High performance liquid chromatographic method for the analysis of organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides

A method has been developed for the rapid quantitative analysis of organophosphorous and carbamate pesticides using HPLC. Good separation was obtained among the four major groups of organophosphorus pesticides [i.e. aryl phosphorothionate (methyl parathion), alkyl phosphorothionate (malathion), enolphosphate (phosphomidon, monocrotophos, dichlorvos), heterocyclic phosphorothionates (quinalphos)] and carbamates [viz. Carbaryl (Sevin) and Baygon (Dalf)] with a detection limit of 100 ng for all the pesticides. Separation was measured in terms of capacity factor (k') resolution (R) and selectivity factor (alpha ii). The method described can be used for the analysis of biological samples for the presence of organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides in the cases of poisoning. Recovery studies were made in the blood, lung and liver and found to be 85-97% with reproducibility at greater than 95%.     

Ethical and practical principles underlying the end of life decisions

"I will not relinquish old age, if it leaves my better part intact. But, if it begins to shake my mind, if it destroys its faculties one by one, if it leaves me not life but breath, I will depart from the putrid or tottering edifice. If I must suffer without hope or relief, I will depart, not through fear of the pain itself, but because it prevents all for which I would live." Seneca, the great Roman statesman of 1st century AD, spoke these words 2 millennia before the Netherlands became, on November 28, 2000, the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. The decisions pertaining to end of life, whether legalized or otherwise, are practiced in many parts of the world but not reported on account of legal implications. Lack of awareness regarding the distinction between different procedures on account of legal status granted to them in some countries is the other area of concern. Debate among the medical practitioners, lawmakers, and the public taking into consideration the cultural, social, and religious ethos will lead to increased awareness, more safeguards, and improvement of medical decisions concerning the end of life.     

Withholding and withdrawing of life support: a medicolegal dilemma

The developments in medicine in general and the technology of life support in particular have provided the means of maintaining organ function for prolonged periods of time. However, there are many situations where life-sustaining treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU) may lead to a death with lingering and suffering of the patient, as well as burdening their family. Although often equated, withholding and/or withdrawing life-prolonging treatments that allow the patient to die needs to be differentiated from the physician-assisted suicides and euthanasia that involve the active ending of life. There is a difference between an unintended but accepted consequence of forgoing therapy and an intended result of death from suicide or euthanasia. The present-day physicians view most patient deaths as an inevitable process secondary to disorders unresponsive to treatment and/or multiple organ dysfunction syndromes. The large majority of patients dying in ICUs today succumb not after cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but rather, after the forgoing of life-sustaining treatment. Such approach has frequently caused families, institutions, and conservators of patients to resort to judicial fiat for resolution.     

Disorders of sexual preference and medicolegal issues thereof

Disorders of sexual preference or paraphilias are bizarre patterns of sexual behavior that have diverse manifestations and are of complicated sexual orientations. Some of these are harmless, while others are not, robbing sufferers and possibly their partners of loving sexual relationship. At least 40 paraphilias have been named, but the full extent of the field, perhaps, is still undiscovered. Recent studies have reported many paraphilias as long-term effects of sexual abuse in childhood, and the more frequent and persistent the abuse is, the worse the long-term psychologic, behavioral, and relationship problems. Psychopathology within this group of disorders may lead to criminal behavior, ranging from infringement of decency to some of the most heinous crimes known.