> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > J.D. Giorgis
... > Based on Iraqi government figures, UNICEF estimates > that containment kills roughly 5,000 Iraqi babies > (children under 5 years of age) every month, or 60,000 > per year. Other estimates are lower, but by any > reasonable estimate containment kills about as many > people every year as the Gulf War -- and almost all > the victims of containment are civilian, and > two-thirds are children under 5. This article made me reconsider how many people we "kill" by our action and inaction. A few examples: * Proper perinatal care could save an estimated 4 million babies. * Thousands of babies could be saved with genetic testing to identify treatable disorders. * 1.5 million babies could be saved through successful promotion of breast feeding. * 100,000 people in the United States could be saved if health insurers covered smoking cessation products. * Hundreds of thousands of babies could be saved by ensuring that HIV positive mothers are given the drug Nevirapine. * Flu vaccine could save an average of 20,000 people a year in the United States alone. * A new strain of meningitis in Africa will kill tens of thousands of people unless vaccines and treatments are funded. * The vast majority of the 57,000 people who die from colon cancer in the United States would survive with early diagnosis. * Affordable access to dialysis could save 30,000 people a year in the United States alone. * Millions of malaria deaths world-wide could be prevented with widespread use of dichlorodiphenyltrichlorethane. * 40,000 AIDS deaths in the United States could be prevented with mandatory testing. * $27 billion a year would save the lives of about 8 million who die of diseases that can be prevented with vaccines and medicines. * Safe vehicles would save 40,000 people a year in the United States alone. * Stopping tobacco use worldwide would save 5 million people a year. * 60,000 babies a year could be saved by dropping the santions against Iraq. * 10,000 to 20,000 people would have been saved if the United States hadn't bombed a pharmaceutical plant by mistake. In short, there are many ways, some of them very inexpensive, that could prevent unnecessary deaths. Take any of them out of context, such as the next to the last one above, and you can make us sound like negligent murderers for allowing the situation to persist. I don't object to the proposed war, but my support is very, very reluctant. And I'm glad that we have troops who are willing to combat the bad things going on in Iraq, even if I were there, I'd have a hard time being a combatant. Having said that, I despise the kind of rhetoric in this article. We are not killing babies by failing to make war on Iraq. There is a huge ethical difference between killing and letting die; otherwise, euthanasia would be legal everywhere. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
