| Fernando
Araujo was kidnapped in 2000 |
| Ex-Colombian
minister escapes after 6 years hostage |
agencies
A
former Colombian government minister kidnapped
by leftist rebels in 2000 said on Friday he escaped
during an army attack on his secret jungle prison
and hid in the wilderness for five days before
being found.
Former Development Minister Fernando Araujo said
in a statement he ran from the camp when army
helicopters fired at his captors in the northern
part of the country. He was found by an army
patrol and reunited with his family on Friday.
Araujo, who appeared thin but smiling, was among
62 hostages that the government wants to swap
for leftist rebels held in government jails.
"
I ask God that the other kidnap victims be freed
soon," he said in a television interview.
Araujo was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, while jogging
in the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena in
December
2000. He had been former President Andres Pastrana's
development minister.
The military operation, in which a soldier
and six guerrillas were killed, came less than
three
months after President Alvaro Uribe ordered
the army to rescue hostages.
The order followed the October explosion of
a car bomb in the parking lot of a military
university
in Bogota, which was blamed on the FARC, which
says it fights to close the gap between rich
and poor in the Andean country.
"
This is an important success for the government,
but their are still plenty of other hostages
out there," said political commentator Ricardo
Avila.
They include Ingrid Betancourt, who was captured
during her 2002 presidential campaign,
and three U.S. defense contractors kidnapped
in 2003.
Uribe won re-election in a landslide last
year based on his efforts to quash the
17,000-member rebel army, which was born
in the 1960s aiming
to close the gap between rich and poor
in the
Andean country but now funds itself with
Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine
trade.
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| Ethical
debate |
| Seattle
parents defend treatment for disabled daughter |
agencies
The
parents of a severely disabled 9-year-old girl
given doses of estrogen to stunt her growth and
a hysterectomy to prevent menstrual cycles defended
their treatment decisions as necessary for their
child's quality of life.
The parents of Ashley, who cannot walk or talk
and has the mental ability of a baby, made their
first public statements about her treatment in
a blog posting this week after her doctors detailed
the growth-attenuation treatment in a medical
journal in October. Ashley's last name has not
been disclosed.
The treatment, which started when Ashley was
six, drew criticism from other doctors and has
stirred up an ethical debate about whether stopping
normal life development overstepped the bounds
of medical treatment.
Ashley's parents, who live in Seattle and did
not disclose their names, said the effort is
a more humane solution for the girl who suffers
from an irreversible brain impairment called
static encephalopathy.
"
Ashley was dealt a challenging life and the least
that we could do as her loving parents and caregivers
is to be diligent about maximizing her quality
of life," her parents wrote. "A fundamental
and universal misconception about the treatment
is that it is intended to convenience the caregiver."
In the post on http://ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com/blog/
Ashley's parents said the decision to adopt
this course of treatment for their "pillow angel" --
she stays right on the pillow where they leave
her -- was not a difficult one.
High doses of estrogen should keep Ashley's
height and weight near current levels at 4ft
5 in and
around 75 lbs (34 kg).
"
Ashley can continue to delight in being held
in our arms and will be moved and taken on trips
more frequently and will have more exposure to
activities and social gatherings," they
said.
Without
the treatment, Ashley would grow to be a 5ft
6in
woman weighing 125 lbs (57 kg), according
to normal growth estimates.
The parents also said doctors had performed
a hysterectomy so Ashley would not have to
deal
with discomfort related to menstrual cycles
and to eliminate the possibility of uterine
cancer.
They also removed her breast buds to limit
the development of breasts, they added.
Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the
University of Pennsylvania, said the "do no harm" rule
governing physicians is very powerful and "stopping
growth is not the ethical way to head.
"
Puberty, growth (and) aging happen to all of
us and there are plenty of people out there who
will require help from family or society," Caplan
told Reuters. "The solution isn't to take
every person who is schizophrenic or autistic
or behaviorally disoriented and keep them in
a child-like state."
David Fleming, a physician who is director
of the Center for Health Ethics at the
University of Missouri, said "Only history will know
and only time will be able to witness whether
they (the parents) made the right decision. It
seems likely they were acting in the best interest
of the child."
Ashley's parents started to consider this
course of treatment in 2004 when she
began to show
early signs of puberty. Before proceeding
with the
surgeries or estrogen treatment, they
needed to gain approval from a 40-person
ethics
committee at Seattle Children's Hospital.
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