Who Directs Ethical Traffic at Philadelphia's Mercy Health System?

Of the six Catholic hospitals in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, four fall under the Mercy Health System (i.e., Mercy Fitzgerald, Mercy Philadelphia, Mercy Suburban, and Nazareth).  Who directs ethical traffic at the Mercy Health System -  66% of Catholic hospitals in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia?  Well, according to Saint Joseph's University, that would be Rev. Peter Clark, S.J.  Some background is in order....

 

Way back in 1995, #120 of the Vatican's Charter Health Care Workers stated that "The administration of food and liquids, even artificially, is part of the normal treatment always due to the patient when this is not burdensome for him: their undue suspension could be real and properly so-called euthanasia." Even so, a confusing sentence appeared in the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 4th edition (2001):

• "The USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities' report...points out the necessary distinctions between questions already resolved by the magisterium and those requiring further reflection, as, for example, the morality of withdrawing medically assisted hydration and nutrition from a person who is in the condition that is recognized by physicians as the 'persistent vegetative state' (PVS)."

Terri Schindler-Schiavo's tragic situation shone light on confusion which existed with regard to the necessary provision of food and water in Catholic medical ethics circles.  Blessed John Paul II's 2004 address to the International Congress on Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State certainly seems to have been a direct intervention to bring clarity:

• "The sick person in a vegetative state, awaiting recovery or a natural end, still has the right to basic health care (nutrition, hydration, cleanliness, warmth, etc.), and to the prevention of complications related to his confinement to bed. He also has the right to appropriate rehabilitative care and to be monitored for clinical signs of eventual recovery ....the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act....The evaluation of probabilities, founded on waning hopes for recovery when the vegetative state is prolonged beyond a year, cannot ethically justify the cessation or interruption of minimal care for the patient, including nutrition and hydration. Death by starvation or dehydration is, in fact, the only possible outcome as a result of their withdrawal."

In response to the Holy Father, Richard Doerflinger, chair of the previously mentioned USCCB Pro-Life Committee stated: "With the Pope's statement, the Church's teaching authority has rejected each aspect of the theory that opposes assisted feeding for patients in a PVS."  In August 2007, the Vatican reiterated the late Holy Father's teaching with Responses to Certain Questions of the USCCB Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration:

• "The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient. In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented....A patient in a 'permanent vegetative state' is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means."

Particularly considering that he is reported to be the bioethicist for 66% of Catholic hospitals in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Father Peter Clark, S.J.'s co-authorship of Undue Burden: The Vatican and Artificial Nutrition and Hydration (February 2009) should be of grave concern:

• "The Schiavo case highlighted the medical practice of providing artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) to patients who can no longer swallow food or eat sufficiently well to sustain health or life. In the process, it prompted concern among many Catholic bishops, both in the United States and the Vatican, that ANH might be withdrawn from patients with the intention either of euthanasia or of ending a life that some people deem unworthy of further medical care. In July 2007, seven directors of bioethics programs at Jesuit universities came together to form the Consortium of Jesuit Bioethics Programs, dedicated to informing and influencing medical-ethical debates within the Catholic Church and the larger society. As one of our first outreach tasks, our consortium decided to address the subject of ANH....
  "In 2004, John Paul II delivered an allocution on the use of ANH for patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS)....the pope’s statement included some assertions that surprised many involved in health care....
  "Some theologians believe these statements represent a departure from long-standing Roman Catholic bioethical traditions. The current U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (fourth edition, 2001)....would appear not to align with John Paul’s 2004 allocution....
  "Subsequent statements by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and the Vatican have seemed to uphold a stringent reading of the pope’s statement....
  "Catholics both within and without the health-care system are left with uncertainty about how to apply John Paul II’s allocution....In June 2008, at the annual meeting of the U.S. bishops, Bishop Lori and Cardinal Rigali convinced the bishops to begin a process of amending the Ethical and Religious Directives, potentially extending recent teachings to new patient populations. The bishops may vote on these changes as early as June 2009....
  "Though John Paul II explicitly maintains that providing ANH is not a medical act, the reality is that within the fields of medicine and law, the practice generally is viewed as a medical treatment....
  "Health-care costs associated with tube feedings are significant....
  "From a legal point of view, ...a 2002 review of statutory and case law published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society concluded that case law supports a 'consensus that ANH is a medical treatment that can be forgone like any other treatment'....
  "We urge physicians to practice evidence-based medicine and to start ANH only when data indicate a reasonable hope of benefit.
  "We believe that when ANH is used inappropriately, as might be the case with many advanced dementia patients, such patients are denied the care they deserve....In our view, tube feeding implemented for convenience, or to assuage the sensibilities of family, or for cosmetic reasons, is inappropriate....
  "patients, families, physicians, and nurses must be reassured by Catholic facilities that health care will not be provided without informed consent....

