JPost: Health Minister German outlaws fluoridation of all tap water

Here is another in our series of posts regarding mandatory medical treatment.

An article by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich reports that the Israeli Health Minister, Yael German, has directed that Israel's water cupply should no longer be fluoridated.

But she added that instead of forcing all Israelis to consume fluoridated water to benefit children’s teeth, the delivery system should be changed so each parent can decide and take action individually if they wanted their child to get dental protection...

Prof. Arnon Afek, German’s director-general whom she recently handpicked and who is an expert in pathology and medical administration (but not dentistry or public health), told The Jerusalem Post Sunday that he personally supported the health minister’s decision to prohibit fluoridation. “Mandatory fluoridation is medical treatment. Individuals have the right to decide if they want it or not. The question is not if fluoride is beneficial but how it should be delivered. We cannot force people. It is legitimate that experts in the field oppose the health minister’s decision, but we have a policy,” said the director-general. “The ministry supported it for over 40 years, but this is a new era. The world has changed, and we can educate parents.”

The United States Should Exercise Restraint in Ferguson

We call on the United States and the Ferguson Police Department to exercise maximum restraint and avoid killing innocent civilians.

John Oliver on Ferguson: No Police Department Needs Giant Military Vehicles - The Wire:

Absence from Internship for Reserve Duty not Counted

The Israel Bar Association clarified today that the period an intern is absent from his/her legal internship in order to perform IDF reserve duty is not included when calculating the 30 days of absence allowed to a legal intern.

Israel Hayom | Israel Medical Association opposes force-feeding law

In another story related to coercion of medical procedures, there is this story from Israel Hayom (see prior related posts here, here and here). The proposed law would require doctors to force-feed hunger strikers. If a certain doctor refuses, he would be obligated to transfer the care of the patient to another doctor. There are potentially two people being coerced here, the hunger strikers and the doctors.

According to the article, the Chairman of the Israeli Medical Association claims that this clause would cause doctors to violate the Israeli code of medical ethics. But I am not certain how. Perhaps the relevant clauses are on page 24:

k) The right to continue proper medical treatment 

1. The physician shall respect the patient's right to continue medical treatment with another physician or as part of some other medical arrangement. 

2. The physician shall respect the patient's right to receive continuous treatment, with full cooperation from the physicians treating him. 

If the patient has the right to switch doctors, presumably he has the right to keep his current doctor (who refuses to force-feed him).

I never quite understood the issue with hunger strikes. How exactly do the strikers force their captors or others to release them by not eating? According to Wikipedia, it works mainly by guilt or public perception. The jailing entity does not want to suffer the public outcry that would result from the death of the prisoners while incarcerated. I guess it just depends on the will of the jailor and the striker. 

Israel Hayom | Court orders teen to undergo chemo against rabbi's advice

In the past, I have written about the courts mandating medical treatment, see here and here.

Israel Hayom is reporting a case where the court is ordering a boy to go undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment for his leukemia. According to the article, the boy was treated in the past and his cancer was in remission. His doctors are saying it has returned by the boy and his family are refusing treatment, according to the article, on the advice of their rabbi. 

"If they could prove that this treatment is necessary, we would agree to it," said the boy's father.

It is not clear from the article whether the rabbi has seen the medical report.

See here for an article entitled How A Rabbi Decides A Medical Halacha Issue by Rabbi Yitzchok A. Breitowitz.

US Citizens Living Abroad Must Report Foreign Bank Accounts to the IRS

http://www.hacohenwolf.com/fatca-what-is-fatca?utm_source=a4