"In 2002, doctors reported 1,882 cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide to the regional review committees. In 2001 the figure there had been 2,054 reports. The reason behind this reduction is being investigated.

(Source: "Fewer reports of euthanasia," Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport [Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports], 29/04/2003; http://www.minvws.nl/en/nieuwsberichten/ibe/fewer_reports_of_euthanasia.asp .)

"On Aug. 30, the Dutch judiciary allowed Groningen's University Hospital to induce the death of children under 12, including newborns, when they are suffering from incurable sicknesses or undergoing unbearable suffering." 

(Source: "Slippery Slope of Euthanasia for Children, Zenit, 2004-09-06; http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=58462 .)

The grim reaper comes early for men who as boys lost the care of their mothers through maternal employment.  Such are the sobering findings of a mortality study recently completed by sociologists at Penn State University. 

Carefully scrutinizing data collected between 1966 and 1990 as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, the Penn State scholars uncover clear evidence that "the factors that influence men's mortality risk are not strictly based on choices made in adulthood."  Rather, the data indicate that "adult mortality is the long-term outcome of a range of childhood conditions and experiences."  Because of the statistical linkages they limn between certain childhood circumstances, the researchers conclude that certain "childhood socioeconomic and family disadvantages set in motion a series of cascading socioeconomic and lifestyle events that have negative consequences for men's mortality." 

The authors of the new study analyze "family disadvantages" within a "family-investment model" that illuminates the contrasting long-term mortality effects of maternal care and the loss of such care.  After using this model to establish that the men with the lowest risk of premature death were those reared in an intact family in which the mother did not work outside the home, the researchers calculate that the mortality risk for men reared in an intact family in which the mother did work outside the home ran 1.24 times higher over the entire study period (p < .001 for two statistical models, p < .01 for a third statistical model, p < .10 for a fourth statistical model).  Losing the care of a mother through maternal employment proved especially lethal when that mother was married to someone other than the son's biological father: "Men who resided with their stepfathers and biological mothers who worked outside the home faced a mortality risk that was 1.46 times that of the reference category [defined by residence in an intact family in which the mother was not employed]."

The authors of the new study quite plausibly interpret their findings as corroboration of "prior studies that reported that two-biological-parent households are best able to invest in offsprings' well-being."  Perhaps the current prevalence of maternal employment kept the researchers from further pointing out that even in two-biological-parent households, it is the at-home mother whose investments in her offspring can best ensure long life.