During the Nuremberg trials, convened at the end of World War II, lawyers for the German defendants, politicians accused of crimes against humanity, and physicians accused of euthanasia and barbaric medical experimentation offered the rationale of “kriegsraison” to exculpate their clients. The defence argument was that in conditions of all out war, those prosecuting the war can and must do whatever it takes to win. The Nuremberg tribunals summarily rejected kriegsraison as a defence. (The Lancet)

On the Origins of Cognitive Science is an excellent review of early twentieth century cognitive science. It stands out amongst other reviews of cognitive science by taking a broad perspective over the ideas that were alive during the cybernetic era and not limiting itself to just that part of history that seems relevant in light of current orthodoxy. Dupuy explicitly states that the book is a testament to the failure of cybernetics, which I feel is not warranted by his exegesis. I found it to be an inspiring story of a research program that had lofty ambitions of exploring the ways in which new technologies could shape the way we understand the mind. Furthermore, it becomes clear through the book how much current orthodoxy and the research programs that are challenging this orthodoxy in the 21st century all owe to the research and new ways of thinking that the cyberneticians spawned. (Metapsychology)

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.

What if I were grown only so that my organs could be harvested, and I had to care for others whose organs are being taken, too, while I wait for my own death? What if doctors cut off a piece of the tumor that killed me and grew it in a lab for the next sixty years? What if scientists discovered a gene that would ensure my happiness no matter what life throws at me? (PhysOrg)

What does the future look like? We essentially rely on science fiction thrillers to give us a taste of what lies ahead for humanity: Avatar; Iron Man; I, Robot; Surrogates; Star Wars; and I am Legend. But these films only give us part of the picture both in terms of the science and the social implications. They also never explain how we’ll get from here to there, making the future tantalizing but also implausible.Big Think

Accounting for Health and Health Care: Approaches to Measuring the Sources and Costs of Their Improvement by the Panel to Advance a Research Program on the Design of National Health Accounts and the National Research Council (The National Academies Press)

It has become trite to observe that increases in health care costs have become unsustainable. How best for policy to address these increases, however, depends in part on the degree to which they represent increases in the real quantity of medical services as opposed to increased unit prices of existing services. And an even more fundamental question is the degree to which the increased spending actually has purchased improved health.

Accounting for Health and Health Care addresses both these issues. The government agencies responsible for measuring unit prices for medical services have taken steps in recent years that have greatly improved the accuracy of those measures. Nonetheless, this book has several recommendations aimed at further improving the price indices.

JAMA (Volume 303, Number 24, June 23, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Health Care Reform-A Historic Moment in US Social Policy” by Elenora E. Connors and Lawrence O. Gostin
• “Genomic Analysis of Mental Illness: A Changing Landscape” by Jon McClellan and Mary-Claire King
• “Down Syndrome-New Prospects for an Ancient Disorder” by Stewart L. Einfeld and Rebecca Brown
• “Surgical Care Improvement: Should Performance Measures have Performance Measures” by Mary T. Hawn
• Book Review: “The Ethics of Consent: Theory and Practice” by Robert M. Veatch

JAMA (Volume 303, Number 23, June 16, 2010) is now available by subscription only

Articles Include:

• “Managing Financial Conflict of Interest in Biomedical Research” by Sally J. Rockey and Francis S. Collins
• “Quality of Care-How Good is Good Enough?” by Harold C. Sox and Sheldon Greenfield 

Book and Media Reviews Include:

• “Vital Conflicts in Medical Ethics: A Virtue Approach to Craniotomy and Tubal Pregnancies” by Ruth Townsend

Way back when, during the final decades of the last century, if a woman had a hard time conceiving, she saved her dollars by the tens of thousands and passed them over to a clinic specializing in assisted reproductive technology. (New York Times)

Nursing Philosophy (Volume 11, Issue 3, July 2010) is now available by subscription only

Articles Include:

• “Scepticism About the Virtue Ethics Approach to Nursing Ethics” by Stephen Holland
• “Reflection on Moral Maturity in a Nurse’s Caring Practice: A Critical Perspective” by Jane Sumner
• “Is the Doctrine of Double Effect Irrelevant in End-of-Life Decision Making?” by Peter Allmark, Mark Cobb, B. Jane Liddle, and Angela Mary Tod
• Book Review: “Conflicts of Care: Hospital Ethics Committees in the USA and Germany” by John S. Drummond

Sanger is one of the heroes of “America and the Pill,” a new cultural history of the birth control pill written by Elaine Tyler May, a professor of American studies and history at the University of Minnesota. Throughout her long career as a nurse and activist, Sanger was a tireless advocate for an oral contraceptive, calling as early as 1912 for a “magic pill.” By the time this dream was realized in 1960, six years before Sanger’s death, other contraceptives were widely available, but the pill stood out for three main reasons: First, it was the only form of contraception that was not directly linked to the act of sex (that is, no coitus interruptus necessary). Second, it was nearly 100 percent effective. Third, and most important for Sanger, women controlled it. Unlike with condoms or the rhythm method, men’s cooperation didn’t matter at all. They didn’t even have to know. (Washington Post)

The Australasian Journal on Ageing (Volume 29, Issue 1, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• Book Review: “Decision-making, Personhood, and Dementia: Exploring the Interface” by Colleen Doyle, 50-50.

