Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.

Treating Africans with an untested Ebola drug. It was reported in The Guardian last week that Emergency, an Italian NGO, administered an untested heart drug known as Amiodarone, to patients at an Ebola treatment centre in Lakka, Sierra Leone . The British medics sent to work at the centre raised alarm as early as November about Emergency's approaches to palliative care . Amiodarone, a drug licenced to regulate the heartbeat, has never been tested outside of a lab setting to treat humans or animals infected with Ebola . It was neither approved by the Sierra Leonean health ministry nor listed among the 53 drugs that have an antiviral effect on Ebola . In a report to UK Med, the British healthcare professionals argued that "the toxic side effects of Amiodarone could in fact be contributing to increased morbidity within the ETC [ebola treatment centre]" . While the mortality rate at Emergency's centre is disputed - ranging from 58 and 67 percent - the death rate at centres run by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), for instance, ranges from 50 and 60 percent . Most alarming is the concern that foreign-run Ebola treatment centres could be using unorthodox testing methods with impunity . Emergency's use of Amiodarone without a proper clinical trial or patient consent prompted censure from a senior scientist about the recklessness of this approach and a walk-out over safety fears by the UK health workers sent to work at the treatment centre . Apparently, the NGO stopped using the drug after receiving a request from the Department of International Development (DFID) , which had been alerted by the British medics . When rumours circulated early-on during the Ebola outbreak, that the virus was a form of bio warfare , critics were quick to label these ideas "conspiracy theories" . Yet ,  fears about western medicine being used to harm are neither irrational nor far-fetched . As unconscionable as Emergency's practices appear , there is a long history of unethical drug testing on poor and vulnerable communities across the globe . Perhaps one of the most famous cases of unethical experimental treatment was in 1932 when Public Health Service in the United States began the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" at a time when there was no known cure for syphilis . The study initially included 600 black men - 399 with and 201 without syphilis  - most of whom were poor and illiterate sharecroppers enticed with incentives such as free medical exams, meals on examination days, and promises that their relatives would receive burial stipends in the event of their deaths . The men were deceived into thinking that they were being treated for "bad blood" . They neither received proper treatment nor were they informed of the true nature of the study . Instead of lasting for six months, as originally projected, the study went on for 40 years . When penicillin was developed to treat syphilis in 1947 , treatment was withheld from all 600 subjects . In 1973, a class action suit was filed on behalf of the men in the study and settled out of court for $9 million . Similar experiments were held in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948 , when Public Health Service infected 1,610 total soldiers, female commercial sex workers, prisoners and mental health patients with one of three sexually transmitted diseases - syphilis, gonorrhoea, or chancroid . Like the Tuskegee experiment, none of the human subjects were informed about the nature of the study , nor did they give consent . Unlike the Tuskegee study, however, patients in Guatemala were eventually inoculated with penicillin though it is unclear how many were actually cured . Although vulnerable adult populations have borne the brunt of unethical medical testing , children have not been spared . In the mid-nineties, the world's largest research-based drug company, Pfizer, administered the experimental drug, Trovan, during a meningitis outbreak in Kano in northern Nigeria . The parents of eleven children who died sued Pfizer , alleging that Trovan was used without their informed consent . Pfizer eventually settled out of court in 2009, promising to pay the Kano state government $75 million . For too long, the bodies of poor and vulnerable communities have been exploited to serve the medical fetishes of big pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and Western governments . Yet ,  there is a growing tide against this warped practice . In his 2014 Reith lecture series entitled 'The Future of Medicine', renowned surgeon, writer and public health researcher Dr Atul Gawande argued convincingly that the well- being of a patient is more important than his/her "health" . Therefore ,  the goal of medical practice should be "caring", and not simply "curing" . In the age of Ebola, it appears that the single-minded pursuit to "cure" has somehow superseded the Hippocratic Oath to which doctors must adhere to "do no harm" . The sudden race to find an antidote for Ebola- a disease that has been around since 1976- must not serve as an excuse to experiment on patients whose internal organs are at risk of shutting down . Unethical drug testing must be matched with harsh punishment, now and after Ebola . We must insist on a probe of the dubious treatment regime adopted by the Italian NGO Emergency, followed by criminal prosecution in the event of malpractice . They must answer to patients at the Lakka treatment centre in Sierra Leone .
