Thursday, September 29, 2005
A Labour Party decision that there will be no more school closures has been welcomed with applause by teachers union members. Education Minister Trevor Mallard yesterday told the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) that there would be no more centrally planned school re-organisations once the five-year moratorium on school reviews had ended.
Eighty school swimming pools are disappearing each year as schools sacrifice the expense of water safety to meet an ever-tightening budget. In 2002, there were 1906 state school swimming pools, but today there are only 1668 - a drop of 12 per cent. In just three years 37 secondary schools have disposed of their pools, while 201 primary schools have lost theirs.
A growing number of Americans plan to work beyond normal retirement age because they will not be able to afford to retire. Over 70% of Americans say they intend to work after they "retire" from their main job, and the Rutgers University poll recorded that 12% of those surveyed believe they will never be able to retire — nearly twice the proportion of people who were asked the same question five years ago.
Middle-class French women will be offered cash incentives to have a third child amid growing concerns that professional couples are having too few children.
Dutch doctors have found that few patients who ask for euthanasia are making a rational request for a good death. Writing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers say that contrary to their own clinical experience and their initial hypothesis, depressed patients were four times more likely to request euthanasia and half of all requests were made by depressed patients. In an accompanying editorial, Dr Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a bioethicist at the US National Institutes of Health, says that most, if not all, studies have shown that psychological distress, including depression and hopelessness, is a major factor in euthanasia requests.
~ Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sept 20
A hospital in Britain has stopped visitors from cooing at other people's babies for fear of trampling over the youngster's human rights. Some new mothers at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax say they are astonished by the new rules, which stop people asking questions about their babies or looking at them in maternity wards.
Eighty school swimming pools are disappearing each year as schools sacrifice the expense of water safety to meet an ever-tightening budget. In 2002, there were 1906 state school swimming pools, but today there are only 1668 - a drop of 12 per cent. In just three years 37 secondary schools have disposed of their pools, while 201 primary schools have lost theirs.
A growing number of Americans plan to work beyond normal retirement age because they will not be able to afford to retire. Over 70% of Americans say they intend to work after they "retire" from their main job, and the Rutgers University poll recorded that 12% of those surveyed believe they will never be able to retire — nearly twice the proportion of people who were asked the same question five years ago.
Middle-class French women will be offered cash incentives to have a third child amid growing concerns that professional couples are having too few children.
Dutch doctors have found that few patients who ask for euthanasia are making a rational request for a good death. Writing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers say that contrary to their own clinical experience and their initial hypothesis, depressed patients were four times more likely to request euthanasia and half of all requests were made by depressed patients. In an accompanying editorial, Dr Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a bioethicist at the US National Institutes of Health, says that most, if not all, studies have shown that psychological distress, including depression and hopelessness, is a major factor in euthanasia requests.
~ Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sept 20
A hospital in Britain has stopped visitors from cooing at other people's babies for fear of trampling over the youngster's human rights. Some new mothers at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax say they are astonished by the new rules, which stop people asking questions about their babies or looking at them in maternity wards.
