Last February, I reported that Vietnam Vet SP4 Dennis Haines (Ret.) was having difficulty receiving treatment for Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that affects the liver’s function. The condition was brought about when he and others were inadvertently given tainted blood while in service. At that time (Feb. 5), Haines wrote to me about his status. “Jim, Here’s the deal,...

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards sat before the House Committee on Oversight to answer questions about funding and more specifically, respond to a widely circulated video purportedly showing an aborted fetus being prepped for organ harvesting by a Planned Parenthood sponsored medical facility. The video has been debunked by a variety of fact-checking organizations. Nevertheless, that did not stop House...

From the outset, Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform attacked Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, at one point using a chart that showed “Abortions up/Lifesaving Procedures down.” “In 2006,” Chaffetz said, pointing to the chart, “Planned Parenthood performed more prevention services and cancer screenings than abortions, but in 2013, there were more abortions…....

Which of the following statements is true? “Health insurance is one of the biggest rackets in America today.” “Health Insurance is a legalized version of the mafia?” Answer: Both. The first statement comes from a hospital administrator I used to know. The second comes from my own internist. Health care has become so politicized that it is virtually impossible for...

Although the arrest of six Baltimore police officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray demonstrates that the course to justice has, indeed, begun, there is another more difficult ethical path that the family and citizens will need to consider – forgiveness. I was recently contacted by Melissa (Mel) Coulson. “Throughout my life I’ve experienced mental health problems, and over...

Most actors achieve press attention promoting a book, film, TV, play, cause or, in rare instances a public mea culpa for some infidelity, (e.g. Hugh Grant). While Angelina Jolie-Pitt has addressed causes in the past, she took the unusual step in talking about her personal decision-making regarding a medical choice she began two years ago, and the reasons behind her...

Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman are physicians on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Wednesday’s Op-Ed, from The New York Times (Nov. 19), discusses the corruption in medical practice, largely conducted behind the scenes, at a cost to all of us. “When we are patients, we want our doctors to make recommendations that are in our best interests as individuals....

There are two ways some people have reacted to the Ebola crisis: the Chicken Little approach, or the complacent approach. Neither is helpful or effective. “Think of this America, please think of this,” Glenn Beck told listeners. “Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. It’s going to go aerosol.” “Fears of contagion spiked,” writes The New York...

In 2009, The New York Times ran a story which renewed the debate some parents have over whether or not to allow doctors to vaccinate their children against the flu and childhood diseases. This particular story concerned a vaccination for the H1N1 flu. “Barbara Loe Fisher,” The Times writes (Oct. 16, 2009, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, an...

Loveable Duck Dynasty graybeard Phil Robertson has had his “indefinite suspension”… suspended! After Robertson came out in a GQ interview describing homosexual acts in crude terms and labeled it sin, A&E officials suspended him “indefinitely” after the patriarch’s comments embarrassed the cable channel, sponsors and offended much of the L.G.B.T. community. Upon hearing of the suspension, the remaining “cast members” of the Dynasty clan,...