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

Journal of Applied Philosophy (Volume 27, Issue 2, May 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “On the Ordinary Concept of Death” by Stephen Holland, 109-122.
• “Potential and Foetal Value” by J.A. Burgess, 140-153.
• “Disability, Respect and Justice” by Linda Barclay, 154-171.
• “Resolving Disputes Over Frozen Embryos: A New Proposal” by Jeremy Williams, 172-185.
• “Against Posthumous Rights” by Stephen Winter, 186-199.
• “Who Do We Treat First When Resources Are Scarce?” by Tom Walker, 200-211.

A Canberra psychologist and a disability support group have questioned the validity of last week’s national literacy and numeracy tests, claiming inappropriate time limits were imposed on some disabled students while other parents were encouraged to keep children at home to improve a school’s overall results. (The Canberra Times)

Abbie Dorn lies in a hospital bed in her parents’ home on the South Carolina coast. A halo of dark curls frames her pale face. The pump for her feeding tube clicks softly in the quiet room. (Los Angeles Times)

Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 36, Issue 4, April 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Responsibilities in International Research: A New Look Revisited” by Solomon R Benatar and Peter A Singer, 194-197.
• “The Use of Methylphenidate Among Students: The Future of Enhancement?” by Simon M Outram, 198-202.
• “Bioethics and Professionalism in Popular Television Medical Dramas” by Matthew J Czarny, Ruth R Faden, and Jeremy Sugarman; 203-206.
• “Translational Ethics? The Theory-Practice Gap in Medical Ethics” by Alan Cribb, 207-210.
• “Children in Health Research: A Matter of Trust” by Roberta L Woodgate and Marie Edwards, 211-216.
• “Deciding Against Disability: Does the Use of Reproductive Genetic Technologies Express Disvalue for People with Disabilities?” by Janet Malek, 217-221.
• “Consent Agreement for Cryopreserved Embryos: The Case for Choice” by Peter D Sozou, Sally Sheldon, and Geraldine M Hartshorne; 230-233.
• “A Pilot Study Evaluating an Intervention Designed to Raise Awareness of Clinical Trials Among Potential Participants in the Developing World” by Ames Dhai, Harriet Etheredge, and Peter Cleaton-Jones; 238-242.

The way in which medical professionals engage in bioethical issues ultimately reflects the type of care such patients are likely to receive. It is therefore critical for doctors and other health care professionals to have a broad understanding of disability. Our purpose in this paper is to explore ways of teaching bioethical issues to first year medical students by integrating alternative approaches. Such approaches include (a) the use of the narrative format, (b) the inclusion of a disability perspective, and (c) the presentation and facilitation of classes by people with disabilities. We consider how these new kinds of presentations are evaluated by students, faculty, people with disabilities and professional ethicists. We hope new knowledge may provide health care professionals with a greater understanding of the perspectives of patients with disabilities, who are confronted by conflicting ethical values and frameworks for decision-making in their interaction with such professionals. [Premium (Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)}

This paper focuses on one objection to the use of reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs): the argument known as the expressivist objection. According to this argument, the choice to use reproductive genetic technologies to prevent the birth of individuals with disabilities is an expression of disvalue for existing people with disability. Many have been persuaded by this impassioned perspective. This paper shows that this argument is misguided and so does not constitute a sound objection to the use of RGTs to prevent disability in future children. It first identifies some responses to the objection that may be sound but not completely convincing to proponents of the expressivist position. It then describes a thought experiment designed to demonstrate more clearly that choosing to use RGTs to prevent disability in future children does not convey a negative message about people who have disabilities. After describing a decision that clearly does not send such a message, the paper walks through a series of cases and shows how, despite differences that might seem to be morally relevant, each is morally equivalent to the previous one with respect to the extent that it expresses disvalue for such individuals. [Premium (Journal of Medical Ethics)]

Conference: Disability, Health Care & Ethics - What Really Matters

Wednesday April 28, 2010

10:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Baltimore, MD (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)

This conference is targeted to individuals who wish to broaden their understanding of the concerns and rights of people with disabilities in the context of health care encounters.

Disability and Ethics Through the Life Cycle: Cases, Controversies and Finding Common Ground

May 21-22, 2010

Union College in Schenectady, NY

The conference is hosted by the Albany Law School, Rapaport Ethics Across the Curriculum Program of Union College, and the Bioethics Program of Union Graduate College and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 36, Issue 3, March 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Homeopathy is Where the Harm Is: Five Unethical Effects of Funding Unscientific ‘Remedies’” by David M. Shaw, 130-131.
• “Evolution of Hospital Clinical Ethics Committees in Canada” by Alice Guadine, Linda Thorne, Sandra M LeFort, and Marianne Lamb; 132-137.
• “Sex Rights for the Disabled?” by Jacob M Appel, 152-154.
• “The Cost of Autonomy: Estimates from Recent Advances in Living Donor Kidney Transplantation” by Phedias Diamandis, 155-159.
• “Dignity: Not Such a Useless Concept” by Suzy Killmister, 160-164.
• “Assisted Suicide by Oxygen Deprivation with Helium at a Swiss Right-to-die Organisation” by Russel D Ogden, William K Hamilton, and Charles Whitcher; 174-179.
• “Advance Commitment: An Alternative Approach to the Family Veto Problem in Organ Procurement” by Jurgen De Wispelaere and Lindsay Stirton. 180-183.
• “Quality Improvement in General Practice: Enabling General Practitioners to Judge Ethical Dilemmas” by Larua Tapp, Adrian Edwards, Glyn Elwyn, Soren Holm, and Tina Eriksson; 184-188.

