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Opinion Pieces Respond To Obama's Call For 'Empathy' In Supreme Court Justice
Two newspapers recently published opinion pieces responding to President Obama"s comments on the need for "empathy" in candidates to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Summaries appear below.~ Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe: When discussing Souter"s replacement, Obama said he will seek a nominee ""who understands that justice isn"t about some abstract theory. ... It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people"s lives,"" Globe columnist Goodman writes in an opinion piece. According to Goodman, Obama"s emphasis on the need for judicial "empathy" has sparked outrage among a "phalanx of horrified conservatives" who claim that "empathy is just a code word for the sentimental liberal bias in favor of underdogs over the Constitution." However, she continues, "let us remember that empathy is not sympathy. It doesn"t require that we take sides. Nor is it an emotional shortcut that upends all legal reasoning to declare a winner." According to Goodman, empathy "is rather the ability to imaginatively enter into the experience of others." She writes that the "capacity to recognize another person"s reality is not just liberal," adding that empathy "doesn"t trump reason, it informs reason." Goodman writes, "The truth is that we want judges who "get it,"" adding that the "myth of justice as a matter of pure objective reasoning that could be meted out by a computer is just that, a myth" (Goodman, Boston Globe, 5/22).~ Mike Rosen, Denver Post: Although Obama"s emphasis on empathy might seem "[c]ompassionate and seductive" to some, his stance "represents a radical and dangerous departure from traditional American jurisprudence," radio host Rosen writes in a Post opinion piece. Rosen writes, "When empathetic judges rule on their feelings, they are exceeding their authority," adding that the "role of the judicial branch of our government is to rule on the Constitution as written and the law as passed by Congress and signed by the president." According to Rosen, the courts "are a co-equal branch of government, not a superior branch," and judges should not "rule on what they think the law ought to be" because that would be "government by a presumptuous, unelected judiciary." Rosen continues that "judges are referees, not rule makers" because they are "not there to empathize with the fans or the players. They represent the rule book, and they aren"t authorized to … make it "fairer."" According to Rosen, the "dispute between conservatives and liberals on judicial activism is philosophical and irreconcilable." He concludes that Senate confirmation hearings for Obama"s nominee "should make for an interesting debate on these principles" (Rosen, Denver Post, 5/22).

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New Approach To Treating Heart Attacks Reduces Risk Of Life-Threatening Complications

Transferring heart attack patients to specialized hospitals to undergo angioplasty within six hours after receiving clot-busting drugs reduces the risk of life-threatening complications including repeat heart attacks, according to a new study from St. Michael"s Hospital and Southlake Regional Hospital. The findings, published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that routine early transfer of patients after clot-busting drugs are administered results in significantly better outcomes than the current traditional practice of transferring patients only when the clot-busting drugs fail. The study - which is the largest randomized trial of its kind to date -- followed 1,059 heart attack patients who were treated with clot-busting drugs at community hospital emergency departments in Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec. Researchers compared a strategy of transferring heart attack patients to hospitals with on-site angioplasty facilities to undergo angioplasty within six hours after administration of clot-busting drugs, as opposed to the traditional approach of transferring only those patients when clot-busting drug treatments are unsuccessful. "When treating patients with heart attacks, timing is everything, " said Dr. Shaun Goodman, the study"s chairman and associate head of cardiology at St. Michael"s Hospital, "A patient"s chances of recovery are significantly improved if care is provided in a setting where angioplasty can be done soon after clot-busting therapy is given." All patients in the study initially sought treatment at a hospital without angioplasty capability and were treated with a newer clot-busting drug (tenecteplase). Patients were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: urgent transfer for angioplasty within six hours, or standard care (no transfer for angioplasty within the first 24 hours unless the clot-busting medication failed to restore blood flow in the blocked artery). Patients who received standard care often underwent angioplasty 24-72 hours after the heart attack. Overall the research showed: * 17 per cent of patients receiving standard care had serious cardiac complications within 30 days, compared with 11 per cent of those transferred immediately for angioplasty. That represents a 36 per cent reduction in potentially life-threatening complications, including repeat heart attacks, with no difference in major bleeding complications between the two groups. * Patients who received the earlier angioplasty had lower rates of experiening chest pain (0.2 per cent as compared to 2.1 percent) * These same patients had fewer episodes of second heart attacks (3.4 per cent v 5.7 per cent) Angioplasty - which uses a combination of catheter-mounted balloons and stents to open a completely blocked coronary artery and restore blood flow to the heart - is accepted as the best initial treatment for heart attacks when performed within 90 minutes of arrival at a hospital. "The challenge, though, is that this is a goal that few hospitals in the world can achieve unless they have angioplasty facilities on site," explained the study"s primary author Dr. Warren Cantor of Southlake Regional Health Centre, adding that less than 25 per cent of hospitals in North America have these res. Until now, physicians have been reluctant to transfer patients to another hospital to undergo angioplasty soon after administering clot-busting medication as a result of earlier studies that revealed excess bleeding and no benefit with this approach. The results of the TRANSFER AMI trial are currently under review by international cardiology guideline committees and it is hoped that the strategy of an early transfer for angioplasty following clot-busting therapy will be strongly recommended as part of routine practice in the near future. The research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and coordinated by the Canadian Heart Research Centre. Gail Bergman St. Michael"s Hospital


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