Patt Morrison for Tuesday, December 7, 2010

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:21 – 1:39

Jamming down the road: preventing cell phone use while driving, whether you like it or not

Even with laws on the books in several states that are supposed to enforce hands-free cell phone use in cars, we all have seen people furiously talking or typing away at their phones while driving—we all have probably been guilty of an infraction or two ourselves.  There is a policy that is being kicked around by the Department of Transportation that aims to definitively settle the issue of using a cell phone in the car by installing jamming technology in every car on the road, forcefully preventing the use of a cell phone while driving.  Of course these jammers would also knock out your passengers’ cell phones as well, and there’s the issue of being able to use your phone in case of an emergency.  Then there’s that whole “Big Brother” thing where the long arm of the government reaches right down into your car to stop your bad behavior.  But driving while distracted, usually because of cell phone usage, is a dangerous problem—is cell phone jamming a potential solution?

 

Guests:

TBD

 

 

1:41 – 1:58:30

Can you hear Charles Manson now? How cell phones, and other contraband, find their way into California prisons

 

Guests:

TBD

 

 

2:06 – 2:39

Mercy killing: Is it morally justifiable to murder someone with dementia?

Mr. Roy Charles Laird of Seal Beach shot and killed his wife in cold blood.  It sounds like a tragic story, but the details of this case might stretch the moral and ethical boundaries of our understanding of murder.   Mr. Laird is 88.  His wife of 69 years was in the late-stages of dementia and required 24 hour care.  Not many among us would choose to spend our final years/months in a nursing home unable to care for ourselves or recognize our loved ones, but if that is our fate should we accept it?  If we are unable to end our own life, is it acceptable to ask our family to help without the threat of murder charges and jail time?  The Laird family called the process of watching Mrs. Laird’s “horrific descent, sometimes to subhuman levels” gut-wrenching. Mr. Laird is charged with one felony count of murder and could face a maximum of 50 years in state prison.  You be the judge, was this mercy or murder?

 

Guests:

Sherwin B. Nuland is a clinical professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine.  He serves on the executive committee of Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and is a fellow at The Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank

CALL HIM @

 

• He is the author of How We Die: Reflections of Life’s Final Chapter

 

• The Hastings Center is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute founded in 1969. The Center's mission is to address fundamental ethical issues in the areas of health, medicine, and the environment as they affect individuals, communities, and societies.

 

Felicia Cohn, director of medical ethics for the University California, Irvine School of Medicine and Bioethics director for Kaiser Permanente, Orange County

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2:41 – 2:58:30

OPEN

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM

626.583.5171, office

415.497.2131, mobile

jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org

www.scpr.org