Watching the World
Horrifying Organ Source
Early in 1988 a not-much-publicized discovery was made at Santa Caterina Pinula, Guatemala. There, according to a resolution of the European Parliament, local authorities found a “casa de engorde,” or “fattening center,” where newborn babies purchased for as little as $20 (U.S.) were sold to American or Israeli families for $75,000. The purpose? So that the families purchasing them could use the infants’ organs for their own children who were in need of organ transplants, said the resolution. It also states that in 1987 a similar “fattening center” was found in Honduras “near to which the bodies of many children were found, some of them new-born babies, from which one or more organs had been removed.” Another was found in Guatemala City “whose register indicated the sale abroad . . . of 170 babies, the major part of which were sent to the United States for the removal of organs.” The Parliament’s resolution has been issued to various agencies and governments, calling for appropriate action to be taken against those responsible for this horrible practice.
Kidneys for Sale
Would you sell one of your healthy kidneys for money? A West German company that markets human organs for transplants has offered to pay $45,000 (U.S.) to anyone willing to make such a donation. As a result, a company spokesman said, they were “drowning in offers.” People viewing this as a get-rich-quick opportunity provide an abundant organ source for companies dealing in the sale of human tissue. Unlike the illegal organ trafficking practiced in the Third World, “would-be organ brokers are operating openly (and legally) in West Germany,” notes the report in Newsweek magazine. The company’s charge for such organs: $85,000.
Hospitals Ban Smoking
Last December, a ban on smoking was imposed on all public hospitals in Australia. Anyone caught smoking within a hospital building or hospital-owned vehicle is subject to a $5,000 fine. Community-based services and area health services are also included under the Health Department’s ban, reports The Sun-Herald of Australia. The recent decision reflects concern over the fact that about 16,500 Australians die each year from smoking-related diseases, “more than five times the number who die on the roads,” notes The Sun-Herald. According to the Health Department, smoking costs Australia 8,450,000 workdays and $276 million annually.
Uninhabitable
According to the Soviet newspaper Pravda, the 800-year-old Ukrainian town of Chernobyl has been scheduled to be razed two and a half years after suffering the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident. The action was said to be necessary because radiation made the town unfit for human habitation for decades. The Chernobyl accident spread radiation on a worldwide scale and reportedly killed 31 individuals in the immediate vicinity.
Tranquilizer Addicts
In 1984 French citizens over 20 were downing an average of 75 tranquilizers a year, reported the International Herald Tribune. Since then, says the newspaper, consumption “has been climbing at a ‘lightning’ pace.” According to the article, two factors seem responsible for the rise. First, general practitioners prescribe this type of medicine “when they are unable to come up with a specific diagnosis for vague complaints from their patients.” Second, the Tribune quotes Dr. Patrice Boyer of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research as referring to “speculation that Latins such as the French have a tendency to seek help before fighting back against adversity, creating an ideal role for tranquilizers.”
Better Communications
After six months of installation at a cost of $362 million, the first fiber-optic telephone cable to cross the Atlantic went into service last December. The three existing copper cables coupled with satellites could carry a maximum of 20,000 overseas calls simultaneously. However, the fiber-optic cable is capable of carrying 40,000 calls. While a copper wire can carry only 48 calls, more than 8,000 calls and computer-data transmissions can be carried by a single optical fiber via pulses of laser light. As a result of this new technology, international calls and data transmissions can now be made more quickly and are virtually distortion free.
Ousted Clergy
A survey by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Church in the United States indicates that each month 116 of the denomination’s churches “fire or force their unhappy pastors to quit,” reports the Los Angeles Times. According to the survey, over 2,100 churches parted company with their pastors within a recent 18-month period. Second in frequency of reasons cited for the dismissals was “immorality—including sexual misconduct, theft, mismanagement of church money and problems with personal integrity,” notes the Times. Also cited were “performance dissatisfaction,” “authoritarian leadership style,” “power struggles,” and “personality conflicts.” According to the article, “40% of the churches dismissed more than one pastor and almost 25% of the pastors had suffered a previous dismissal.”
What Children Know
A survey in the United States of 180 boys and girls up to 12 years of age has shown that they can name more brands of alcoholic beverages than they can presidents of the United States. The children were, on the average, able to name 5.2 alcoholic beverages but only 4.8 presidents. “This survey indicates the extent to which booze is part of the daily life of children who cannot drink legally for another 10 years,” said Michael Jacobson, head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which sponsored the survey. One ten-year-old girl could name 14 alcoholic beverages but named only four presidents, while a seven-year-old boy listed “Ragon” and “Aprilham Linchon” as presidents, yet could name 10 brands of beer and wine.
Living Longer
Statistics show that more people are reaching the century mark than ever before. The Vancouver Sun reports that 2,850 Canadians were over the age of 100 in 1986—up 775 from 1981. Likewise in the United States, there were 25,000 centenarians in 1985—up 10,000 from 1980. The director of gerontology at Simon Fraser University feels that more people will live to be 100 and adds, “The very old tend to be survivors.” The reasons he cites include: “Better nutrition, better health care and better living conditions.” A geriatric psychiatry specialist at Vancouver General Hospital concurs, saying: “To live that long, you have to be pretty strong physically. You also need inner vitality. A lot of these people have experienced powerful stresses, but they’re still here.”
Firearms’ Heavy Toll
According to a report published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), hospital costs due to injuries caused by firearms may run an estimated $429 million annually. Of that amount, taxpayers are said to be absorbing nearly 86 percent. However, researchers say that the annual figure would likely increase to more than $1 billion if physicians’ fees, physical therapy, ambulance services, rehabilitation services, and other follow-up care were included. “These findings have important implications for legislators considering bills to restrict the availability of firearms,” says JAMA.
Too Much Faith?
A South Carolina, U.S.A., faith-healing session called a “healing explosion” has resulted in a lawsuit against two Texas faith healers. A North Carolina woman claims that they are responsible for multiple fractures in her neck and back. Why? According to The Greenville News, her lawsuit “describes a procedure in which a minister lays his hand on a person who then is ‘slain in the spirit’ and falls backward into the arms of a ‘catcher.’” The problem in this case, the woman charged, was that there was no catcher—and thus her injuries.