  "While ANH may delay death in some cases, in many others the dying process will continue unabated. So while the denial of treatment for patients based on health-care workers’ quality-of-life judgments remains a legitimate concern, so too do overtreatment and the failure to accept that some conditions, such as advanced Alzheimer’s disease, are terminal and will cause death....

  "We wish to warn against making hasty generalizations from recent Catholic teaching on the use of ANH with patients in a relatively stable persistent vegetative state....

  "We believe that the current edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives properly acknowledges the importance both of long-standing principles and of individual discernment—and we hope that as the U.S. bishops consider revising specific directives, they will preserve that balance."

In 2009, the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 5th edition, spoke with immense clarity: "In principal, there is a moral obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration, for those who cannot take food orally" (cf., Directive 58).  I wonder whether even that statement was clear enough for Father Clark and his co-authors...

 

Father Clark is also the 2007 author of Decision-Making in Neonatology: An Ethical Analysis from the Catholic Perspective, in which he left provision of food and water to be an open question and paid homage to Richard McCormick, S.J.:

• "McCormick has established a moral criterion for treatment decisions regarding handicapped newborns as a 'revised' natural-law ethicist in the Roman Catholic tradition....when a never-competent patient, even with treatment, will have no potential for human relationships, the appropriate decision-makers can decide to withhold treatment and allow the patient to die [emphasis added].... For many contemporary ethicists the traditional terminology of ordinary-extraordinary means has outlived its usefulness and could take us only so far, especially in the case of handicapped newborns....McCormick, along with ethicist John Paris, S.J., proposed the following norms that would further specify the capacity for human relationships and the benefit-burden evaluation:
   
  "(1) Life-saving intervention ought not to be omitted for institutional or managerial reasons. Included in this specification is the ability of this particular family to cope with a badly disabled baby.
  (2) Life-sustaining interventions may not be omitted simply because the baby is retarded. There may be further complications associated with retardation that justify withholding life-sustaining treatment.
  (3) Life-sustaining intervention may be omitted or withdrawn when there is excessive hardship on the patient, especially when this combines with poor prognosis.
  (4) Life-sustaining interventions may be omitted or withdrawn at a point when it becomes clear that expected life can be had only for a relatively brief time and only with continued use of artificial feeding....
   
  "McCormick’s moral criterion is appropriate for Christian decision-makers because it emphasizes 'the reasonable' from within a Christian context."

It would appear to me that Father Clark's apparent endorsement of McCormick's "when a never-competent patient, even with treatment, will have no potential for human relationships, the appropriate decision-makers can decide to withhold treatment and allow the patient to die" has NOT met with the moral outrage sparked by Peter Singer's implications for people with disabilities only because it is not as well known.

Father Peter Clark, S.J.'s co-authorship of Jesuit Bioethics Group Endorses Health Care Reform (September 2009) should also be of grave concern.  In a rush to endorse health care reform, he and his co-authors indicated approval to disregard public financing of abortion:

• "We did not seek to address the issues of financing abortion services...because we fear that they will simply be politicized in the effort to again fail to insure the uninsured. This should not be allowed to happen....We believe that it is a morally legitimate approach to remove those issues from the table in an effort to build the consensus necessary to rectify a terrible injustice."

