Government Puts Final Nail In New Orleans Coffin
Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans levees were built to withstand a category 3 hurricane. They obviously did not do well during Katrina and the city was left in ruins and thousands were killed. The slow process of rebuilding began. The most important piece of the rebuilding would obviously be the levees. The government decided to build levees that could withstand a CATEGORTY 3 HURRICANE. By doing so they killed the city of New Orleans.
Texan Donald Powell, a former banker and Texas A&M University administrator was given the job of being the federal coordinator for the reconstruction. He quickly jumped in with a phrase the White House loves about science.
However, "I'm not sure what the science dictates," Powell said when asked if the levees would be rebuilt to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, as Gulf Coast officials have requested. "Clearly, I think they're going to rebuilt up to a Level 3 but ... they were not a Level 3 when the storm came. And then study and understand what the science is to get to a Level 5."
The nice thing about the current administration is that the science is never in. Feel free to name a time where Bush said, Okay, the science is in and we are moving forward. You cant, because it does not happen. Anytime the word science is used you can be sure no action will be taken. So, the levees have been rebuilt to withstand a category 3 hurricane because the science does not dictate otherwise.
And New Orleans will die a slow death because of that decision. Why? Because to rebuild you need insurance and today the insurance companies began pulling out. Louisiana's largest commercial insurance provider, Travelers Cos. Inc., has decided to cancel all it's commercial property policies in the New Orleans area next year.
Travelers will not renew any property insurance for businesses in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and eastern St. Tammany parishes. Cuts will also affect individual businesses in other parts of South Louisiana, including St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes.
The Louisiana State Insurance Commissioner met with the Insurance carrier on Thursday and was told the policies are being cancelled because of the levee rebuilding. The Commissioner and business leaders expect other insurance companies to follow Travelers lead. Without insurance there can be no business community. Businesses create these things called jobs. Jobs are great for eating and buying clothes and stuff.
"This is going to be a blood bath," said Eagan, who added that Hanover Insurance Group, Lafayette Insurance Co. and possibly Zurich North America have indicated that they are likely to not renew some commercial policies.
Goodbye, New Orleans.
In Case of Emergency, Kill Patient
Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding caused innumerable problems in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Homelessness, destruction of businesses, lack of potable water and food, lawlessness. Even lack of proper care for pets. What doesn't immediately come to mind as a problem but created an even more complex dilemma than a lack of availability of basic needs was how to deal with very sick patients in hospitals, even terminal ones. Airlifting every single patient from area hospitals was not exactly pragmatic, and they couldn't just be pushed out into the watery street. So some hospital staff decided to take matters into their own hands, and euthanized four patients who didn't have much hope of recovery. They're currently being processed until charges can be filed against them.
"This case has much bigger significance than just becoming a battle about euthanasia," says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "It's about what we're going to expect doctors to do in [a pandemic of] avian flu. It's about what we're going to expect nurses to do in the face of bioterror .... It has to do with professional duty, professional responsibility, and what we expect healthcare workers to do in the toughest of circumstances."
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While many ethicists condemn mercy killing without permission, some say disaster conditions create an environment in which physicians may deliver a lethal dose with patient consent. Military ethicist David Perry, for instance, says the conditions at Memorial Medical may have resembled those in which a field medic "recognizes there's no way this person is going to survive, and so it's just a matter of how soon and with what sort of suffering or lack of suffering."
Although the military prohibits mercy killing under all circumstances, Mr. Perry notes that in cases where death seems imminent, "it might be worse to let this person die of starvation or suffocation or drowning if the person didn't want that ... than to do something more actively."
It's an interesting twist on the more standard debate concerning euthanasia that tends to involve the consent of the patient or the patient's family when a terminal illness has been recognized from which there is no recovery. The hippocratic oath binds doctors to "do no harm" to their patients. And if a patient cannot consent, or there is no way to immediately contact the patient's family to obtain consent, the prospect of a "mercy killing" becomes even more dubious. But what about an extreme case like what was encountered during hurricane Katrina? Is it doing less harm to the patient to quietly and painlessly allow them to die than to leave them to possible death to starvation or dehydration?
Louisiana state law explicitly forbids assisted suicide, but makes an exception for a physician who " Prescribes, dispenses, or administers any medication, treatment, or procedure if the intent is to relieve the patient's pain or suffering and not to cause death." What if the only way to relieve pain or suffering (and in the case of a dehydration or starvation induced death to an ill patient, it's considerable suffering) is death itself? It's a complicated ethical question, and not one with any readily available solution. Pay close attention to this case, it's sure to be appealed repeatedly, and will hopefully garner the consideration of some of the country's more prominent legal minds.