- Chemical abortions: Holly Gruhl provided a summary from the May 4 Catholic Physicians Guild meeting. Points included: 60% of abortions are done in specialized clinics, and that’s all that is provided, no real health care. A chemical abortion is used in 50% of first trimester abortions. FDA guidelines include/should include (not sure which) mitigation of harm to women and a post-abortion exam by a physician. Anti-coagulants are contraindicated. In 2016, physicians were no longer required to see patients, but could do telemed abortions. Side effects are required to be recorded, but not a death. With a chemical abortion, it is easy to avoid reporting, even though the risk of needing an ER visit is four times as high as with a surgical abortion. Complications of a chemical abortion are pain, intense cramping, bleeding, and infection. Young women frequently experience these side effects while at home alone.
- Transgenderism issue: The Washington Post featured an article headlined “Most Americans support anti-trans policies favored by GOP, poll shows.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/05/trans-poll-gop-politics-laws/). It shows that from 30-40% of respondents favor ideas that recently would have been called unthinkable. Legislatures are pushing back.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Dr. Gruhl commented on the tremendous advances in ChatGPT. This can provide better answers to patients’ questions and even convey more empathy than physicians, according to one study. AI can mimic the style of various writers and even stuttering and human errors. Possibly it could pass the Turing test. Someday, a computer application will be everybody’s “best friend.” AI incorporates the biases of its developers. Dr. Gruhl’s suggests that it would be extremely valuable to have a program that would present minority views with references to support them. “Could this make mainstream media obsolete?”, Holly Gruhl asks. AI will not create consciousness, Dr. Gruhl states. The two aspects of the universe are informational (nonmaterial) and physical (material). Computers are composed 100% of physical entities, and consciousness is 100% in the information domain.
Medical News Discussion Group, May 2023
