Some Other Stuff Worth Considering - University of Michigan



Some Other Stuff Worth Considering

|“Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” |

|Martin Luther King |

|Agree or disagree? |

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|JUST CARING: Len Fleck’s Project for a Democratic Society. |

|If you want to study justice in health care policy in Michigan, probably the best person you could choose to study with is Len Fleck at MSU. (I know |

|him—but not well--from the Executive Board of the State-wide Medical Ethics Resource Network on which we both serve. I’ve heard excellent things about him |

|as a teacher, too.) Here is a link to his “Justice and Health Care Policy” graduate seminar syllabus. (Syllabus? It’s 93 pages!) It gives you a good idea |

|of his overall work, including a point of view that is well-reasoned and worth considering whether or not you end up agreeing with it. If you want to buy |

|the book itself, start at the home page of his “Just Caring” web site. |

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|Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion. |

|Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. |

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|World Water Day is March 22. Read about World Water Day here. |

|YouTube video on UNICEF Tap Project |

|UNICEF web site |

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|“A chilled plastic bottle of water in the convenience-store cooler is the perfect symbol of this moment in American commerce and culture. It acknowledges |

|our demand for instant gratification, our vanity, our token concern for health. Its packaging and transport depend entirely on cheap fossil fuel. Yes, it's|

|just a bottle of water--modest compared with the indulgence of driving a Hummer. But when a whole industry grows up around supplying us with something we |

|don't need--when a whole industry is built on the packaging and the presentation--it's worth asking how that happened, and what the impact is.” |

|Read more of this article. |

|Great medical writer. |

|One of my favorite is Atul Gawande. I strongly recommend Gawande’s two books, Complications and Better. They are not only insightful but a joy to read and |

|a model of good, clear writing. I’ve used his work both in medical ethics classes and for an educational session at a UMHS ethics committee. |

|(Click here for my review of Complications in Ethics in Perspective, published by the Medical Ethics Resource Network..) |

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|In the news: UM Study correlates stroke risk with nearby fast-food restaurants. Read more… |

|Not the most definitive study, in this non-expert's opinion, BUT it does highlight something interesting. We know that deficient diets and lack of |

|exercise correlate with cardiovascular risk, which is the greatest cause of premature death. We have also been told recently that the most important |

|component of restoring this nation's economic health is reducing health care expenditures. We also know that the US spends more on health care as a |

|percentage of its total wealth than any other country but that our health care statistics are worse than many other countries (e.g., about 24th in life |

|expectancy and infant mortality). |

|See this slideshow. |

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|One of the best medical charities, Doctors Without Borders, does heroic work in war zones and in other places that few others dare to go. Is risking one’s |

|own safety to help others an important part of the medical profession? |

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|Looking for a heroic medical figure and human being? You could do worse than |

|Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian physician and truly |

|A DOCTOR WITHOUT BORDERS. Three of his daughters, who aspired to be doctors, were killed on January 16, during the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Yet both |

|before and after, he is passionately committed to peace and to seeing everyone as equal human beings. |

|In an interview on NPR’s “On Point” he sees Israel’s racism and Gaza rockets as “symptoms,” and he devotes himself to an enduring and peaceful “treatment.”|

|He is also working on a project to empower women: “when you educate women, you change a nation.” |

|In a car near his house in Jebaliya, in the northern Gaza strip, |

|Jan. 21, 2009. Three of his daughters and a niece were killed by an Israeli shell which struck his house, and he returned to Gaza to collect his remaining |

|children. (AP photo) |

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|“Gender inequality in the developing world is the greatest single source of human rights violations today.” |

|“if poor nations are to develop, they need to empower women. When a country educates girls, they grow up to have fewer children and look after them better.|

|They take productive jobs. And plenty of studies show that as women gain influence over family budgets, the money is less likely to go for tobacco, soda or|

|alcohol, and more likely to be invested in small businesses and in children's education.” |

|Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist |

|[pic] [pic] [pic] |

|My photos. Left: two girls who came running down a hill to the road where I was taking a picture of a scene in the opposite direction, close to |

|Doğubayazıt, Turkey, near the Iranian border, spring 2009. Center: Mardin, Turkey, also spring 2009. These are very conservative areas. Will these playful |

|girls have access to good education? Will they have power and control over their lives after they are married? |

|Right: school with over 70 students, all barefoot, and one teacher, in a broken down church, Bunyonyi Lake, Uganda, summer 2008. |

|The best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, deals with the issue of girls education. And |

|Kristof and his wife have a new book coming out in September, Half the Sky, about heroic women who overcome unbelievable obstacles in developing countries.|

|Watch this fun but serious video on girls in developing countries: |

|Then read this excerpt from Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. |

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|Crimes against women: Read this. What is an appropriate response? |

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