Nebraska Regents Reject Stem Cell Restrictions
[USN] The University of Nebraska’s Board of Regents took a stand on a controversial issue on Friday, voting down a resolution that would have restricted the amount of stem cell research done in university facilities. The resolution, which needed five votes from the board and only got four, would have followed former President George W. Bush’s guidelines for researching stem cells, the Daily Nebraskan reports.

‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear’: Man trapped in 23-year ‘coma’ reveals horror of
[dailymail] A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time. Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them – but could make no sound. ‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,’ said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state. ‘I dreamed myself away,’ he added, tapping his tale out w

Deal Will Turn a Los Angeles Hospital Private
[NYTimes] The role of public hospitals in America has been remarkably consistent over the decades, in spite of health care policy debates, insurance trends and shifting medical advice. They were centers of last resort, where the quality of care could be inconsistent and the finances often a disaster, but where the poor could always be served. But a deal struck last week between

End-of-life decisions are heartwrenching
[Special to The Birmingham News]  At the end of December 2000 on a cold night, my brother Bob called. “Dad’s not doing very well,” he said. “If you want to see him before he dies, you’d better fly up here.” I didn’t believe him. At age 88, my dad had weathered crises before, and he had told me many times that he didn’t want to die and wasn’t ready to die. For a decade, my saintly mother had nursed him as he progressively declined. But always before, during his crises, he had rallied. My father was the son of a lawyer. After one brief year in the under

Pfizer drug studies fudged, report says
[msnbc] Analysis of a dozen published studies testing possible new uses for a Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company documents showed. According to the report, when a company-funded study’s primary finding wasn’t favorable, that result was usually buried and something else positive was highlighted, without disclosing the switch. The documents used in the review were obtained by lawyers suing Pfizer for refunds on prescriptions paid for by insurers and consumers. The lawyers, who are seekin