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 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)

On Valentine’s day two years ago, Paul Wagner, a 40-year-old Philadelphia purchasing manager, gave Gail Tomas, a total stranger, his left kidney. Wagner met Tomas, a 65-year-old former opera singer, on the internet, at MatchingDonors.com. Her daughter had posted an ad asking some magnificent stranger to save her mother. “It was there that I read about a lady in my city, Philadelphia, who was desperate for help,” Wagner said. “It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.” This story had a happy ending. Yet it unfolded amid controversy over whether ethical norms were violated. (AEI)

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.

For the first time since the National Institutes of Health released its new guidelines for the derivation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines last summer, a line approved under the Bush administration has been recommended for inclusion into the growing federal registry of lines eligible for federal funding. (The Scientist)

Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 36, Issue 01, January 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Clinical Ethics: Ascribing Intentions in Clinical Decision-making” by L A Jansen and J S Fogel, 2-6.
• “Clinical Ethics: ‘It’s Crucial They’re Treated as Patients’: Ethical Guidance and Empirical Evidence Regarding Treating Doctor-Patients” by F E fox, G J Taylor, M F Harris, K J Rodham, J Sutton, J Scott, and B Robinson; 7-11.
• “Ethics: When Physicians Forego the Doctor-patient Relationship, Should They Elect to Self-Proscribe or Curbside? An Empirical and Ethical Analysis” by J K Walter, C W Lang, and L F Ross; 19-23.
• “Law, Ethics and Medicine: The Right Not to Know and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis for Huntington’s Disease” by E Asscher and B-J Koops, 30-33.
• “Research Ethics: Payment for Participation in Research: A Pursuit for the Poor?” by M Stones and J McMillan, 34-36.
• “Research Ethics: An Investigation of Patients’ Motivations for their Participation in Genetics-related Research” by N Hallowell, S Cooke, G Crawford, A Lucassen, M Parker, and C Snowdon; 37-45.
• “Teaching and Learning Ethics: A Practical Approach to Teaching Medical Ethics” by S Mills and D C Bryden, 50-54.

Foreign nationals who are HIV-positive will find it easier starting Monday to visit the United States.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from the list of diseases that prevent non-U.S. citizens from entering the country. (CNN)

President Obama’s decision to name Amy Gutmann and James W. Wagner to lead his new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is an inspired one. Wagner is an engineer and president of Emory University, where he’s earned high marks for his devotion to the ideals of liberal learning. Former provost at Princeton and now president of the University of Pennsylvania, Gutmann is a political philosopher whose work explores, among other themes, the subject of moral disagreement in a democracy. (Bioethics Forum)

Science and ethics are inextricably linked, and it is sometimes unclear whether science can be considered friend or foe. Despite a history riddled with examples of destruction at the hands of scientific ingenuity (the atomic bomb) or simple moral disregard through experimentation (various instances of horrific studies involving human subjects), science today seems to generally fall within the “friend” classification. Battle cries of “cure cancer” and “vaccinate against HIV” greet the valiant scientist in shining armor, as he/she rides off to the laboratory. Yet, both the condemnation of scientific missteps of the past and the extolment of scientific virtue today illustrate the fact that conversations regarding science and ethics are all too often consumed with extremes. There is a paucity of discourse in the middle ground. (Genetic and Engineering News)

The US expansion of federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research is being hampered by details in consent forms. Earlier this month, researchers celebrated the government’s approval of funding for a broad variety of work on 13 stem-cell lines — the first approved under the policy announced by US President Barack Obama in March. [Premium (Nature News)]

Please join the Center for American Progress for a special presentation:

Progress in Bioethics: Science, Policy, and Politics

January 7, 2010, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

Admission is free.

RSVP to attend this event

Featured panelists:

Sam Berger, JD Candidate, Yale Law School; Co-Editor, Progress in Bioethics
Michael Tomasky, Editor, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
Clay Risen, Managing Editor, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
Kathryn Hinsch, Founder and Board President, Women’s Bioethics Project; Contributor Progress in Bioethics
Marcy Darnovsky, Associate Executive Director, Center for Genetics and Society; Contributor Progress in Bioethics

Moderated by:

Jonathan Moreno, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Editor-In-Chief, Science Progress, Co-Editor, Progress in Bioethics

President Obama pledged in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place.” He followed this up with a presidential memorandum of scientific integrity to accompany his executive order restoring funding for embryonic stem cell research. On November 24, another executive order established the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, and just days ago, the NIH announced the approval of 13 new human embryonic stem cell lines for federally funded research.