It was reported in The Guardian last week that Emergency, an Italian NGO, administered an untested heart drug known as Amiodarone, to patients at an Ebola treatment centre in Lakka, Sierra Leone Amiodarone, a drug licenced to regulate the heartbeat, has never been tested outside of a lab setting to treat humans or animals infected with Ebola

Obama in the 'Fourth Quarter': President goes on offense, looks to legacy. U.S  President Barack Obama departs at the conclusion of his end of the year press conference in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, December 19, 2014 . Obama and his family plan to depart Washington later in the day to spend the holidays in Hawaii . REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4IQRC . U.S  President Barack Obama speaks on the phone with Jordan's King Abdullah at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, August 8, 2014 . REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR41Q8N . Editor's note: The following article originally appeared in The Hill and on TheHill.com website . Dan Pfeiffer's office is next to the Oval Office . The cheek-by-jowl location reflects the importance of his job as senior adviser guiding President Obama's image and message going into his final two years in the White House . At the moment, the president and Pfeiffer are on a hot streak . Polls show Obama's approval numbers climbing . "It's an 18-point gap [better than] Bush and the same as Reagan's," Pfeiffer said, comparing Obama's current approval rating to that of President George W  Bush and President Reagan at the equivalent point in their second terms . Strong public support is central to the president's strategy of keeping the loyalty of Senate Democrats . If large numbers of Democrats in Congress run away from a president with bad poll numbers , Republicans can put the president on the defensive for the remainder of his time in office . Major defections by Senate Democrats will also allow the Republican majority in the Senate to stop filibusters and potentially override Obama's vetoes . The issues at stake range from construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to efforts to change and repeal Obamacare, as well as undo immigration reform, financial regulation, the opening of new relations with Cuba and new limits on greenhouse gases . Pfeiffer does not see any issue where Republicans can expect to undo a presidential veto: "Not one," he emphasized . The Keystone XL pipeline is the one instance in which Pfeiffer acknowledges that veto may have to be used in the first place . But he does not expect such a move to hurt the president's revival in the polls . It is an issue, Pfeiffer argued, often cited by Republicans who don't like the president anyway . But most "people don't have super-strong feelings about it," he said . "They are not energized about it, especially at a time of low gas prices.[Polls show] people generally prefer it but this is not a huge issue in their lives." Pfeiffer also expects constant fights with Republicans on Capitol Hill over the Environmental Protection Agency's use of the Clean Air Act to better regulate greenhouse gas emissions . "The Republican policy is wrong," he said."I feel good about our chances [because] people feel strongly about clean air and clean water." With his current good poll numbers, the president is able to go on a political offensive despite taking a beating in last fall's midterms and ceding control of the Senate, as well as the House, to Republicans . Pfeiffer ties the president's rising popularity to the success of his economic policies but also to the Republican Party's difficulties with any voter not in the Koch brothers' tax bracket . "The GOP has huge trouble on cultural affinity," said Pfeiffer . "Republican tax policies, opposition to regulating pollution, their effort to repeal Dodd- Frank - it all favors the rich... We need to engage them on all that." "Engage them" is the idea at the heart of the president's plan for his last two years . The GOP is on defense as it responds to proposals increasing access to community college as well as increased tax breaks for families in need of childcare and with two working spouses . Pfeiffer starts looking around his office for a card recently given to senior staff that reminds them they are in "the Fourth Quarter." The quote comes from Obama . Pfeiffer tells the story of the president looking at Green Bay Packers' player Randall Cobb during a rally in Wisconsin and making the case that fourth quarter football is"when big things happen." In a moment of off-script pique during last week's State of the Union address, the president reminded Republicans he cannot run for election again because he already beat them in two presidential elections . That confidence leads him to conclude that losing control of the Senate in the midterms is only a momentary set back in the big picture -- the total game and the legacy of the Obama presidency . As Pfeiffer told the New York Times in advance of the State of the Union speech, the nation's economic resurgence under President Obama creates "a Chicken Little problem [for Republicans]-- all the doom and gloom they predicted did not come to pass." The president crowed about "good news, people" in the State of the Union speech : He listed 11 million jobs created by American business in the last five years; more people with health insurance; cuts in the deficit; record stock prices; higher high school graduation rates and lower gas prices, as evidence of his success . "At every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious; that we would crush jobs and explode deficits," the president said . ".... So the verdict is clear. Middle class economics works... and these polices will continue to work as long as politics don't get in the way." Pfeiffer and other top administration officials think they can further improve their poll numbers by getting Republicans to debate the president's new proposals for increasing wages for working Americans . Good news in foreign policy is also possible but , unlike most second-term presidents, Obama is not abandoning the domestic agenda . Obama's poll numbers will not decide the 2016 race for the White House, Pfeiffer said, because the "biggest factor is the popularity of the nominee." But good polls will prevent Democrats from"distancing" themselves from Hillary Clinton, Sen  Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or another other nominee, and lead to better turnout . That is also part of the Obama team's fourth quarter plan to end the game as winners .
