Free Republic

"Administrators at Seattle Children's today said they predicted this would happen, and it's even worse than they expected," says the local news anchor. "Patients being denied specialty treatment at the hospital by insurance providers on the Washington health benefits exchange. Children's filed request on behalf of 125 of their patients. Of those, they say they got only 20 responses, eight of which were denials. Dr. Sandy Melzer says all this comes after reassurances of certain unique specialty cases would still be covered."

Apr. 11, 2006 23:57 | Updated Apr. 12, 2006 2:51 Pessah teddy bears plagued by taxman By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER An American 12-year-old who helped collect 7,000 teddy bears for sick children in Israel for Pessah had no idea that the stuffed animals would be temporarily barred from entering the Promised Land. Shira Goldstein's family spent the first half of this week begging the Customs Authority to let her teddy bears go. But the authorities only agreed to release them after NIS 8,900 in import taxes and duties were paid on Tuesday. "My heart could break. Everybody has stepped to...

Dutch doctors have reported 22 mercy killings of terminally ill babies since 1997, according to a new study. None of the doctors involved were charged, although euthanasia for children is illegal in the Netherlands. The report, in the Dutch Journal of Medicine, is the first detailed examination of child euthanasia. The study's authors want to address under-reporting of the practice and encourage doctors to report cases without fear of prosecution. The cases involved babies with extreme spina bifida, a disabling birth defect. The study showed that prosecutors had decided not to file charges as long as four unofficial rules were...