After more than a decade of conservatives’ dominance of public bioethical debate, progressive bioethics is finally in ascendance. Editors Joanthan Moreno and Sam Berger map this new landscape with Progress in Bioethics, an anthology featuring contributions from progressive and nonprogressive bioethicists alike. They tackle substantive policy issues such as stem cell research, conscience clauses, and health care reform. More generally, they discuss the meaning of progressive bioethics, its place in the political arena, its stance toward biotechnology, and its interplay with religion. And most importantly, they seek to apply the fundamental progressive values of social justice, critical optimism, and practical problem solving—values that are needed now more than ever to restore ideological balance to the politics and policy of the life sciences.

Please join CAP and Democracy: a Journal of Ideas for a lively panel discussion led by Jonathan Moreno, Senior Fellow at CAP, Editor-In-Chief of Science Progress, and co-editor of Progress in Bioethics.

January 7, 2010, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

Space is extremely limited. RSVP required.
Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and not guaranteed.

Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m.

Center for American Progress
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Washington, DC 20005
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For more information, call 202-682-1611.

A leading University of Michigan researcher said Tuesday the school now can accept private donations of unused human embryos for creating new stem cell lines. (The Associated Press)

The Senate took another step forward in the health care debate Thursday, casting its first votes on what is certain to be a long series of politically charged amendments. The chamber approved a Democratic-sponsored amendment to provide women with low-cost mammograms and other preventative tests, while rejecting a GOP proposal to prevent government boards from influencing coverage of screening tests for women. (CNN)

The National Institutes of Health cleared 13 human embryonic stem cell lines for use in experiments by federally funded scientists, opening the door to a new era of research into promising but controversial treatments.

The move Wednesday is part of a new federal policy that supporters of stem cell research expected the Obama administration to champion and could have implications for California’s stem cell research funding organization. (San Francisco Business Times)

The U.S. government approved the first 13 batches of human embryonic stem cells on Wednesday, enabling researchers using them to get millions of dollars in federal funding as promised by President Barack Obama in March. (Reuters)

Five months after abruptly dismantling the bioethics advisory council left by his predecessor, US President Barack Obama last week created a new bioethics commission that will move beyond the issues that consumed previous panels, such as stem cells and cloning. Based within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is explicitly charged with recommending legislative and regulatory action and promises to have more influence on policy. (Nature News)

President Barack Obama today established a new presidential council to advise him on bioethical matters. It replaces the sometimes controversial council that advised President George W. Bush. (ScienceInsider)

We’ve got one brewing right now. Yuval Levin, who worked in the White House domestic policy staff as an aide to George W. Bush, now has got a gig writing news stories for Newsweek. The Nation’s Ari Melber, who got wind of this, notes that when Levin’s first piece ran in the magazine last March, the editors slugged it as an analysis from “a Bush veteran.” No such notation was attached to Levin’s new piece chronicling why “right-of-center candidates are succeeding in the age of Obama.” A few months earlier, Levin even co-authored a piece in the conservative Weekly Standard with Bill Kristol explaining why “Obamacare” was wrong and deserved to be defeated. Melber, who smelled a skunk, called Newsweek, whose spokeswoman offered a defense. (CBS News)

Connecticut law requires hospitals to tell the state Department of Public Health when certain medical errors harm patients. But some tweaks that were made to the law five years ago mean that hospitals report far fewer incidents, and those incidents that are reported are often kept secret from the public, the Hartford Courant reports. (Wall Street Journal)

The Union Health Ministry will introduce the Bill to amend the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, aiming to impose stringent penalties on the violators of the Act, in the winter session of Parliament slated for later this month. By amending the law, the government wanted to plug all the loopholes in the law which were exploited by individuals and even hospitals to engage in unlawful human organ trade activity. (PharmaBiz)