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)

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 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)

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)

In the rarefied world of fashion magazines, beauty editors have often relied on a coterie of prominent dermatologists and plastic surgeons to keep them current on advances in cosmetic medicine. This symbiotic relationship has benefited magazines eager for beauty scoops and doctors seeking visibility — and patients. (New York Times)

The medical council has recently distributed a letter to all medical practitioners admonishing them not to give advice against receiving the AH1N1 vaccine. This letter raises several issues, which, if not contemplated well, may lead to public mistrust in the profession in general. The main question is whether medicine is subject to the personal opinion of the practitioner or whether the practitioner should always impart impartial information which the health authority tells him or her to do so. (The Malta Independent)

Health Law in the Domain of Health Care Ethics
REGISTER ON-LINE: http://www.signup4.net/public/ap.aspx?EID=ETHI31E&OID

Our March 6, 2010 ethics symposium will explore relationships between medical and legal ethics in the context of healthcare. The format of our day-long symposium involves both large group plenary sessions and small-group workshops. The venue is the San Ramon Valley Conference Center in San Ramon, California.  Our conference aims to foster moral community and collegiality, and to promote understanding of clinical ethics in the service of humane patient care.

Continuing education units are offered to physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, chaplains and pastors.  Visit the Registration Site and consult the attached flyers for more information about continuing education units and the Symposium. If the link does not work, copy it and paste it into your internet browser.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

R. Alta Charo, J.D., is the Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law & Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, where she is appointed to the law and medical school faculties.  She will speak on Ethics and Epigenetics.

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Kate Scannell, MD, FACP, Director, KP Northern California, TPMG Department of Medical Ethics will open the Symposium, welcoming guests and presenting The Year in Bioethics.

Elizabeth Pendo, JD, BA, is a Professor of Law at St. Louis University School of Law in St Louis, Missouri.  The title of Professor Pendo’s presentation is Caring for Patients with Disabilities.

Kelly Dineen, JD, RN, is Assistant Academic Dean and Instructor of Law at St. Louis University School of Law in St Louis, Missouri.   The title of her talk is Moral Disengagement in the Undertreatment of Pain.

Jennifer S Bard, JD, is a Professor at Texas Tech University School of Law and a returning symposium speaker. Professor Bard will address the Symposium about the topic of Medical Futility.

Event: Harvard Bioethics Course
June 16-18, 2010

Sponsored by the Division of Medical Ethics, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Boston, MA.

This three day course is designed for members of ethics committees and others interested in ethical aspects of clinical practice, including ethics consultants, physicians, nurses, chaplains, social workers, health care administrators, respiratory and other therapists, human rights officers and patient representatives, psychologists, risk managers, moral philosophers, hospital attorneys and trustees. The combination of lectures, case discussions and panels cover core information about ethical theories, principles, and methods, key bioethics cases from US courts, evolving standards for ethics consultation, and areas of clinical ethical controversy and consensus. Faculty for the course are drawn from the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School and from the Harvard-affiliated hospitals and institutions who are experts published in the specialty areas in which they teach, including bioethics, moral philosophy, medicine and health care.

Contact Information: 617-432-2570 dme@hms.harvard.edu

The Globe’s Lisa Priest examines how two families’ stories are shaping a legal and moral battleground over who has the right to make life-or-death decisions. IN EDMONTON: Parents who want their brain-injured baby to live fight with a hospital who says they should let him go IN QUEBEC: A hospital ethics board clashes with a family that took their child off a feeding tube. (The Globe and Mail)

A new California law named for rapper Kanye West’s late mother requiring a physical exam and medical history before cosmetic surgeries isn’t likely to lead to better patient safety, some cosmetic surgeons said. (CNN)

Twenty-one years ago I agreed to have my son circumcised. Today I signed a petition urging the American Academy of Pediatrics NOT to recommend circumcision to parents of newborn baby boys. (Bioethics Forum)

The case of a pregnant Florida woman hospitalized against her will is raising a legal, ethical and medical storm around this issue: Can a doctor’s order to quit smoking and rest in bed trump a woman’s right to control her own body? (St. Petersburg Times)

ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT — Yvelot Brianville, 24, lies quietly on a steel hospital gurney, a boyish naval officer in blue combat fatigues standing by his side. (USA TODAY)

JAMA (Vol. 303; No. 2; January 13, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “The Benefits and Harms of Mammography Screening: Understanding the Trade-offs” by Steven Woloshin and Lisa M. Schwartz, 164-165.
• “Mammography Screening for Breast Cancer: A View from 2 Worlds” by Anne M. Murphy, 166-167.
• “US Preterm Births: ‘D’ is for Dismal” by Rebecca Voelker, 116-117.

