The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 8, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Patient Willingness to be Seen by Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, and Residents in the Emergency Department: Does the Presumption of Assent Have an Empirical Basis?” by Gregory L. Larkin and Roderick S. Hooker, 1-10.
• “Striking the Right Balance in Research Ethics and Regulation” by Franklin G. Miller, 65.

Journal of Applied Philosophy (Volume 27, Issue 3, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Emergency Contraception and Conscientious Objection” by J. Paul Kelleher, 290-304.

• “A Puzzle about Consent in Research and in Practice” by Eric Chwang, 258-272.

For a while there, things didn’t look too good for British writer Simon Singh. The best-selling author of the science histories Big Bang and Fermat’s Enigma knew he was heading into controversial territory when he switched tracks to cowrite a book investigating alternative medicine, Trick or Treatment? What Singh didn’t count on, however, was that writing a seemingly innocuous article for London’s The Guardian newspaper about especially outrageous chiropractic claims—one of the subjects he researched for the book—would end up threatening his career. The British Chiropractic Association sued Singh, hoping to use Britain’s draconian libel laws to force him to withdraw his statements and issue an apology. Losing the case would have cost Singh both his reputation and a substantial amount of his personal wealth. Such is the state of science, where sometimes even stating simple truths (like the fact that there’s no reliable evidence chiropractic can alleviate asthma in children) can bring the wrath of the antiscience crowd. What the British chiropractors didn’t count on, however, was Singh himself. Having earned a PhD from Cambridge for his work at the Swiss particle physics lab CERN, he wasn’t about to back down from a scientific gunfight. Singh spent more than two years and well over $200,000 of his own money battling the case in court, and this past April he finally prevailed. In the process, he became a hero to those challenging the pseudoscience surrounding everything from global warming to vaccines to evolution. It’s not necessarily a role he sought for himself, but it’s one he has embraced—he’s currently touring the world, talking about his case, libel reform, and how important it is to make sure scientists can speak truthfully and openly. Wired spoke with Singh about his case and the struggle against the forces of irrationality. (Wired Magazine)

RARELY does it get much more ironic. Marc Hauser, a professor of psychology at Harvard who made his name probing the evolutionary origins of morality, is suspected of having committed the closest thing academia has to a deadly sin: cheating. It is not the first time the scientific world has been rocked by scandal. But the present furore, involving as it does a prestigious university and one of its star professors, will echo through common rooms and quadrangles far and wide. (The Economist)

Confusion still lingers after the recent news that Harvard University has found that noted cognitive scientist Marc Hauser engaged in scientific misconduct. Researchers don’t know whether to consider all of Hauser’s work suspect, or just some of it. (ScienceInsider)

Ensuring science is conducted with integrity requires a supportive culture, not draconian rules and sanctions. (SciDev)

NEJM (Volume 363, Number 2, July 8, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “The SGR for Physician Payment - An Indispensable Abomination” by H.J. Aaron.
• “Implementing Health Care Reform - Why Medicare Matters” by R.A. Berenson, 101-103.
• “The Independent Payment Advisory Board” by T.S. Jost, 103-105.
• “Identifying and Eliminating the Roadblocks to Comparative-Effectiveness Research” by D.F. Martin, M.G. Maguire, and S.L. Fine, 105-107.
• “Limbal Stem-Cell Therapy and Long-Term Corneal Regeneration” by P. Rama and Others, 147-155.
• “Genomic Medicine: Genomewide Association Studies and Assessment of the Risk of Disease” by T.A. Manollo, 166-176.
• “Toward More Uniform Conflict Disclosures - The Updated ICMJE Conflict of Interest Reporting Form” by J.M. Drazen and Others, 188-189.
• “Individual Genomes on the Horizon” by D. Watkins and C. Gallant, 195-196.