In Medical Ethics and the Faith Factor, Robert Orr provides the overall rationale for ethical decision-making as well as for certain discrete medical issues: failure of the cardiac, pulmonary, renal, and neurologic systems; pregnancy; reproductive disorders; failure to eat, drink, or both; organ transplantation; and cognitive diminution. He also discusses ethical issues in the neonatal and pediatric age groups, as well as in certain cultural or religious beliefs. [Premium (JAMA)]

The American Journal of Human Genetics (Vol. 86; Issue 2; February 12, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• Book Review: “Genetic Dilemmas and the Right to an Open Future” by Annelien Brendenoord, 108.

As an emergency department volunteer in the late 1970s, I often performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on patients in cardiac arrest. With my newly minted Basic Cardiac Life Support certification, I eagerly augmented the output of a teenager’s failing pump. I can vividly recall the enthusiasm of the physicians and nurses during these codes and how quickly the mood changed when the priest arrived to perform unction. When our efforts failed and his black frock crossed into our glistening white trauma room, our space felt violated. I did not know then that my observations reflected an age-old dynamic between religion and medicine and sources of moral authority in medicine. [Premium (JAMA)]

No one cares about the untold numbers of cells our bodies slough off every day. But imagine that someone got hold of your cells — and the DNA they contain — and used them to cure a disease, or somehow managed to make a lot of money off of them. Should you be proud? Could you claim royalties? (Reuters)

American bioethics was born out of a desire to be relevant. The philosopher Daniel Callahan has said that he and his colleagues founded the Hastings Center–the premier bioethics think tank–in 1969 because they wanted to give philosophy “some social bite, some relevance.” Whether bioethics has achieved its goal is the urgent question at the core of this useful book, co-authored by Renée C. Fox, a highly distinguished sociologist, and Judith P. Swazey, a respected historian of medicine. Between them, Fox and Swazey have spent many decades as participant observers in the house of medicine. Their intensive involvement with physicians, theologians, and philosophers has given them ringside seats to the development of modern bioethics. Through enjoyable interviews with major figures in the field and a rich trove of personal observations, the book perceptively, if densely, chronicles the growth of bioethics as a profession. (AEI)

We all complain about our ambivalence with modern technology. I’ve think I’ve given myself acquired attention deficit disorder by staying connected all the time. But it’s hard to scale back without giving up many of my relationships (not to mention my job). “You can easily find yourself sucked into the vortex of spending hours a day starting at a computer screen,” says Jonathan Mostow, the director of the film Surrogates, which opens tomorrow. (Scientific American Blog)

Put succinctly, what Alva Noë is offering in Out of Our Heads is nothing short of a paradigm shift, complete with an incisive criticism of the status quo of neurosciences and a suggestion for an alternative model. The scientific study of consciousness in general, and what Noë calls the establishment neuroscience in particular claims to have broken free from its philosophical foundations. Although Noë acknowledges that the problem of consciousness is a scientific problem, one for which a scientific answer should be expected, he challenges the scientific community’s contention that consciousness no longer remains a philosophical problem. (Metapsychology)

Denise Mina is ABD – all but the dissertation. Her acclaimed psychological thrillers grew out of her sidelined dissertation on the ascription of mental illness to women in the criminal justice system: according to her Web site, she misspent her grant money and wrote a novel instead. This novel, Garnethill (1998), grew into a trilogy featuring Maureen O’Donnell as a woman with a history of trauma and mental illness, interacting with the criminal justice system as witness, suspect, critic, and citizen. (Bioethics Forum)

JAMA (Volume 302, Number 6, August 12, 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Unfinished Business in Tobacco Control” by Jonathan M. Samet and Heather Wipfli, 681-682.
• “Structural Interventions for Addressing Chronic Health Problems” by Mitchell H. Katz, 683-685.
• “Hospital Mortality and Leapfrog Hospital Survey Results”by Peter B. Angood and Helen Burstin, 625-626.
• “Funding Transparency” by Mike Mitka, 619.
• “Veteran Care Mishandled” by Mike Mitka, 619.
• “Rescinding Coverage” by Mike Mitka, 619.

Book and Media Reviews Include:

• “Populations, Public Health, and the Law” by Edward P. Richards, 691-692.
• “The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care” by Lynn C. Smitherman, 692-693.
• “A Life Worth Living: A Doctor’s Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era” by Dennis Rosen, 693=695.
• “The Future of Bioethics” by Deborah Bowman, 695.