JAMA (Vol. 303; No. 7; February 17, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Dynamics of Obesity and Chronic Health Conditions Amongh Children and Youth” by Jeanne Van Cleave, Steven L. Gortmaker, and James M. Perrin; 623-630.
• “Heritable Disease and Sperm Donation” by Kent D. W. Bream and Jason P. Lott, 617-618.
• “Disruptive Innovations and Health Care Reform” by Darrell G. Kirch, 620-621.
• “Rising Autism Rates Still Pose a Mystery” by Mike Mitka, 602.

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.

Bioethics (Volume 24, Issue 1, January 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Research on Prisoners- A Comparison Between the IOM Committee Recommendations (2006) and European Regulations” by Bernice S. Elger and Anne Spaulding, 1-13.
• “Detained and Drugged: A Brief Overview of the Use of Pharmaceuticals for the Interrogation of Suspects, Prisoners, Patients, and POWs in the US” by Laura Calkins, 27-34.
• “Ethical Issues in Forensic Psychiatric Research on Mentally Disordered Offenders” by Christian Munthe, Susanna Radovic, and Henrik Anckarsater; 35-44.

Some of the learning difficulties of Down’s syndrome have been reversed by a blood pressure drug in a breakthrough that offers hope to millions. Given in childhood, the drug could improve marks in school. In adulthood, it could prevent or slow the decline towards dementia that often accompanies the genetic condition. (Mail Online)

Journal of Applied Philosophy (Volume 26, Issue 4, November 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Disability, Minority, and Difference” by Elizabeth Barnes, 337-355.
• “Understanding Expertise” by Michael Luntley, 356-370.
• “The Origination of a Human Being: A Reply to Oderberg” by Ingmar Persson, 371-378.
• “Abortion, Competing Entitlements, and Parental Responsibility” by Alex Rajczi, 379-395.
• “The Moral Demands of Memory – By Jeffrey Blustein, Talking Cures and Placebo Effects – By David A. Jopling” by Grant Gillett, 420-422.

Metaphilosophy (Volume 40, Issue 304, July 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “The Capabilities of People With Cognitive Disabilities” by Martha Nassbaum, 331-351.
• “Respecting Human Dignity: Contract Versus Capabilities” by Cynthia A. Stark, 366-381.
• “Duties of Justice to Citizens With Cognitive Disabilities” by Sophia Isako Wong, 382-401.
• “Cognitive Disability in a Society of Equals” by Jonathan Wolff, 402-415.
• “Holding One Another (Well, Wrongly, Clumsily) In a Time of Dementia” by Hilde Lindemann, 416-424.
• “Agency and Moral Relationship in Dementia” by Bruce Jennings, 425-437.
• “Responsibility and Disability” by David Shoemaker, 438-461.
• “Alzheimer’s Disease and Socially Extended Mentation” by James Lindemann Nelson, 462-474.
• “Thinking About the Good: Reconfiguring Liberal Metaphysics (or Not) For People With Cognitive Disabilities” by Anita Silvers and Leslie Pickering Francis, 475-498.
• “How We Have Been Learning to Talk About Autism: A Role for Stories” by Ian Hacking, 499-516.
• “The Entanglement of Race and Cognitive Dis/Ability” by Anna Stubblefield, 531-551.
• “Philosophers of Intellectual Disability: A Taxonomy” by Licia Carlson, 552-566.
• “Speciesism and Moral Status” by Peter Singer, 567-581.
• “Cognitive Disability and Cognitive Enhancement” by Jeff McMahan, 582-605.
• “The Personal is Philosophical is Political: A Philosopher and Mother of a Cognitively Disabled Person Sends Notes from the Battlefield” by Eva Feder Kittay, 606-627.

JAMA (Volume 302, Number 12, September 23/30, 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Association of an Educational Program in Mindful Communication With Burnout, Empathy, and Attitudes Among Primary Care Physicians” by Michael S. Krasner, Ronald M. Epstein, Howard Beckman, Anthony L. Suchman, Benjamin Chapman, Christopher J. Mooney, and Timothy E. Quill, 1284-1293.
• “Association of Resident Fatigue and Distress With Perceived Medical Errors” by Colin P. West, Angelina D. Tan, Thomas M. Habermann, Jeff A. Sloan, and Tait D. Shanafelt, 1294-1300.
• “Online Posting of Unprofessional Content by Medical Students” by Katherine C. Chretien, S. Ryan Greysen, Jean-Paul Chretien, and Terry Kind, 1309-1315.
• “Aademic Year-End Transfers of Outpatients From Outgoing to Incoming Residents: An Unaddressed Patient Safety Issue” by John Q. Young and Robert M. Wachter, 1327-1329.
• “Educating Health Care Professionals to Care for Patients With Disabilities” by Kristi L. Kirschner and Raymond H. Curry, 1334-1335.
• “Enhancing Meaning in Work: A Prescription for Preventing Physician Burnout and Promoting Patient-Centered Care” by Tait D. Shanafelt, 1338-1340.
• “Professional Behaviors of Physicians and Pursuing Social Justice” by Mark Earnest, Shale Wong, and Steve Federico, 1269.
• “Addressing Physician Specialty Maldistribution” by Howard K. Rabinowitz, 1270.

Inside a family’s decision to let their son live, if only for a brief time.