Harvard University psychologist Marc Hauser — a well-known scientist and author of the book “Moral Minds’’ — is taking a year-long leave after a lengthy internal investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct in his laboratory. (Boston Globe)

Developing World Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 2, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “The Future of Bioethics” by Udo Schüklenk, ii-iii.
• “Reproductive Tourism in Argentina: Clinic Accreditation and its Implications for Consumers, Health Professionals and Policy Makers” by Elsie Smith, Jason Behrmann, Carolina Martin, and Bryn Williams-Jones, 59-69.
• “Curriculum Guide for Research Ethics Workshops for Countries in the Middle East” by Henry Silverman, Babiker Ahmed, Samar Ajeilet, Sumaia Al-Fadil, Suhail Al-Amad, Hadir El-Dessouky, Ibrahim El-Gendy, Mohamed El-Guindi, Mustafa El-Nimeiri, Rana Muzaffar, and Azza Saleh, 70-77.
• “Access to Treatment in HIV Prevention Trials: Perspectives from a South African Community” by Nicola Barsdorf, Suzanne Maman, Nancy Kass, and Catherine Slack, 78-87.
• “Training Needs Assessment in Research Ethics Evaluation Among Research Ethics Committee Members in Three African Countries: Cameroon, Mali, and Tanzania” by Jêrôme Ateudjieu, John Willians, Marie Hirtle, Cédric Baume, Joyce Ikingura, Alassane Niaré, and Dominique Sprumont, 88-98.
• “From Medical Rationing to Rationalizing the Use of Human Resources for AIDS Care and Treatment in Africa: A Case for Task Shifting” by Jessica Price and Agnes Binagwaho, 99-103.
• “You Can Use My Name; You Don’t Have to Steal My Story - A Critique of Anonymity in Indigenous Studies” by Anna-Lydia Svalastog and Stefan Eriksson, 104-110.

Book Reviews Include:

• “Bioethics and Armed Conflict: Moral Dilemmas of Medicine and War - By Michael L. Gross” by Deanne-Peter Baker, 113.
• “When Experiments Travel: Clinical Trials and the Global Search for Human Subjects - By Adriana Petryna” by Stuart Rennie, 114-115.

NEJM (Volume 363, Number 3, July 15, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Facing the Wild West of Health Care Reform - Donal Berwick, Pioneer” by J.K. Iglehart.
• “Disclosing Industry Relationships - Toward an Improved Federal Research Policy” by E.G. Campbell and D.E. Zinner.
• “The Renaissance in HIV Vaccine Development - Future Directions” by W.C. Koff and S.F. Berkley.
• “The Havasupai Indian Tribe Case - Lessons for Research Involving Stored Biologic Samples” by M.M. Mello and L.E. Wolf, 204-207.
• “Becoming a Physician: The Case for Primary Care - A Medical Student’s Perspective” by I. Ganguli, 207-209.
• “Case 21-2010L A Request for Retrieval of Oocytes from a 36-Year-Old Woman with Anoxic Brain Injury” by D.M. Greer, A.K. Styer, T.L. Toth, C.P. Kindregan, and J.M. Romero, 27-283.
• “Drug Management of Obesity - Efficacy versus Safety” by A. Astrup, 288-290.
• “Trajectories of Disability in the Last Year of Life,” 294-295.
• “Advance Directives and Surrogate Decision Making Before Death,” 295-296.

Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 36, Number 8, August 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Acceptability of Offering Financial Incentives to Achieve Medication Adherence in Patients with Severe Mental Illness: A Focus Group Study” by Stefan Priebe, Julia Sinclair, Alexandra Burton, Stamatina Marougka, John Larsen, Mike Firn, and Richard Ashcroft
• “End-of-Life Decisions as Bedside Rationing: An Ethical Analysis of Life Support Restrictions in an Indian Neonatal Unit” by I. Miljeteig, K.A. Johansson, S.A. Sayeed, and O.F. Norheim
• “Defending Human Enhancement Technologies:Unveiling Normativity” by Immaculada de Melo-Martin
• “Normative Consent and Presumed Consent for Organ Donation: A Critique” by Michael Potts, Joseph L. Verheijde, Mohamed Y. Rady, and David W. Evans
• “Between the Needy and the Greedy: The Quest for a Just and Fair Ethics of Clinical Research” by Volnei Garrafa, Jan Helge Solbakk, Susana Vidal, and Claudio Lorenzo

NEJM (Volume 363, Number 5, July 29, 2010) is now available.

