Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Unlike other commonly used techniques, the method, which is based on standard molecular biology practices, does not use viruses to introduce genes into the cells or permanently alter a cell’s genome. (PhysOrg)

Daniel Gall, a French actor, was skeptical when his sister and her husband told him two years ago that they wanted to commit suicide. Genevieve Gall-Peninou was 81 and said she could no longer bear the Alzheimer’s Disease she had suffered for several years. Yves Peninou, 86, didn’t want to live without her. (Wall Street Journal)

This is the kind of news that unleashes hysteria about “death panels” and “health-care rationing,” but here goes: an analysis of genetic screening for an incurable, untreatable disease called spinal muscular atrophy shows that it would cost $4.7 million to catch and avert one case, compared with $260,000 to provide lifetime care for a child born with it. So here’s the question: do we say, “Damn the cost; it is worth any price to spare a single child the misery of being unable to crawl, walk, swallow, or move his head and neck”—or do we, as a society, put on the green eyeshades and say, “No, sorry, we can’t afford routine screening”? (Newsweek)

The US Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC) has recommended that an additional condition be added to the panel of conditions for which all newborns receive screening. (PHG Foundation)

Public health experts say they’re concerned about the low number of U.S. adults who receive recommended vaccinations — and in particular about seniors who aren’t immunized against pneumonia. (ABC News)

Out of America: Millions of tons of immortal cells – all grown from a single tissue sample taken from Henrietta Lacks before her death from cancer in 1951 – are used by researchers around the world, amid a debate about ethics, race and the rights of donors and their families. (The Independent)

The assorted mystics, philosophers, theologians and, most recently, neuroscientists who have burned a candle searching for the essence of consciousness all started with a simple presumption: Consciousness must begin where unconsciousness ends. (New York Times)

A controversial organ transplant bill expected to become law in the next few weeks could regularize organ transplants and curb Egypt’s booming illicit trade in human organs, experts say. (Reuters AlertNet)

DOCTORS have uncovered the first evidence that fathers of test-tube babies may be passing on their infertility to their sons. A new study has found that boys conceived through IVF treatment involving a single sperm being directly injected into a female egg often inherit shorter fingers, a trait known to be associated with infertility. (Times Online)

JAMA (Vol. 303; No. 4; January 27, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Assessing the Legal Standard of Care in Public Health Emergencies” by James G. Hodge Jr and Brooke Courtney, 361-362.
• “Improving Health by Taking It Personally” by Ralph Snyderman and Michaela A. Dian, 363-364.
• “Ethnic Shifts Raise Issues in Elder Care” by Rebecca Voelker, 321.
• “Stem Cell Lines Cleared” by Bridget M. Kuehn, 322.

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Archives of Internal Medicine (Vol. 170; No. 2; Jan. 25, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Tackling Obesity: Is Primary Care Up to the Challenge?” by Robert F. Kushner, 121-123.

A legislative subcommittee approved a measure Thursday giving inheritance rights to Iowa children born up to two years after their father’s death. The measure would mean children conceived through in vitro fertilization would be entitled to benefits such as Social Security survivor payments even if they were gestated after a parent’s death. (Chicago Tribune)

The BBC has been accused of promoting euthanasia by a cross-party group of MPs who called on ministers to threaten to cut off the supply of public money to the broadcaster. (Telegraph)

After warning for years that athletes would try to dope their genes, scientists are finding ways to catch them. The tests are still being refined in animals, but will likely be run years from now on samples taken at the upcoming Winter Olympics and stored. (Wired)

The decision, though specific to Illinois, could deal a blow to efforts to change malpractice laws elsewhere. Recall, that last fall the administration promised to fund state experiments in dealing with medical malpractice to the tune of $25 million. Lately, the notion that changes in how malpractice is handled could save a lot of money even got a thumbs-up from the Congressional Budget Office. (NPR)

In a case that could have far-reaching implications for medical research and health care based on genetics, groups representing thousands of doctors, scientists and patients went to court Tuesday to argue that no one should be able to patent human genes, a question that has long been controversial in scientific circles. (USA TODAY)

Physicians in training and bioethicists at Johns Hopkins have created an easy-to-remember checklist to help medical students and clinicians quickly assess a patient’s decision-making capacity in an emergency. (Newswise)

He emerged from the car accident alive but alone, there and not there: a young man whose eyes opened yet whose brain seemed shut down. For five years he lay mute and immobile beneath a diagnosis — “vegetative state” — that all but ruled out the possibility of thought, much less recovery. (New York Times)

A recent case study by doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York examined the ethical issues posed by transplant tourism. Full details of the study appear in the February issue of Liver Transplantation, a subscription journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). (IMTJ)

After public health authorities in the United States spent months encouraging, cajoling, and frightening the public into getting vaccinated against the H1N1 influenza virus, they had no vaccine to give. The second wave of the H1N1 pandemic hit North America in early fall 2009. Millions were infected and thousands died before people were immunized. Of the 250 million doses of vaccine ordered by the U.S. government, only five million had been delivered at the height of the outbreak because of problems with vaccine production. (Bioethics Forum)