And Now, Michael Moore on Drugs

Wait - we didn't mean it that way. It's just that the "Fahrenheit 9/11" guy is doing his next documentary on the health-care industry, and six American pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, are telling their employees to watch out for what a Pfizer spokesman called "a scruffy guy in a baseball cap." If he approaches you, you're supposed to tell him to peddle his papers over at corporate communications. (How about just dosing him with Vioxx?) "Being screwed by your HMO and ill served by pharmaceutical companies is the shared American experience," Moore has said. When his film, to be called "Sicko," comes out a couple of years from now, it ought to spread the pain around more equitably.

The rumors have started already. Moore sightings have been reported at multiple locations*at the same time*and he's having to deny paying doctors to help set up hidden cameras. ("I didn't need to. So many doctors have offered to help, for free.") As a flack for AstraZeneca puts it, "Michael Moore is becoming an urban legend." - Armand Antommaria (Utah)

Think You Could Postpone Death to See a Relative? Think Again

From a JAMA embargo release:

Many of us think that the terminally ill can postpone their deaths so that they can see a relative, experience their last birthday or enjoy a special holiday - sadly, this is a myth, according to a new study. The study looked at the records of 300,000 cancer patients who died in Ohio, USA, between 1989-2000. The study found that they did not have the ability, or the desire, to wait till after Christmas, their birthdays or Thanksgiving before they died.

"For Christmas, Thanksgiving, or the individual's birthday, during the 12-year period there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients dying in the week after the event compared with the proportion dying in the week before the event," the researchers write. "Although overall birthday data showed no effect, women dying of cancer were more likely to die during the week before their birthday compared with the following week. Men showed no significant differences. In no subgroup was a statistically significant decrease of deaths observed in the week before the event."

"Although we cannot eliminate the possibility that a small number of dying cancer patients have the ability to control the timing of their death, the proportion would have to be much smaller than that previously reported," the authors write. " Š analysis of thousands of cancer deaths shows no pattern to support the concept that 'death takes a holiday.'"

-Dominic Sisti [from MCW]

What's Up Roundup

Ten myths about assisted suicide from Spiked Liberties.

Ethics of compulsory drug screening.

Amusing "please call our expert" release on Pfizer Celebrex heart risks, from Saint Louis University

Knight Ridder piece by April Lynch on hiding genetic testing results from insurance companies

Another PR piece fed to the media on an ethicist, this time Penn's Martha Farah and neuroethics.