Articles Include:

• “Buying Health Care, the Individual Mandate, and the Constitution” by Sara Rosenbaum and Jonathan Gruber
• “The Renaissance in HIV Vaccine Development - Future Directions” by Wayne C. Koff and Seth F. Berkley
• “Don’t Mess with the DSMB” by Jeffrey M. Drazen and Alastair J.J. Wood

Second International Conference on Science in Society
Carlos III University of Madrid
Madrid, Spain
11 to 13 November 2010

This Conference will address disciplinary and interdisciplinary challenges in the sciences, and in particular the relationships of science to society.

Key themes addressed by the Conference include the social impacts of science, the values and ethics of science, the pedagogies of science, the knowledge-making processes of science, the politics of science and the economics of science. At first glance, the scope and concerns of the Conference are enormous. However, in contrast to conferences with a specialist disciplinary focus, this Conference aims to explore, in an interdisciplinary spirit, linkages between different areas of concern and practices of investigation. We welcome presentation proposals which range from broad explorations of philosophical, theoretical, methodological and policy questions, to proposals which present finely grained evidence of the connections of science to society in microcosms of research, teaching and practice.

For more information

The Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, University of Witwatersrand (WITS) will be running a 3 day training workshop on Research Ethics “Conducting Research Responsibly” between 3-5 October 2010. The workshop is funded by an unrestricted educational grant from PFIZER. The objective of the training program is to build research ethics capacity in Africa and is led by Prof A Dhai, Director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics and Dr Norma Tsotsi, Director Undergraduate Programs at the Centre and is co-chaired by Professors Dhai and Joseph Mfutso-Bhengu, College of Medicine, Malawi.

Scholarships covering travel and accommodation will be provided for by the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics from the educational grant. Research Ethics Committee members, research regulators and researchers who have not previously been exposed to research ethics training programs are invited to apply for scholarships. Applicants will need to be residing in Africa and are required to send through a motivation for funding, together with a brief CV. Applications and supporting documents should be emailed to both Professor A Dhai at amaboo.dhai@wits.ac.za  and Dr Norma Tsotsi at norma.tsotsi@wits.ac.za .

Workshop venue: Panari Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

Closing date for applications: Friday, 20th August 2010

Queries: Professor Dhai at amaboo.dhai@wits.ac.za  or Dr Norma Tsotsi at
norma.tsotsi@wits.ac.za

Nature Medicine (Volume 16, Issue 7, July 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Legalese Creates Consent ‘Conundrum’ in Clinical Trials” by Elie Dolgin
• “FDA Strengthens its Stance Against Unethical Researchers” by Roxanne Palmer
• “Gene Test Kit Oversight Could Prove a Mixed Blessing for Research” by Megan Scudellari
• “Researchers Knock Down Gene to Stop HIV in its Tracks” by Janelle Weaver
• “Tech Teams Try to Curate Genetic Data for Future Use” by Cassandra Willyard
• “The Inverse of Immunity” by Elie Dolgin
• “The Delay in Sharing Research Data is Costing Lives” by Josh Sommer

Journal of Academic Ethics (Volume 7, Number 4, 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Patients as Teaching Tools: Merely Informed or True Consent” by Syed Mamun Mahmud and Aasim Ahmad, 255-260.
• “The New Biopolitics” by Jiangxia Yu and Jingwei Liu, 287-296.

