Debating Physician-Assisted Suicide in Massachusetts

It's election season. And you know what that means: lots of vague generalities that sound like they mean something, ad hominem attacks, creativity with facts and annoying ad after annoying ad. Oh, and topics that get people really worked up, causing people to heatedly argue with each other, often to the point of intense anger. Many of these really are not worth fighting about and, regardless of the outcome, have little, if any, significance. Others, however, really are important and worth resolving and involve difficult ethical issues.

In Massachusetts, one such ethical conundrum is on the ballot: physician-assisted suicide.

Washington Joins Indiana and Maryland in Revoking Mark Geier's License

 Washington has become the third state to permanently revoke Dr. Mark Geier's medical license. This comes shortly after Maryland finally revoked Geier's licence. The Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission had ordered Geier and/or his attorney to appear and to produce certain documents. They did not do so in the time frame specified, so by default, Geier has lost his case.

The Commission ordered (M2012-377) on October 4, 2012, that Mark Geier's license to practice medicine in the state of Washington is permanently revoked. He is ordered to hand over all licenses within 10 days and is fined $5,000, payable within 30 days.

Meanwhile, Missouri, Illinois and Hawaii have yet to do anything to stop this man from preying on autistic children in their jurisdictions. This is, however, very welcome news.
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Related Posts:

• Mark Geier's License Revoked - And It's About Damn Time!
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 7
• The Fall of the Geiers Continues Apace
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 6
• Complaint Filed Against Dr. Mark Geier in Florida
• Mark Geier Ordered to Stop Practicing Medicine
• Map of Mark Geier Medical Licenses
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Supsended - Part 5
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 4
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 3
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 2
• Charges Levied Against Mark and David Geier
• URGENT: Please Call the Maryland State Board of Physicians About David Geier
• A Close Look at David Geier
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended

Rob Schneider's Hellish Nonsense

Thursday night, I mentioned that Rob Schneider was going to be on Salt Lake City's KXRK morning radio show Radio From Hell to promote his stand-up show Friday night at Wiseguys West Valley City. I joined Skepchick's Elyse Anders in urging people to contact the station if they had a call-in segment during the interview. Orac also put the word out about this appearance.

Well, I was fortunate enough to find time to listen to the show Friday morning via their internet live stream. As noted by Elyse, Schneider had been on the show before, shamelessly spouting a bunch of tired, well-worn anti-vaccine lies and myths. This morning, he was a bit late showing up at the studio, which I don't blame him for; it was early, he mentioned he only had about 3 hours sleep, and we don't know what his travel and traffic situation was.  The hosts, led by Bill Allred, pondered whether they should just rerun the clip (mp3 hosted at Skepchick) from the last time he was on.

At any rate, he finally showed up to sit down for a chat...

Robbing the Airways of Intelligent Thoughts

Just a brief post to let you all know that Elyse over at Skepchick has an action alert out. Tomorrow, October 5, at 7am MDT (9am EDT), the new Jenny McCarthy of the anti-vaccine movement, Rob Schneider, will be on radio KXRK, Radio X96 in Salt Lake City, probably to promote his comedy show playing at Wiseguys West Valley City the same evening.

I call him the new Jenny McCarthy because, well, he is a celebrity of similar stature who has latched on to the anti-vaccine movement, spouting much of the same, easily refuted nonsense, like this:

Click here to find out why Rob's question is dumb.

He recently spoke out against California's bill AB2109 at a failed rally on the California state house steps (the bill was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on September 30), which would help to ensure parents are fully informed about vaccines before they make a decision to put their child and community at increased risk of disease by opting out of school immunization requirements.

At any rate, if you are in the area or have time to listen online, give the station a call with some comments or questions for Rob. Elyse provides some links to help inform you, but here are a some more:

• One Size Fits All Vaccination
• My series of vaccine-preventable disease wanted posters
• Praying, in Vain, for Exemption
• Demystifying Vaccine Ingredients - Formaldehyde
• Pertussis Toxin, Aiding and Abetting Influenza
• Disease Burdens More Then Just the Patient
• Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated - Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4
• I'm Not Anti-Vax, I'm Pro-Safe Vaccine

Also check out Just the Vax, Shot of Prevention and History of Vaccines.

AB2109 Signed! But Gov. Brown Creates Other Concerns

On Thursday, I echoed Orac in his call for people to support California's Gov. Jerry Brown in signing AB2109 into law. This bill would help strengthen California's school vaccination laws by requiring that parents become informed about the risks and benefits of vaccinating prior to getting a personal belief exemption for their children. Anti-vaccine activists vehemently opposed this bill, showing that they are actually against informed consent. They even recruited comedian Rob Schneider as their new Jenny McCarthy, acting as a celebrity spokesperson to champion their nonsense. And based on my twitter exchanges with him, he's swallowed their tripe hook, line and sinker.

