherently existent beyond the realm of the mind, mental activity, and mental experience.

tags: buddhist philosophy mind mindandlife theology deism religion

Photo of Me

I wanted to put a photo of myself in my profile (seemed prudent), but in order to do that I had to post it in a blog entry first. There you have it.

Baby Riley - a Phenomenon Brews

Get a load of this epic saga of Medical Ethics brewing in Seattle.

Basically, doctors tried to force Tina Marie Carlsen to allow them to put implants into her baby, Riley, so that he could undergo dialysis. Carlsen refused, insisting that she wanted to seek non-surgical alternatives or alternatives that don't involve dialysis (the details are unclear in the current news articles). The state responded by taking custody of Riley and moving to perform the surgery without Carlsen's consent. To prevent the surgery, Carlsen abducted Riley from the hospital. This resulted in her being declared a Kidnapper, hunted down by the State, and thrown in jail for five days without being allowed access to her baby. Meanwhile, the doctors are again planning to do the surgery without Carlsen's consent.

Carlsen was hunted down by the State because they believed that the baby was in imminent danger if he didn't receive immediate treatment. Now, after the fact, the Hospital is admitting that Riley was not actually in imminent danger at all. Now the State is trying to wash their hands of the situation, implying that they were misled. More imporantly, possibly Carlsen has/had time to seek out alternative treatment for her baby?

What were Carlsen's medical alternatives? Why doesn't she want her baby on dialysis? Nobody seems to be giving a clear answer to these questions.

I can't wait for Anderson Cooper or Nightline to sniff this one. I want info.

It's been hard to find an article that gives a good breakdown of the situation, but here are two pretty good ones:

Mother, doctors fight over care: Kansas City Star, MO, June 29, 2006
Off track over baby's welfare: Seattle Times, June 29, 2006

People have set up a website in support of Carlsen and her baby: http://www.helpbabyriley.com/

Wild stuff man.

tags: medicine dialysis baby riley seattle surgery ethics kidnapping