Saint Joseph's University, the Catholic Medical Association, the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary are each headquartered within a few blocks of the same several mile strip of US 1.  At least when it comes to the Mercy Health System, how can it be that Father Peter Clark, S.J., is left to direct the ethical traffic?

Religious Liberty: How Times Have Changed - NOT!

Guy Petroziello
Bucks County Courier Times
Tullytown, Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Petroziello,

A Man for All Seasons, which won the 1966 Academy Award for Best Picture, concerns events that happened "across the pond," nearly six centuries ago.  Perhaps, a feeling that the setting and events were so alien contributed to the film's popularity in the mid 1960s.

Frustrated with being unable to pressure the Pope into granting him an invalid declaration of nullity of his marriage to Queen Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII declared himself to be head of the Church in England in 1530.  Though he'd been trying to avoid a public rupture with the king, Henry's former chancellor - Sir Thomas More - was indicted for high treason in 1534.  His "crime"?  Refusing an oath to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church.  Sir Thomas More - the Man for All Seasons of the film - was eventually beheaded with the immortal words: "I die the king's good servant - but God's first."  Sir Thomas More's bravery became a source of inspiration to people of all faiths, who acknowledge the value of religious freedom.
With regard to religious liberty, how times have changed - NOT! 

Archbishop Charles Chaput has noted that "Our national leadership in 2012 seems deaf to matters of religious freedom abroad and unreceptive - or frankly hostile - to religious engagement in public affairs.... Freedom of belief & religious practice used to be a concern that Americans had about other countries. Now it's a concern in ours."  As per a May 25th letter to the Department of Health and Human Services from Dr. Robert O'Hara,

• "On behalf of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC), the public affairs arm of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, I respectfully submit comments concerning the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ('ANPRM') on preventive services. 77 Fed. Reg 16501 (March 21, 2012)....
  
  "The ANPRM does not remove contraceptive services from the list of mandated preventive services and now that the mandate is a final rule, it is apparent that the objections of PCC and others have been ignored.....
  
  "The ANPRM does nothing to change what the government has mandated, namely, that religious employers/ministries which are insufficiently religious in the view of the government will be required to provide coverage for services to which those employers/ministries object....the Administration has embarked on a course which undermines the very foundations of freedom of religion upon which this nation was constructed.....
  
  "PCC urges that employers, charitable, health care and educational facilities, insurers and individuals with religious or moral objections are excluded from the mandate. Further, PCC urges removal of the inclusion of prescription contraception including abortifacients, surgical sterilization and counseling from the list of preventive services."

As per an article in Jewish World Review,

• "the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are trying to refocus Americans on the threats to their religious liberty....this is exactly the sort of project in which all faiths ought to participate....the rights of Catholics not to support activities that contradict their faith is under siege. The issue, as the bishops rightly put it, is not so much whether Catholics are allowed to gather in their churches or pray as they like at home but whether they and their institutions are to go on being permitted to participate in our national life....The bishops write, 'To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other.' The same sentence applies to Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Mormons and any other group including atheists who should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Catholics in defense of religious freedom" (Jewish World Review, 4/16/12).

Sincerely,

"Urgent Need for [Prison] Chaplains" (Our Sunday Visitor, 5/13/12)

EXCELLENT letter (smile) in the OSV - click for electronic version....

An incredible letter about Georgetown U from the author of "The Exorcist"

If you attended a Jesuit college in the 70s, it would have been difficult to NOT know the name "William Peter Blatty."  Despite theological inaccuracies (i.e., The absolute biggest being that Blatty failed to make crystal clear that God is all powerful, and that God is absolutely victorious over Satan!), Blatty's "The Exorcist" was certainly a ticket seller.  It was set in the D.C. neighborhood, surrounding Georgetown University.  Though I can't identify which, I've always heard that parts of "The Exorcist" were filimed at New York's Fordham University - my undergraduate alma mater (In that film,  the part of the young Jesuit buddy to the young Jesuit exorcist was played by a real life Fordham Jesuit.).  In any case, William Peter Blatty is using his older years to spearhead a true battle against evil http://www.gupetition.org/!  

