Msgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who is head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said there was no dignity in her physician assisted death.

Ms Maynard, 29, took a lethal prescription provided by a doctor under Oregon state's death-with-dignity law.

Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and was given only months to live

She died on November 1.

"We don't judge people, but the gesture in itself is to be condemned," Msgr Carrasco de Paula told Italy's ANSA news agency.

"Assisted suicide is an absurdity. Dignity is something different than putting an end to your own life," he said.

Ms Maynard became a media sensation after a video she posted on YouTube announcing her decision was viewed 9.8 million times.

This made her an appealing young face for the right-to-die movement.

She worked closely with the advocacy group Compassion and Choices.

But Msgr Carrasco de Paula said: "Killing yourself is not a good thing; it's a bad thing because it says no to life and to all that means in relation to our duty in the world and to those close to us."

He added that assisted suicide was also dangerous because it offered a potential "solution" for a society that sought to abandon the sick and quit paying the costs of their illnesses.

In a final Facebook posting, Ms Maynard wrote: "Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!"

Only two days earlier, she released a video reconsidering the November 1 date she had set for her suicide.

She was still having good days with her family and friends, she said, and she wasn't sure if it was yet the "right time".

Janet Morana, executive director of the pro-life organisation Priests for Life, said: "Pray for Brittany for the repose of her soul, it's in the hands of God right now."

"Anything is possible with God. Don't put limitations on what God can do."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• ANSA
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Taringa.net

Confronted with such a question, the vast majority of people would know that A was the correct answer.

Indeed, most people would know that water in the lungs is proof of death by drowning but that lack of it is proof of death prior to a body being immersed in water.

Now consider the following anecdote, seared on my memory for reasons that will quickly become apparent:

It was a conference at the London School of Economics in the early years of the new century on evolutionary psychology, chaired by the leading sociologist, Prof Lord Giddens, to which I had been invited along with the great and the good of the Darwinian and sociological worlds.

In the course of an extempore comment, I pointed out that, although people indisputably have free will, the free will we have is limited to choosing from menus of options ultimately drawn up by our genes.

I gave the example of suicide, making the obvious point that, although people can kill themselves by refusing food or drink, no one has ever committed suicide by holding their breath!

But at this point a well-known and very eminent professor of biology and neurobiology leapt to his feet and excitedly asked the audience "Whether Dr Badcock has ever heard of suicide by drowning?" A thunder of raucous laughter was immediately followed by hearty applause—and stunned silence on my part. The assembled intellectual elite of Darwinism and social science appeared to believe that people drown by holding their breath, and that my comment was completely laughable. In other words, they had ticked B above! But how could this be possible? How could an elite audience of intellectuals with an average IQ well above 100, chaired by a member of the House of Lords and led by an influential professor, be so confused in its thinking? Continue reading

Source

• Psychology Today
• Image: The Sydney Morning Herald

He and other researchers, including Craig Kinsley of the University of Richmond, have found that there's more science than previously thought to being equipped for motherhood. Mothers are better at problem solving, handling stress and at completing certain memory tasks.

Franssen's aim has been to figure out what is happening in the brains of mothers to warrant these advantages. He designs experiments with mother and non-mother (but still female) rats to see how both groups perform on tasks such as navigating a maze. Then, he studies brain tissue samples from the rats to determine what neurons were activated. Does being a mother give a woman more neurons? Or, are a mother's neurons bigger or more efficient? Franssen explains.

You have this theory about revving racecar engines and pregnant women's brains. Can you explain? What do the two have in common?

It is funny comparison. At the revving stage, a racecar's engine is getting prepped for that race. It seems like there is a lot of evidence to suggest that is actually what's happening in the mother's brain during the period of pregnancy. There are changes happening to neurons. They are increasing in size or some neurons have been shown to not only grow but to potentially increase their capacity to produce protein in one part of the brain or perhaps increase their neuronal branches to make communications from one neuron to another neuron that it wasn't talking with before—all in anticipation of the high workload of caring for a child.

So, what advantages do mothers have over non-mothers, behaviorally?

It is quite the gamut of things that moms can do better than non-moms in the rat world. It is always fair to start by pointing out that rats are uni-parental. Continue reading

Sources

• Smithsonian.com
• Image: The Guardian

Scott Routley, 39, was asked questions while having his brain activity scanned in a machine that measured the real-time activity of the brain. Different parts of his brain became active when he responded to suggestions and questions from doctors.

"We put him in an MRI scanner and while he is in the scanner we ask him to imagine doing certain things in his mind . . . for example, we ask him to imagine using his arms," said British neuroscientist Professor Adrian Owen.

"Scott is unable to use his arms in reality but it turns out he is perfectly able to imagine moving his arms. And we can pick that up on the scanner and we can tell he's doing what we ask him to do," said Professor Owen, who led the research team examining Routley.

"And when we say ‘now stop doing that imagining' . . . then we see the little blob in the brain disappear. But when we say ‘start it again now' the blob lights up again.

"Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and where he is."

Professor Owen said Routley had even been able to respond that "he wasn't in any pain".

Routley suffered a brain injury in a car accident 12 years ago. None of his physical assessments since then had shown any sign of awareness, or ability to communicate.

His parents say they always thought he was conscious and could communicate by lifting a thumb or moving his eyes. But this was never been accepted by medical staff.

Professor Bryan Young at University Hospital, London, Ontario — Routley's neurologist for a decade — said the scan results overturned all the assessments that had been made over the years, and medical textbooks would need to be revised.

Sources:

BBC

Toronto Star

Image: Toronto Star

They are engines of incalculable joy and agonising despair. They are comedy machines.

Their language is their own and the order of their new halting words has never been heard before in the whole history of the world.

They are cruel, and move in herds and gaggles and mobs, and woe unto the silent one, the one who looks funny, the one who speaks awkwardly, the fat one, for she will be shouldered aside, he will never get the ball, she will never be asked to jump rope, he will not be invited to the pool party, she will weep with confusion and rage, he will lash out with sharp small fists.

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. His books include Thirsty for the Joy: Australian & American Voices.

Read Brain Dolye's Blog on CathNews.com

Image: Hofman Centre blog