August 31, 2009
Robert Baxter, a 76-year-old former truck driver from Billings, spent his last months fighting for the right to hasten his own death. Baxter was the Montana face and only named terminally ill patient in a legal case that sought to … Read More
August 31, 2009
Several comments on this and other blogs express surprise that the Reuters blog on religion, faith and ethics should be interested in neuroscience. Several posts here — on a “God spot†in the brain, on moral instincts, on religious studies … Read More
August 31, 2009
Several comments on this and other blogs express surprise that the Reuters blog on religion, faith and ethics should be interested in neuroscience. Several posts here — on a “God spot†in the brain, on moral instincts, on religious studies … Read More
August 31, 2009
“Plastics” may have been the Baby Boomer watchword, but “synthetic” rules today. That’s “synthetic” as in synthetic biology, the hottest biomedical buzzword, promising new drugs, new fuel and someday, new life. (USA Today)
August 31, 2009
Dr. Jeff Blackmer knows the thin line that exists between helping someone die in comfort and purposely ending their life through medical euthanasia. The Ottawa physician, who also runs the Canadian Medical Association’s office of ethics, deals mainly with spinal … Read More
August 31, 2009
Among the many decisions that parents face before the birth of their child is a potentially critical one: whether to preserve their infant’s umbilical-cord blood on the chance that he or she will need it someday to treat a serious … Read More
August 31, 2009
Stephen Minger is one of the leading stem-cell scientists in the United Kingdom, known for his work both as a researcher and as a high-profile public advocate for the field. He gained one of the first UK licences for the … Read More
August 28, 2009
What’s it worth to you to have comprehensive health coverage of, for example, physical therapy for a knee that acts up now and then due to an old sports injury? Would you accept a higher copay for other kinds of … Read More
August 28, 2009
Two senior House Democrats said an agreement struck with centrist Blue Dog Democrats in late July on a public health insurance option might be altered before a health-care bill reaches the House floor. (Wall Street Journal)
August 28, 2009
A new type of fetal heart monitor could save the lives of unborn infants in complicated pregnancies, according to a study published in the International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation. (PhysOrg)
August 28, 2009
ssues surrounding physician payments and addressing the primary care doctor shortage are central to health care reform efforts. (Medical News)
August 28, 2009
JAMA (Volume 302, Number 7, August 19, 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Effects of a Palliative Care Intervention on Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Advanced Cancer: The Project ENABLE II Randomized Controlled Trial” by Marie Bakitas, Kathleen … Read More
August 28, 2009
Nursing Inquiry (Volume 16, Issue 3, September 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Ethical nursing practice: inquiry-in-action” by Gweneth Hartrick Doane, Janet Storch, and Bernie Pauly, 232-240. “The shaping of organisational routines and the distal patient in assisted … Read More
August 27, 2009
For years the medical establishment in the U.S. has avoided advising parents on whether to circumcise their newborn sons, saying the benefits do not outweigh the risks. Now, however, new research suggests the procedure could be used to combat a … Read More
August 27, 2009
The long-awaited CIA Inspector General Report of 2004 has been released. For now, it is available on the homepage of the American Civil Liberties Union, though it will probably migrate to the rest of the ACLU torture file, which has … Read More
August 27, 2009
Facing a growing demand for transplants, the Beijing government finally conceded that abuses had taken place after years of allegations that prisoners and even young conscripts in its army were targeted for their organs. (Telegraph)
August 27, 2009
Prague – Some doctors admit that euthanasia is being applied in the Czech Republic not to prolong patients’ sufferings in hopeless cases, though it is officially illegal, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reports today. (Czech Happenings)
August 27, 2009
Animals being tested using Geron Corporation’s treatment for spinal cord injury developed cysts at the injury sites, a finding that led the U.S. FDA to place a clinical hold on a planned human trial of the treatment, the Menlo Park, … Read More
August 26, 2009
Researchers have found a potential way to correct an inherited disorder affecting thousands of women. Working on monkeys, they transferred genetic material needed to create a baby from a defective egg to a healthy one, resulting in healthy births. (BBC)
August 26, 2009
Many couples are faced with the unpleasant choice between not having a child of their own and risking the passing on of a debilitating disease. Yet research into reproductive technologies to lessen the chances of having unhealthy babies has been … Read More
August 26, 2009
The New York Times, in a series of ongoing stories about health care delivery in other countries, interviewed John Creighton Campbell, of the University of Michigan and visiting researcher at the Tokyo University Institute of Gerontology who has studied Japan’s … Read More
August 26, 2009
A subsidiary of the world’s biggest human tissue transplant firm is facing a criminal probe for using illegally imported body parts from Ukrainian corpses to export for sale in the US. (This is London)
August 26, 2009
When deciding whether to turn off life support for a loved one, family members aren’t always interested in their doctor’s advice, new research shows. (US News and World Report)
August 26, 2009
The story was first reported in the highly credible European Respiratory Journal and Reuters this month, causing members of the nanotechnology community everywhere scrambling to explain what could have gone wrong. (Nanotechnology Now)
August 26, 2009
More than half of healthcare workers surveyed in Hong Kong said they would refuse to be vaccinated against swine flu, according to a study released Wednesday. Fear of side effects and doubts as to efficacy were the two main reasons … Read More
