Steven Thorpe

Israel will soon become the first country in the world to give people who agree to become organ donors priority treatment if they should require an organ transplant themselves.

Officials hope the incentive will increase the supply of available organs — of which there is a shortage across the world, but especially in Israel, where only one in 10 adults carries a donor card.

This is sure to be a closely watched change, as most countries have tried different measures to increase willingness to donate organs. Here’s a rundown of some of those efforts, which include (1) creating markets for organs; (2) making all citizens organ donors by default, unless they explicitly exempt themselves; and (3) investing in more health care infrastructure.

Some countries have proposed legalizing the sale of some organs for money, as is the case in Iran. But such policies are controversial, and not just because people have moral qualms about putting a price tag on an item as precious as a healthy kidney. Some scholars have written about the fear of “crowding out” altruistic motives for donating organs.

Continue reading – http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/how-can-we-encourage-organ-donation/

LONDON (AFP) – Two common forms of cancer have been genetically mapped for the first time, British scientists announced, in a major breakthrough in understanding the diseases.

The maps have exposed the DNA mutations that lead to skin and lung cancers, in a discovery scientists said could transform the way these diseases are diagnosed and treated in coming years.

All cancers are caused by damage to genes — mutations in DNA — that can be triggered by environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, harmful chemicals or ultraviolet radiation, and causes cells to grow out of control.

Scientists from Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators have mapped this genetic damage from the tumours of two patients suffering from lung cancer and malignant melanoma, a deadly skin cancer.

“This is a fundamental moment in cancer research. From here on in we will think about cancers in a very different way,” said Professor Mike Stratton who led the institute’s cancer genome project.

“Today for the first time, in two individual cancers, a melanoma and a lung cancer, we have provided the complete list of abnormalities in DNA in each of those two cancers,” he told the BBC.

“We now see uncovered all the forces that have generated that cancer and we now see all the genes that are responsible for driving those two cancers.”

Continue reading – http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091217/wl_uk_afp/healthcancerbritain_20091217020739

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – Brazil’s most famous architect, Oscar Niemeyer, celebrated his 102nd birthday Tuesday in typical fashion: at work on projects rather than pondering his supercentennial age.

“Turning 102 is crap, and there is nothing to commemorate,” he told AFP.

Niemeyer, who was born in 1907 in Rio de Janeiro, where he still lives, is famed for designing some of Brazil’s most distinctive buildings, among them Rio’s Sambodrome and the nearby Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum, and many of the futuristic edifices of the capital Brasilia.

His inspiration for the domes, curves and sweeping lines that make up his style he has said is “the body of the Brazilian woman.”

Niemeyer has witnessed Brazil’s progression from a chaotic new republic, a 1964-1985 military regime that forced him into exile in Paris, and the increasingly prosperous return to democracy that the country now enjoys.

His conclusion on Tuesday? Brazil is more “egalitarian since a former worker arrived in power,” the former Communist said, referring to Brazil’s current president, former trade union leader and steelworker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The architect, sitting in his studio overlooking Copacabana beach, explained to AFP that one project he was managing was the renovation of the central avenue of the Sambodrome, where the most famous of Brazil’s glitz-and-flesh Carnival parades are held.

Continue reading – http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091215/en_afp/brazilarchitectureniemeyer_20091215211041

He looks much leaner, but that stomach staple surgery sure makes people look a lot older -

Washington

A report released today by the Congressional Budget Office has set out what could be a decisive fault line in the Senate debate over healthcare reform.

Proponents say the report shows healthcare reform will do no harm to Americans’ pocketbooks. Critics say that report shows the US is about to undertake a massive and uncertain reorganization of the healthcare industry for “no significant savings.”

In truth, there’s no fixed answer to what is emerging as the biggest question on healthcare reform: How will proposed changes affect the premiums people pay for health insurance.

It depends on how people purchase insurance, according to the report released today.

For Americans with employer-provided insurance, changes in the cost of coverage will be modest. For those who buy insurance on their own – and qualify for government subsidies – costs could go down up to 59 percent.

Continue reading – http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/30/will-healthcare-reform-drive-costs-down-a-little-report-says/