I spent the weekend mostly off-line, so I missed a rather big development in all of this. As user "Unknown" commented on my call to arms, Gov. Brown signed the bill! This is fabulous news, but it's tempered with a bit of, well, if not bad news, at least something a little perplexing.

A Call to Arms

Orac, over at Respectful Insolence, has called on those of a scientific bent to take action on two important issues. First off, investigative journalist, Brian Deer, will be speaking at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse on October 4 and 5. Brian Deer, you may recall, is a U.K. journalist who has harshly criticized pharmaceutical companies and who uncovered the research fraud committed by Andrew Wakefield. The anti-vaccine activists at Age of Autism have encouraged their followers to rally against Mr. Deer and to support a press conference that Andrew Wakefield will be giving on October 4, also at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. Here are the details about both:

Brian Deer's Talks

• "An Elaborate Fraud: The MMR Vaccine & Autism"
• Thursday, October 4 at 5:30pm
• Centennial Hall, Room 1309 

• "Stiletto Journalism: Busting the Vaccine Scare"
• Friday, October 5 at 3:30pm
• Centennial Hall, Room 1309

Andrew Wakefield's Press Conference

• Thursday, October 4 at 1:00pm
• Location to be provided - email info@drwakefieldjusticefund.org for more info

The other item that need your support is AB2109, about which I've written before (here and here). As a quick reminder, this bill would require parents who want a philosophical exemption for their children from school immunization requirements to talk with a medical provider about the risks and benefits of vaccination, and the risks of not vaccinating for both themselves and their community. The bill has passed both the California State Senate and Assembly. It is currently on Governor Jerry Brown's desk, waiting to be signed. A vocal contingent of anti-vaccine activists and Tea Partiers are holding a rally to oppose this legislation tomorrow, September 28 from noon to 2pm on the West Steps of the state capitol. If you live nearby, I urge you to attend in counter-protest to voice your support for this bill. I also encourage you to contact Gov. Brown, asking him to sign AB2109.

If you decide to attend any of these events, please remember to remain civil. Do not be goaded by the anti-vaccine activists you are likely to encounter.

A Grand Coverup

This weekend I saw something that surprised and amused me: a blue jay hiding some food. It wasn't the fact that it hid its food, though, that got me. Many animals hide food, squirreling (ha!) it away to consume later. This could be anything from just digging a hole, depositing the food and burying it again to stockpiling in a hole in a tree branch. And this behavior is not unknown among blue jays, either.

Clever boy. Photo by Dick Daniels

No. What brought a smirk to my face was how this bird went about stashing his goods.

Mark Geier's License Revoked - And It's About Damn Time!

Today, Catherina over at Just the Vax, let me know about a development on a topic that I've been covering for quite some time. And the timing of this is rather fortuitous, as this post marks number 250 for me! I couldn't think of a better subject than to enlighten you all on the latest turn for the infamous Dr. Mark Geier, the physician who inappropriately used the precious puberty and chemical castration drug Lupron to supposedly treat children with autism.

What is this latest development? The Maryland Board of Physicians has (finally!) revoked Dr. Geier's medical license.

File this under: about damn time.

And the order that accompanies this is scathing.

One Size Fits All Vaccination

There are a number of frequent refrains heard from those opposed to vaccines. There are too many. Oh, the toxins! If vaccines work, then what are you worried about? Vaccination laws take away parents' rights. The list goes on and on. They get repeated so often that it becomes very easy to just gloss over them and ignore the strident ululations of anti-vaccine activists. Between posting here and commenting on various blogs and news stories, I feel like I've addressed these arguments (if you can call them that) more than enough times. But then I remember that as long as the noise keeps going, there will be a need for reality-based individuals to speak out against them.

Recently, one such complaint caught my interest a little more than usual. Perhaps it was because I happened to be rereading the CDC Pink Book at the time. Much is made among anti-vaccine types of personal liberties and how each person is different. Every little snowflake is precious and unique, they opine, so how can anyone support a "one size fits all" vaccination schedule?

Censored on Dan Olmsted at Autism One on The Wakefield Inquisition

It's been a while since I've put one of these posts up. One of my readers tried to leave a comment over at Age of Autism on the post Dan Olmsted at Autism One on The Wakefield Inquisition. I'm putting this up so that any comments which the moderators at AoA censor can still see the light of a computer screen. If you have tried to leave a comment on that post but were censored, feel free to copy your comment below. Include the date and time that you tried to post, if you can.