The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 1, January 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Drug Detailers, Professionalism, and Prudence” by Howard Brody, 9-10.
• “Why Academic Medical Centers Should Ban Drug Company Gifts to Individuals” by Carson Strong, 13-15.
• “The Pitfalls of Misreading: What Does ‘Industry Funding of Medical Education’ Actually Say?” by Bethany Spielman, 24-25.
• “Avoiding Over-Deterrence in Managing Physicians’ Relationships with Industry” by Lance K. Stell, 27-29.
• “Growth Attenuation: Good Intentions, Bad Decision” by Adrienne Asch and Anna Stubblefield, 46-48.
• “The Limits of Parental Authority” by Barry Lyons, 48-50.
• “Revisiting the Relevance of the Social Model of Disability” by Sarah Goering, 54-55.
• “What Role Should Moral Intuitions Play When Dealing with Children?” D. Micah Hester, 56.

Often one reads about historical failures in medical ethics, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study or the forced sterilization of Carrie Buck, and one reflects with relief that health care has progressed in our society to the point where such abuses are no longer possible. Then one stumbles upon an occasional systemic failure so grievous, such as the amputation of a patient’s wrong leg, that it nearly defies credibility, and reminds us that we are still vulnerable to medical exploitation and misconduct. If the facts as alleged in the media and court filings prove accurate, then the treatment of a pregnant Tallahassee mother, Samantha Burton, by her obstetrician, Jana Bures-Forsthoefel, may well rank among the most egregious abuses perpetrated against a patient by her caregiver since the triumph of the patients’ rights movement in the 1970s. (Huffington Post)

IVF clinics are destroying embryos with relatively minor genetic conditions such as thalassaemia, the blood disorder suffered by Pete Sampras. (Telegraph)

I know that some people may not see any ethical conflict in physician-reporters like CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, CBS’ Jennifer Ashton and ABC’s Richard Besser reporting on their own delivery of health care in Haiti. (MinnPost)

JAMA (Vol. 303; No. 3; January 20, 2010)  is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Garnering Support for Advance Care Planning” by Terri R. Fried and Margaret Drickamer, 269-270.
• “Public Health Response to Influenza A(H1N1) as an Opportunity to Build Public Trust” by Heidi J. Larson and David L. Heymann, 271-272.
• “New HIV Recommendations” by Joan Stephenson, 215.
• “Severe Childhood Obesity” by Joan Stephenson, 215.
• “Lung Cancer Screening” by Joan Stephenson, 215.

Archives of Internal Medicine (Vol. 170; No. 1; January 11, 2010)  is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “HIV/AIDS: Better Drugs, Better Technologies, and Lingering Problems” by Mitchell H. Katz, 6-8.

Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy (Volume 13, Number 1, February 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Molecular Medicine and Concepts of Disease: The Ethical Value of a Conceptual Analysis of Emerging Biomedical Technologies” by Marianne Boenink, 11-23.
• “Rational Suicide: Philosophical Perspectives on Schizophrenia” by Jeanette Hewitt, 25-31.
• “‘It’s Intense, You Know.’ Nurses’ Experience in Caring for Patients Requesting Euthanasia,” by Yvonne Denier, Bernadette Dierckx De Casterlé, Nele De Bal, and Chris Gastmans; 41-48.
• “How to Reveal Disguised Paternalism” by Niels Lynoe, Niklas Juth, and Gert Helgesson; 59-65.
• “Problems Faced with Legislating for IVF Technology in a Roman Catholic Century” by Pierre Mallia, 77-87.