The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 7, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Disaster in the Gulf: Public Health and Public Responsibility” by Summer Johnson, 1-2.
• “Should Human Beings Have Sex? Sexual Dimorphism and Human Enhancement” by Robert Sparrow, 3-12.
• “The Risks of ‘Sexual Normalcy’” by Ronald M. Green, 13-14.
• “Humans Should Be Free of All Biological Limitations Including Sex” by James J. Hughes, 15.
• “Resisting Sparrow’s Sexy Reductio: Selection Principles and the Social Good’ by Thomas Douglas, Russell Powell, Katrien Devolder, Pablo Stafforini, and Simon Rippon, 16-18.
• “Sexual Dimorphism and the Value of Feminist Bioethics” by Nancy J. Matchett, 18-20.
• “Sex and Enhancement: A Phenomenological-Existential View” by Jenny Slatman, Annemie Halsema, and Guy Widdershoven, 20-22.
• “The Value of Sex in Procreative Reasons” by Guy Kahane and Julian Savulescu, 22-24.
• “Sexual Dimorphism and Sexual Intermediaries” by Thomas Marino, 24-25.
• “Is There a Moral Obligation to Have Children of Only One Sex?: by Kalina Kamenova, 26-27.
• “This is What Happens When You Forget About Gender” by Dan O’Connor, 27-29.
• “Sex, Romance, and Research Subjects: An Ethical Exploration” by Timothy F. Murphy, 30-38.
• “No Sex Please, We’re Social Scientists?” by Michael Dunn and Mark Sheehan, 39-41.
• “On the Costly Compromises of Nonclinical Research Relationships” by Hallie Liberto, 41-42.
• “No Sex Please in Sexuality Research” by Bridget Haire, 43-44.
• “Human Dignity and Transhumanism: So Anthro-Technological Devices Have Moral Status?” by Fabrice Jotterand, 45-52.
• “Human Dignity, Transhuman Dignity, and All That Jazz” by Immaculada de Melo-Martin, 53-55.
• “Toward a ‘Post-Posthuman Dignity Area’ in Evaluating Emerging Enhancement Technologies” by Annelien L. Bredenoord, Rieke van der Graaf, Johannes J.M. van Delden, 55-57.
• “Dignity and Agential Realism: Human, Posthuman, and Nonhuman” by Linda MacDonald Glenn and George Dvorsky, 57-58.

NEJM (Volume 362, Number 24, June 17, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Health Care Reform and Cost Control” by P.R. Orszag and E.J. Emanuel
• “The Reality of Drug Shortages - The Case of the Injectable Agent Propofol” by V. Jensen and B.A. Rappaport
• “Cancer Clinical Trials - A Chronic but Curable Crisis” by R.C. Young
• “Enrolling Pregnant Women in Research - Lessons from the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic” by S.F. Goldkind and Others
• “Health Insurance Reform and the Tensions of Federalism” by C.C. Jennings and K.J. Hayes
• “Justice John Paul Stevens - The Practice of Medicine and the Rule of Law” by G.J. Annas
• “Regulation of Smoking in Public Housing” by J.P. Winickoff and Others

In the realm of biomedical ethics, there is certainly no shortage of topics to be discussed. It is true that we could converse, debate, and conclude until we were blue in the face. In many instances, certainly in the United States, domestic issues abound such that conversation less often wanders to issues beyond our borders. Faced with controversy over stem cell research funding, gene patents, and the like, we must not become so absorbed in our own debates that we fail to acknowledge and address the ethical concerns arising from research on foreign soil. So let’s take a moment and turn our eyes towards the African continent. (GEN)

Nature (Volume 465, Number 7301, June 24, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• Editorial: “A Pandemic of Hindsight?”
• “Strange Lesions after Stem-Cell Therapy” by David Cyranoski
• “Human Genome at Ten: Science after the Sequence” by Declan Butler

Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics (Volume 38, Issue 2, Summer 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Embryo Stem Cell Research: Ten Years of Controversy” by John A. Robertson
• “Why Scientific Details Are Important When Novel Technologies Encounter Law, Politics, and Ethics” by Lawrence Goldstein
• “Old and New Ethics in the Stem Cell Debate” by Richard M. Doerflinger
• “Creating Embryos for Use in Stem Cell Research” by Dan W. Brock
• “Resolving Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Clinical Trials: The Example of Parkinson Disease” by Bernard Lo and Lindsay Parham
• “Allowing Innovative Stem Cell-Based Therapies Outside of Clinical Trials: Ethical and Policy Challenges” by Insoo Hyun
• Stem Cell Research and Economic Promises” by Timothy Caulfield
• “Diagnosing Consciousness: Neuroimaging, Law, and the Vegetative State” by Carl E. Fisher and Paul S. Appelbaum
• “Damage Control: Unintended Pregnancy in the United States Military” by Kathryn L. Ponder and Melissa Nothnagle
• “Teaching Health Law: Teaching Law and Medicine on the Interdisciplinary Cutting Edge: Assisted Reproductive Technologies” by Susan B. Apel
• “Recent Case Developments in Health Law” by Kate Wevers