Major defections by Senate Democrats will also allow the Republican majority in the Senate to stop filibusters and potentially override Obama's vetoes U.S  President Barack Obama speaks on the phone with Jordan's King Abdullah at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, August 8, 2014

'Bedblocking' - the result of social care policy that puts profits ahead of people. Bedblocking . What a phrase . People having to stay in hospital, even though they are well enough to be discharged, because there' s no social care in place for them . David Cameron says it's "a demand problem" . But it's not, of course . It's a supply problem . It's hard to make money from social care . So it's not massively amenable to privatisation . I suppose this was one of the areas where, Cameron fondly imagined, the Big Society would step in . As ever, instead, starving one part of the public sector of cash simply left another part struggling to cope with the consequences . Back in 2010, when Gordon Brown suggested implementing a 10% levy on inherited wealth to fund social care for older people , the Conservatives had this to say:"RIP off. Now Gordon wants ? 20,000 when you die. Don't vote for Labour's new death tax." Instead , social care for older people has had its funding cut , so there' s simply not enough money to go round . The demand problem that Cameron now speaks of is one that was entirely predictable and, indeed, entirely predicted . Policymakers have been fretting over the future challenges posed by our ageing population for decades . Now this time has arrived , and there' s nothing there in the way of provision for it . Care for elderly people is one of those things that's not hard to sort out, given money, and almost impossible to sort out without it . It's one of those things that, in theory, offers choice- staying at home with support, moving into sheltered accommodation, going into residential care . In reality, however, people are so terrified of the prospect of being in a position where they have to make such choices that they'd rather not think about it at all . One knows vaguely that there aren't many decent alternatives , so staying at home becomes the one thing that is comforting . Being close to the past matters when the present and the future feel like a horrible staging-post before death . It doesn't help that there's so much sentimentality around the issue . Myleene Klass appeared to believe she was being socially aware by banging on about how awful the idea of a mansion tax is , because it would hurt little old ladies living in big houses that had been their homes for decades . But ,  actually, Klass was describing something that isn't necessarily that desirable: an elderly person living in a home she can no longer heat, clean or look after, the neighbours she once knew long gone, clinging to the past instead of living in and enjoying the present . One of the great paradoxes of old age is that, at a time in life when change is very dynamic and has to be managed a lot, people are persuaded that trying to stop time, instead of moving forward and adapting to circumstances, is the right thing to do . Care at home is pushed as the thing to aspire to, in part because - even though it's expensive, difficult to organise and not very satisfactory in outcome - it has the attractive advantage of needing no capital investment . Over Christmas, I watched the film Quartet , which is set in a retirement home for musicians . One was supposed to feel a bit sorry for its inhabitants , who had known success and adulation when they were young, and who missed those days . All they had to do to raise the funds to keep the home going was put on a concert featuring the legends that were themselves . Having looked at a couple of local care homes when my mother was ill a couple of years back , I can only say that the twilight years of those characters were indeed a fiction . Sure, nice retirement homes exist - if you can afford them . But the limitations of so many of them mean that the whole concept is sullied . Rather than being places where new phases of life are undertaken, they have become places you end up in when all hope of enjoying life is gone . It's interesting that inheritance has become so much an aspect of debate around care for elderly people . This, too, is a tacit signal that you are too old to spend your own money on yourself . At some point, the duty is to hang on to your assets, so that they can be passed on to your family - and without nasty government death taxes . It would be nice if people weren't encouraged to believe that it was selfish to invest in their own lives just because they are no longer young . Elderly people are blocking beds not just because they can no longer look after themselves at home, but also because our society is not encouraged to think of elderly lives as valuable and deserving of joy and fun, vitality and change . Lack of pay is one reason why people aren't queing up to work with older people . But another is that it's not seen as enjoyable , because older people are viewed as a bundle of sad, expensive, social-policy problems, rather than people with lives worth living to the full .

People having to stay in hospital, even though they are well enough to be discharged, because there' s no social care in place for them David Cameron says it's "a demand problem"