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SINAI HOSPITAL

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MEDICIDE page 39

Women's Health Series

Join us for an informative discussion presented by
specialists in the field of women's health care.

Programs are held at 7 p.m., at

Southfield Public Library

26000 Evergreen Road
(between 10 & 11 Mile Roads)

Our last Women's Health Series program
for the summer!

■ June 29

"Alternatives to Hysterectomy"

This lecture is free and open to the public.
To reserve a seat, please call

3I N w S InaE*11 i
PHYSICIAN REFERRAL SERVICE
1 -800- 2 48- 3627

G. Jan Beekhuis, MD

\ COSMETIC

SURGEONS
OF
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—,4■ 1111110 ■ "

Specializing in Facial & Cosmetic Surgery

• Surgery of The Eyelids
• Rhinoplasty
• Chemical Peels
• Face Lifts
• Chin and Cheek Augmentation

30700 Telegraph Road • Suite 4566 • Bingham Farms
(Between 12 & 13 Mile Roads)
810-645-0844

Big Things Are Happening At

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BLOOMFIELD PLAZA • TELEGRAPH & MAPLE

We are winning.

11?

ANIERICAN
CANCER
SOCETC

judge in the Washington State
case, Chief Judge Barbara J.
Rothstein, who maintains that
no distinction can be made be-
tween a patient's right to refuse
life-sustaining treatment —
which New York State also rec-
ognizes — and a patient's right
to physician-assisted suicide.
Perhaps more significantly,
Judge Rothstein also argued that
the right of a patient to commit
suicide enjoys the same degree of
constitutional protection as does
the right of a woman to procure
an abortion. Her opinion is all the
more ominous, Mr. Zwiebel
warns, in a society that for over
two decades has considered the
right to an abortion fundamen-
tal.
But developments in the courts
and legislatures are not the only
cause for concern, the Agudath
Israel attorney avowed. As a re-
sult of a constant barrage of ar-
ticles on the subject, what he calls
the "ghoulish creed of Kevorkian-
ism and euthanasia" have be-
come part of the popular zeitgeist,
affecting, in turn, the attitudes of
jurists and lawmakers.
And although it is not foreseen
that states will anytime soon ac-
tually enact laws prescribing ac-
tive euthanasia, changing public

attitudes toward death and the
administering or withholding of
life-saving procedures can have
serious repercussions affecting
the entire moral tenor of society.
Agudath Israel, he said, will
continue to speak out before leg-
islative and judicial bodies on the
range of bio-ethical issues in spite
of what he calls "an uphill battle"
against these trends.
A primary goal of such a
dvocacy, naturally, is to assure
that any laws passed, if they gen-
erally contravene Jewish tradi-
tion, at the least include
protections to accommodate the
specific beliefs and requirements
of religious patients and health-
care providers.
But the Orthodox Jewish
group is also more broadly con-
cerned about general society's
changing focus. "Jewish tradition
teaches us," as Mr. Zwiebel has
told lawmakers, "that all human
life is sacred. And while it is not
our objective to shape secular law
so as to impose our own religious
world view upon society at large,
we firmly believe that laws that
undermine the sanctity of human
life do more than merely offend
religious tradition. They send a
message that is profoundly dan-
gerous for all society." ❑

Leafy Plant Keeps
Migraine At Bay

SHARON KANON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

or centuries, herbal reme-
dies have been used to cure
a wide assortment of ail-
ments. In fact, the miracle
drug aspirin was first extracted
from a willow tree, and digitalis,
used to regulate the heartbeat, is
derived from the foxglove plant.
Research in England and Is-
rael on the flowering yellow-
green leafy plant feverfew, has
recently proven its effectiveness
in reducing the incidence and
severity of migraine headaches.
Galilee Herbal Remedies of Kib-
butz Kfar Hanassi, has now be-
gun producing and exporting
what many consider the most ef-
fective feverfew on the world
market.
One of the first to recognize the
effects of feverfew was Dr. Stew-
art Johnson of the London Mi-
graine Clinic. He concluded
clinical trails to substantiate the
claims that chewing feverfew
leaves in the morning alleviates
migraines.
Professor Dan Palevitch, a re-
searcher on Medicinal Herbs at
Israel's Volcani Center at Beit
Dagan, Professor Rafi Carasso of
Gedera Hospital and Dr. Gideon
Earon, head of the Pain Clinic in
Jaffa, have also found significant

F

positive results in the clinical
testing of feverfew, though these
results have not yet been pub-
lished.
"Neither the doctor nor the pa-
tient knew who was receiving the
active ingredient and who the
placebo," said Professor Pale-
vitch. "I kept the code. The results
were very clear. Feverfew helped
in terms of intensity and fre-
quency. It also helped control
vomiting, sensitivity to light and
noise."
Feverfew is effective in three
kinds of migraine - classical (pre-
ceded by blurred eyesight or
flashing lights, a throbbing
headache and vomiting); common
migraine (an intense nauseating
headache, often affecting only one
side of the head); and migrainous
neuralgia, usually in men (sits
directly behind one eye and
comes in clusters). Some research
points to its use for arthritis and
premenstrual syndrome as well.
The company says that reports
have been coming in that it is also
a relief for hay fever sufferers.
As early as 1985, Professor
Palevitch expressed an interest
in growing the plant in Israel. "At
that time it was difficult to get
funding for research into medic-

