Aging death row: Is executing old or infirm inmates cruel? | AP
Vernon Madison has spent decades on Alabama’s death row. Now 67, Madison has suffered from strokes and dementia and his lawyers say he no longer recalls the crime that put him there: the 1985 killing of a police officer. His speech is slurred, he suffers from confusion, and once thought he was near release and talked of moving to Florida, according to his lawyers. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to review the claims by Madison’s defense team that executing someone in his condition would violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. “Killing a fragile man suffering from dementia is unnecessary and cruel,” Madison’s attorney, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, said in January, when the justices stayed Madison’s execution the night he was to receive a lethal injection. The U.S. death row population is aging, and that leaves courts increasingly likely to grapple with questions of when it becomes unconstitutionally cruel to put someone to death who is mentally frail — or whose medical conditions could complicate the execution procedure.
Meet the disability-led ensemble Resound | BBC News
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has formed one of the UK’s first ensembles fronted by musicians with disabilities.
Older Americans are hooked on vitamins despite scare evidence | Minneapolis Star Tribune
When she was a young physician, Dr. Martha Gulati noticed that many of her mentors were prescribing vitamin E and folic acid to patients. Preliminary studies in the early 1990s had linked both supplements to a lower risk of heart disease. She urged her father to pop the pills as well. But a few years later, Gulati, now chief of cardiology for the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, found herself reversing course after rigorous clinical trials found neither supplement did anything to protect the heart. Even worse, studies linked high-dose vitamin E to a higher risk of heart failure, prostate cancer and death from any cause. “‘You might want to stop taking [these],’ ” she told her father.
Most Older Americans Support Medical Marijuana | AARP
Older Americans think marijuana is effective for pain relief and should be available to patients with a doctor’s recommendation, according to a new University of Michigan/AARP survey.
The majority of the adults age 50 to 80 responding to the National Poll on Healthy Aging say they believe medical marijuana is effective for pain relief, appetite loss and anxiety. Eighty percent say they strongly or somewhat support its use when a doctor consents. Sixty percent do not support the use of medical marijuana without a doctor’s recommendation. Six percent of those surveyed report personally using marijuana for medical reasons. That percentage is relatively high compared with prior studies, says Preeti Malani, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and director of the poll.
Medical Marijuana Use Drops For Those 65 And Older | Forbes
For older adults exploring the new world of medical marijuana, age 65 seems to be a tipping point. Those under that age use the drug for medical purposes at largely the rates of other adults. Usage among people over 65 appears to drop significantly, though, perhaps because of the culture in which they came of age. That’s the conclusion based on emerging data from this rapidly growing, but little-studied area of medicine. Today, half of the states now allow medical marijuana in some form and there are an estimated 1 million people using it.
As the senior population grows, aging is becoming a major investing theme | CNBC
The demographic shift the world is going through presents a major trend that’s worth investing in, according to one expert. “Aging is, with no doubt, one of the strongest, one of the least cyclical, one of the most permanent trends in the market,” Vafa Ahmadi, head of thematic equity management at Amundi’s CPR Asset Management, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy. Given those factors, investing around the aging population makes “good sense,” Ahmadi said at the Credit Suisse Global Megatrends Conference in Singapore.
Bill to align state retirement disability standards with Dept. of Veterans Affairs becomes law | WABI5
A measure to ensure the state retirement system has the same disability standards as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is now law in Maine. Governor LePage signed the bill Friday.
It ensures disabled vets who are part of the public employee retirement system qualify for disability benefits if they become unable to work. The legislation was inspired by Scott Couture, a former Marine Patrol officer who experienced serious post-traumatic stress after serving in Iraq.
Uber, Lyft and Via sue to block wheelchair-accessibility mandate | Crains New York Business News
The city’s three biggest ride-hail companies have banded together to undo the recently passed Taxi and Limousine Commission mandate requiring them to make wheelchair accessible service a growing part of their operations. Uber, Lyft, and Via filed a petition in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday asking that the TLC mandate be vacated and annulled. The rules are set to go into effect in July, and will require that within 12 months 5% of all trips dispatched by the operators be in wheelchair accessible vehicles.
Disability History News, | Disability History Museum
Volume 2, No. 2, April 16, 2018
Cliches about only being as old as you feel are starting to have scientific backing | the Washington Post
We’ve heard all the cliches about aging: “You’re as young [or old] as you feel.” “Age is just a number.” “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better.” “Seventy is the new 50.” Well-intentioned, perhaps. Offensive, to some. Patronizing, to be sure. But could they be true?
Maybe science has started to catch up with these tired phrases. Researchers have discovered that many people feel good about themselves as they get older.
HIV-infected people are living for years, but age-related diseases set in early | The Washington Post
David Hardy has been treating HIV-infected patients since the early 1980s, when the epidemic began. In those days, people newly diagnosed with AIDS lived for only about six months. Hardy, an infectious-disease specialist and internist, was ecstatic when powerful new drug combinations came into widespread use in 1996, enabling HIV-infected people to measure their lives in decades rather than months. But in recent years, his euphoria has turned bittersweet.
Complaints About Nursing Home Evictions Rise, and Regulators Take Note | The New York Times
Six weeks after Deborah Zwaschka-Blansfield had the lower half of her left leg amputated, she received some news from the nursing home where she was recovering: Her insurance would no longer pay, and it was time to move on. The home wanted to release her to a homeless shelter or pay for a week in a motel. “That is not safe for me,” said Ms. Zwaschka-Blansfield, 59, who cannot walk and had hoped to stay in the home, north of Sacramento, until she could do more things for herself — like getting up if she fell.Her experience is becoming increasingly common among the 1.4 million nursing home residents across the country.
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