• "I invite you today to join me...to Make Georgetown Honest, Catholic, and Better....I ask you also to curtail your donations to Georgetown University for one year....
• "On May 5, 2012, in a speech to American bishops, Pope Benedict XVI called on America’s Catholic universities to reaffirm their Catholic identity. The Pope noted the failure of many Catholic universities to comply with Blessed John Paul II’s apostolic constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae. The Pope said that preservation of a university’s Catholic identity 'entails much more than the teaching of religion or the mere presence of a chaplaincy on campus.'
• "For 21 years now. Georgetown University has refused to comply with Ex corde Ecclesiaie ('From The Heart of the Church'), and, therefore, with canon law. And, it seems as if every month GU gives another scandal to the faithful! The most recent is Georgetown’s obtuse invitation to Secretary Sebelius to be a commencement speaker....
• [Blatty goes on to of a 20 year old incident from the life of an admired Jesuit:] "the mild-speaking priest told us of a call the night before from his brother, also a priest. His brother had said, 'Tom, you have to choose sometimes — either you fish or cut bait.' Father King told us that he had decided to fish. And now, at long last, so have I. I ask you to join us!....
• "We may choose to file a canon action...seeking alternative forms of relief that will include, among others, that Georgetown’s right to call itself Catholic and Jesuit be revoked or suspended for a time. We will ask for lesser relief as well. Of course, what we truly seek is for Georgetown to have the vision and courage to be Catholic but clearly the slow pastoral approach has not worked. I invite you to sign the 'Mandate of the Procurator'' on this website so that I, and other alumni, parents, teachers and students, may represent you in this special and historic Church petition....
• "Throughout an undeservedly wonderful life, I have been guided by the light of my Georgetown education, grounded firmly, as I knew it was even in my youth, in the unmatched intellectual wealth of the Catholic Church. Each time I faltered, as I often did, that guiding light never failed me.
• "What I owe Georgetown, however, is nothing as compared to what Georgetown owes to its founders and the Christ of Faith, and so it grieves me deeply that my beloved alma mater is failing so scandalously in its debt both to the Church and to the militant Jesuits still buried there who gave it their everything; who made it so special for so long. It grieves me that Georgetown University today almost seems to take pride in insulting the Church and offending the faithful....
• "John Paul II exhorted us all to preserve for the Church the highest places of culture – our universities. Generations of alumni have long been seduced to “go along” by dinners, medals, and board seats (I accepted my John Carroll Medal too). We have all been negligent for too long: the laity, the clergy, and the bishops as well.
• "Please join me now in making Georgetown honest, Catholic and better!"

Why is Holy Redeemer still allowed to call itself, "Catholic"?

Most Rev. John J. McIntyre, Auxiliary Bishop
Steven Bozza, Respect Life Office
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
222 North 17th Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Your Excellency and Mr. Bozza,

For concerns about life issues in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Archbishop Chaput has advised me to contact the Respect Life Office or Bishop McIntyre.  Hence, I would appreciate a response to this email.

Today's Bucks County Courier Times has a repeat of the ad from Abington Reproductive Medicine (ARM), which I mentioned in my May 5th email.  As per that email and my March 17th email, ARM's Drs. Larry Barmat, Jennifer Nichols, and Steven Somkuti are also associated with Holy Redeemer (See Holy Redeemer's individual listings for Barmat, Nichols, and Somkuti).  As per their boasts on the ARM web site, these are specialists in such absolutely prohibited practices as IVF, so-called egg donation, and so-called gestational surrogacy.  What do we possibly imagine that Barmat, Nichols, and Somkuti are discussing with their patients at Holy Redeemer?


