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I work for a surgeon. All medicine boils down to people making informed decisions based on current medical evidence, then weighing the risks vs the benefits in their decision-making. Unfortunately, too few people recognize that there will always be trade-offs.

Heather had the right to choose to have a risky delivery at home, but she also must recognize, as must her midwife, that those risky choices come with consequences. They apparently don't want to take responsibility for the risky choice they made, instead blaming their problems on the staff at OHSU who were left to rescue them from their choices. Had they not had the option to go to OHSU or another hospital and been left with a brain damaged or dead child, I wonder what discussion we would be having now?

Do midwives carry $200,000 worth of malpractice insurance? I doubt it, because there likely is an expectation that a midwife would recommend a risky delivery start at the hospital, hence the investigation for unprofessional conduct.

posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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I agree that the problem is enforcing laws already on the books regarding safe driving. I see all sorts of unsafe behavior that may be related to cell phones or may be related to nothing other than poor driving skills. Chances are that people who drive unsafely using a cell phone are also driving unsafely without using their cell phones. People tend to drive safely will do so whether they are using their cell phones or not.

posted 4 years ago
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Measure 63: We have done substantial DIY remodeling both with and without permits. We are conscientious people who disclosed all work to our buyers. We were not always so lucky when we were buyers, having had to repair sloppy or downright unsafe work done by other diy-ers. Permits are a good thing and this measure is wrong. They are about safety, plain and simple. All these Sizemore issues are about nothing more than getting more measures on the ballot because that's how he gets paid. He does not care about the consequences, intended or unintended.

On a side note, with all the dirt coming up on VP candidate Sarah Palin, it has been noted widely that as mayor of Wasilla, AK, she did away with building permits just before her $550,000 DIY home was built, coincidentally at the same time as the multibillion dollar hockey arena just down the road. Conveniently, permits would have provided a paper trail to show that the house was or was not built with the same labor and/or materials used on the arena. Permits can serve many functions...

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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