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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 16, 2007 / 28 Shevat, 5767

Medical Self-Defense: A new constitutional experiment

By Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak

The Medicine Men
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | A recent ruling of the District of Columbia United States Court of Appeals weakened the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug-approval monopoly.


In the case of Abigail Alliance v. von Eschenbach, the court ruled "in some circumstances there is a constitutional right" to use drugs not approved in advance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to Robert F. Nagel writing in "The Weekly Standard."


If other levels and branches of the federal government maintain this ruling, it would put some additional meaning to Americans' unalienable right to life and liberty, as articulated in our Declaration of Independence.


UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh believes that access to medicines not yet approved by the FDA could be defended under a right to "medical self-defense."


Although Volokh describes the use of this right in several other scenarios, in this article we are only looking at it in the context of medicines not approved by the FDA for prescription or sale in the United States.


In an article forthcoming in the April 2007 Harvard Law Review, Volokh writes, "Lethal self-defense - protecting one's life against humans or animals (or preventing serious injury, rape, or kidnapping) - has long been a general exception to nearly all criminal laws, including laws against murder, weapons possession, and the like."


Therefore, Volokh reasons, "why shouldn't I be presumptively free to protect my life using medical procedures that don't involve killing, such as ... the use of experimental drugs?"


He hopes that others "who feel strongly about the right to lethal self-defense (as do I) ... will agree that the moral case for medical self-defense is at least as strong as the case for lethal self-defense."


Volokh prefers the term medical "self-defense" over medical "necessity" because each of the United States recognizes self-defense in state law, whereas only half the states recognize a necessity defense.


Under the law of lethal self-defense, Americans can defend themselves against being murdered by someone else by killing the threatening person, whether or not the person has an evil intent or is blameless because of insanity.


Likewise, the law of self-defense protects a person killing a threatening animal, even if the Endangered Species Act would otherwise protect the animal.


The right to medical self-defense would potentially allow a patient to use whatever potentially life-saving medical means desired. In contrast with lethal self-defense, patients using their own resources to acquire the potentially life-saving medicine would not kill or harm other people.


How did the FDA get between patients and medicines in the first place? This history now goes back a century, with the government first taking upon itself the authority to make sure that food and medicines were pure.


Next, the government took the authority to define whether medicines were safe.


More recently, federal laws called on the FDA to identify whether or not drugs were "effective" for proposed medical uses.


We've questioned the premise of FDA regulation of drug safety and effectiveness for some time. See http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0205/medicine.men1.asp .


Some people want drugs that have no side effects and are almost certain to have the desired effect. Others, such as patients with advanced cancer, are willing to try drugs that have a minimal chance of benefit, even less than 10 percent, and a high likelihood of bad side effects.


And people change their minds, sometimes from day to day, about the degree of safety and risk that they want to accept.


The only way to be 100 percent drug-safe all the time is very simple: no drugs, not ever. Of course, this also means no benefits, not ever.


So we look on medical self-defense as a possible new way to allow Americans more freedom (and concomitant responsibility) in their personal medical treatment.


We don't know what all the constitutional, political, and medical-practice side effects or complications of this initiative might be. But we think it's an experiment worth considering.


Editor's Note: Robert J. Cihak wrote this week's column.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple award winning writer who comments on medical-legal issues. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Both JWR contributors are Harvard trained diagnostic radiologists. Comment by clicking here.

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