With Barmat, Nichols, and Somkuti freely advertising their scandalous practices, I believe that Holy Redeemer would absolutely be within its rights to remove their hospital privileges.  Even a CHAUSA publication has acknowledged that

• "If the individual is so notorious in the community that his or her activities give rise to scandal...then perhaps the healtcare provider can argue that its constitutional right to the free exercise of religion supersedes the statutory protection provided to the physician" (Health Progress, March/April 1998).

Since the associations of Barmat, Nichols, and Somkuti with Holy Redeemer are not new, it would appear that Holy Redeemer is not inclined to remove their hospital privileges.  Directive # 71 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services remind us that

• "The diocesan bishop has final responsibility for assessing and addressing issues of scandal, considering not only the circumstances in his local diocese but also the regional and national implications of his decision." 

If Holy Redeemer will not remove hospital privileges from Barmat, Nichols, and Somkuti, please remove the right for Holy Redeemer to identify itself as "Catholic."

Sincerely,

Holy Redeemer's IVF Specialists' Ad in the Bucks County Courier Times

Your Excellency, Mr. Bozza, Sister, & Dr. Coletta,

If I am not mistaken, these sentences appear to have just been recently added to the "Find a Physician" page on Holy Redeemer's web site:

• "As a Catholic healthcare provider, Holy Redeemer expects that all health care practitioners adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services at health system locations. We are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards while promoting our commitment to human dignity and the common good."

Considering certain physicians who are allowed to practice at Holy Redeemer, the above sentences strike me as naive, at best. 

Please see the below ad from Abington Reproductive Medicine (ARM), which appeared in Thursday's Bucks County Courier Times.  ARM's Drs. Larry Barnat, Jennifer Nichols, and Steven Somkuti continue to be associated with Holy Redeemer.  Barnat, Nichols, and Somkuti are specialists in such absolutely prohibited practices as IVF, so-called egg donation, and so-called gestational surrogacy.  What do we possibly imagine they are discussing with patients at Holy Redeemer?

Catholic lay people are being called to fight against the draconian HHS mandates, which seek to force Catholic hospitals to be involved with absolutely immoral practices.  To maintain credibility as a facility worthy of this fight, I believe that Holy Redeemer must remove privileges from Drs. Barnat, Nichols, and Somkuti.  Even a CHAUSA publication has acknowledge that 

• "If the individual is so notorious in the community that his or her activities give rise to scandal...then perhaps the healtcare provider can argue that its constitutional right to the free exercise of religion supersedes the statutory protection provided to the physician" (cf, When Physicians Perform Abortions Outside the Catholic Hospital, Health Progress, March/April 1998).

Sincerely,

More Superheroes Needed!

As reported yesterday by LifeNews.com,

"Chinese officials have allowed forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng to apply to leave the country and study abroad at a university in the United States — in what is the first sign of good news that Chen may escape the persecution he is facing there....

"In the original deal the United States struck with China, before Chen learned his family and his own life may be in grave danger should he stay in China and before he requested diplomatic help from the United States to leave the country, China would have agreed to allow Chen to study at one of its universities rather than going back to his hometown where he was under house arrest by family planning officials....

"Although Chen could apply, there is no guarantee China will approve the application and his status could remain as uncertain as it is now....

"Chen himself said whether China agrees to uphold the deal will be 'a test of whether my civil liberties are being fulfilled'....

"AP reports the deal is not finalized and obstacles still remain.

"'Obstacles to getting Chen out of China remain. Key among then is whether he would have to return to his home county in Shandong province to apply for a passport. Though a usual procedure, it would potentially expose him to retribution from the local officials who kept him and his family under brutal house arrest for his activism that exposed forced abortions and other misdeeds,' it said.

"Before this information surfaced, Chen conveyed through a friend a four point statement saying that, while he does not seek political asylum in the United States, he had been invited to attend New York University [an alma mater of my own]....

"AP indicates the Obama administration is beginning to acknowledge it failed in its efforts to fully help Chen.

"Sign the Petition: President Obama: Protect Chen Guangcheng....

