Thanks for your sacrifice ...

Following up on the thread started by Jenny below comes a piece on the Associated Press newswire about health care for female veterans.

Women make up a significant and increasing percentage of soldiers - about 200,000 women currently serve, representing nearly 15% of the military personnel. Yet the Veteran's Administration is still behind the curve on recognizing that these fighting women have different medical needs and expectations than their male counterparts.

As the AP article notes, not only is there a dearth of physicians specializing in women's health but many VA facilities even lack the basic equipment and infrastructure to meet the needs of female soliders. For example, the report mentions a lack of female bathrooms or female-only changing facilities, leading me to suspect that most VA hospitals are actually converted athletic stadiums.

Don't even ask about women-only group counseling options, even for those who are suffering post-traumatic stress as a result of sexual abuse (a military tradition). Of course, the Bush Administration has been arguing that our veterans are not necessarily entitled to mental health care, so this may be one of the few examples of gender equality in the VA medical system.

fast followups

Two quick follow-ups on recent blog posts.

First, a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the Albany, VA, a story Linda originally blogged about yesterday. The widows will have 30 days to decide if they want to appeal.

Secondly, if the spray-on condom story caught your eye, you can head over to this blog, which has arranged an interview with the inventor. Alternatively, you can just watch the below YouTube video of CSI: NY, which demonstrates how a spray can (versus "car wash") style application might work. As we discussed in the comments on that thread, this particular method of application is an interesting idea for covering areas of the genitalia not typically covered by condoms. (For example, I wonder if it could provide protection against something like HPV or herpes, while still allowing a couple to attempt conception without infection?)

Healthcare for Veterans under scrutiny in NY -- the 'dark chapter'

The health care system under the Veterans Administration has been investigated and looked at by the bioethics community before, but according to the Times-Union , papers filed recently in a federal court in Albany detail a string of disturbing lapses at the VA Hospital in Albany. AMBI's Glenn McGee has been called as an expert witness and characterized the situation in the VA as a "systematic deception by clinicians in plain violation of medical and research ethics across 3,000 years of the development of such principals."

Ouch -- this is certainly not what our veterans deserve. To read the whole article, click here.