It is not the policy of the Nobel Committee to award posthumous honors unless a laureate has died after the announcement was made but before the Dec. 10th award ceremony. This year, however, the committee plans to make an exception. On Oct. 3, the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Canadian … Continue reading
Category Archives: Medicine
To those who believe that people with terminal illnesses should have the right to take their own lives, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a heroic advocate for dying with dignity. To his opponents, he was a cold-blooded killer who preyed on more than 130 people suffering from mental illness, disability and chronic pain. Kevorkian was born … Continue reading
Delphine Katherine Scharber was 23 years old and recently wed when her kidneys began to fail. It was 1965, and doctors at the University of Minnesota had only been performing kidney transplants for two years. But the operation was a risk Scharber, and her mother Ottilia Winter, 52, were willing to take. When she went … Continue reading
When Edith “Edie” Shain kissed a stranger 65 years ago, she became a part of history. The New York native was working as a nurse at the now-demolished Doctors Hospital in Manhattan on August 14, 1945, when President Harry S. Truman announced that the war with Japan had ended. To celebrate, Shain headed to Times … Continue reading
George Richard Tiller, one of only a few doctors in America who performed late-term abortions, was shot to death on May 31. He was 67. Born in Wichita, Kansas, Tiller earned a degree in zoology from the University of Kansas and a medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He pursued an … Continue reading
May 7, 2007, Author: , Leave a comment
James Richards
Categories: Education, Medicine, Writers/EditorsDr. James Robert Richards, a renowned veterinarian who dedicated his life to helping cats, died on April 24 from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident. He was 58. Although he was born in Richmond, Ind., Richards grew up on a farm in Preble County, Ohio. There were no children his age living nearby so … Continue reading
March 24, 2007, Author: , 2 Comments
Jean Kennedy Schmidt
Categories: Extraordinary People, Medicine, MilitaryLt. Jean Kennedy Schmidt, an American nurse who was held prisoner for nearly three years during World War II, died on March 3 from complications of a fall. She was 88. Born Imogene Kennedy in Philadelphia, Miss., Schmidt was raised on a farm with her seven siblings. In 1941, she earned a nursing degree from … Continue reading
October 17, 2006, Author: , Leave a comment
Mason Andrews
Categories: Government, Medicine, Military, PoliticiansDr. Mason Andrews’ life may best be described by the political slogan he used in the 1974 Norfolk (Va.) City Council race: “Mason Andrews delivers.” The son of a Norfolk obstetrician, Andrews earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1940 and attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After completing a tour of duty … Continue reading
Dr. John William Money, a sex researcher and the co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic, died on July 7 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. He was 84. Born in Morrinsville, New Zealand, Money studied psychology at Victoria University of Wellington and at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his doctorate at Harvard … Continue reading
Dr. Stanley H. Biber, a sex-reassignment surgeon who helped turn the small town of Trinidad, Colo., into the sex-change capital of the world, died on Jan. 16 from complications of pneumonia. He was 82. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Biber was the eldest child of a furniture store owner and a social rights advocate. He … Continue reading