"Chen has said the Obama Administration failed to fully assist him or provide him full information he needed to make good decisions about his future.

"Chen told AP that men are following his wife and recording her movements on video and he said any conversations he has on the phone with American officials are cut off as soon as guards learn he is speaking to them.

"'The U.S. Embassy treated me well,' he said, 'but the U.S. government was not proactive enough'....

"He Peirong, an activist who helped Chen escape, had been missing until today, when she reported on Twitter that she is back home safely. AP indicates other activists have not been so lucky....

"At the end of a hearing, in which several top activists fighting for human rights and freedom for Chen and his supporters pressing the case against forced abortions, Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, got Chen on the phone for the members of Congress in attendance to hear. [A]fter the witnesses had all testified, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) asked if anyone had been in touch with Chen since Wednesday. A short time later, Fu and CECC chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ) telephoned Chen and were able to have him speak directly to the hearing.

"Chen...told members of the panel that he wanted to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and that he hoped he could get help from her and meet her face to face to talk about his situation. Chen said he did not realize the extent of the danger he faces until he left the U.S. Embassy....

"Chen told the panel he is worried about the safety of his family, his brothers and supporters who helped rescue him from home detention. He said immediately after he was discovered missing, his daughter was banned from going to school....

"Congressman Chris Smith [a superhero, if ever there was one!], a New Jersey Republican, told Chen, 'You have a panel of people who have testified on your behalf who are all here on behalf of your family, your nephew.'

"Smith added, 'Word is getting out, and your case is the test of Chinese commitment to protect you — which they were very dubious about those assurances. It is also a test of the United States about whether human rights really matter. You and your family and supporters should be on a plane to the United States.

"'Chen we are all praying for you and we will be unceasing in our efforts to secure your freedom,' Smith said. 'This phone call absolutely underscores why we’re here'....

[House Speaker John] "Boehner issued a statement in response to reports showing the Obama Administration released forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng from the U.S. Embassy despite threats against him and his family.

"Chen and his supporters in China had not originally intended for Chen to go to the American Embassy in Beijing. They initially put him up in various homes of backers living in the Beijing area until family planning and Communist Party officials found out about his location and chased his backers in a vehicle — forcing them to make the decision to head for the embassy....

"Leading pro-life campaigners and human rights groups are concerned that if Chen is not protected, Chinese officials may illegally detain him and send him back to prison, home detention or may take his life.

"China’s state-run media initially said absolutely nothing about the daring escape Chen Guangcheng made from his house arrest, where family planning and Communist Party officials had kept him detained at home for exposing forced abortions. Other media outlets have glossed over the forced abortion components of Chen’s imprisonment and house arrest.

"What is not in dispute is the fact that the Chines government has subjected men and women to forced abortions, sterilziations, home detention and imprisonment, taken away their jobs and benefits and fined them for violating the nation’s one child policy. As the world watches the plight of Chen Guangcheng and wonders whether President Barack Obama will have the United States offer him long-term diplomatic protection, documents Chen Guangcheng compiled place the focus squarely on why China subjected him to years of house arrest: brutal forced abortions....

"'In the astonishment surrounding Chen Guangcheng’s extraordinary escape from house arrest, let us not forget why he was arrested,' [Reggie] Littlejohn [president of Women's Rights Without Frontiers] told LifeNews. 'In 2006, Chen exposed the Chinese government’s systematic, massive use of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization to enforce its “One Child Policy”'" (5/4/12).

Five months ago, "Famed Batman star Christian Bale...traveled nine hours from Beijing to visit...Chen Guangcheng. The actor never got the chance, however, as he was roughed up and forced away from Chen’s village by Chinese government officials, according to a CNN report" (LifeSiteNews.com, 12/16/11).

 

More Superheroes Needed!

As explained by the Wall Street Journal, "In an online campaign calling for Chen Guangcheng's release, hundreds of Internet users uploaded photos of themselves wearing sunglasses in imitation of the blind activist" (5/2/12)