GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Nurse may have killed at least 90 in German nursing homes

sábado, 2 de septiembre de 2017

BioEdge: Nurse may have killed at least 90 in German nursing homes

Nurse may have killed at least 90 in German nursing homes

by Michael Cook | 2 Sep 2017 |

Niels Högel / EuroNews

A male nurse may have killed scores of patients in nursing homes in northern Germany. Niels Högel was given a life sentence in 2015 after he confessed to the murders of about 30 people at two clinics. Even at the time police suspected that he was responsible for more deaths.

Evidence for these has emerged now after they exhumed and examined 134 bodies. It appears that Högel had given a number of them a lethal injection. Although the total will never be known, as a number of patients were cremated, it appears that he killed at least 90. This makes him the worst serial killer in Germany’s criminal history.

Police Chief Johann Kühme said that he was speechless. "And as if all that were not enough, we must realize that the real dimension of the killings by Högel is likely many times worse."

Högel will be tried again for the newly-discovered murders.

Several senior medical staff at one of the clinics are also facing manslaughter charges for neglecting to investigate the high number of suspicious deaths when Högel was on duty. Investigations are continuing at the other clinic.

“Fatherhood” is what the guys in the business of policing the language call an “essentially contested concept” – no matter how much palaver you invest in it, you won’t make any progress. At least nowadays.

Below we feature a story from the Netherlands about two men who have each sired over a hundred children, one through sperm donation to IVF clinics, the other mostly through more conventional channels. Are they fathers?

Another story comes from Australia, which is girding its loins for a campaign on same-sex marriage. A group promoting closer links between fathers and their children, Dads4Kids, has been running a public service TV advertisement for 15 years. This year, a 30-second spot of a dad crooning to his wee sprog was rejected because it was “too political”.

A spokesman for the foundation complained:

“It is extraordinary that this is where we have come to as a country; we can no longer celebrate Father’s Day without being forced to look at it through the lens of the same-sex marriage debate. It’s a tragedy that a political motive is now implied in any mention of fatherhood. Not everything is about same-sex marriage.”

The history of this simple advertisement tracks the evolving concept. In a span of 15 years, fatherhood, or rather “fatherhood”, has shifted from a universally admired status to a politically suspect notion. Are we the better for it?

Happy Father’s Day to our Australian readers.