March 31, 2011
The Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 305, Issue 5, February 2, 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Association of Hospice Agency Profit Status with Patient Diagnosis, Location of Care, and Length of Stay” by Melissa … Read More
March 30, 2011
For the last month, Slate readers have been brainstorming and debating ideas for reducing childhood obesity. Now we’re inviting you to a conversation about these ideas with the top thinkers, scientists, doctors, political leaders, and policymakers in the field. On … Read More
March 30, 2011
Bioethics (Volume 25, Issue 3, March 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “On the Supposed Moral Harm of Selecting for Deafness” by Melissa Seymour Fahmy, 128-136. “Equality and the Treatment-Enhancement Distinction” by Nils Holtug, 137-144. “Reconsidering the … Read More
March 29, 2011
A stem cell homing signal may explain why so many cancers spread to bone tissue. Researchers have identified a molecular mechanism that may explain why so many cancers spread to patients’ bones — they piggyback on signaling pathways that hematopoietic stem … Read More
March 29, 2011
Inter University Center in Dubrovnik, Republic of Croatia July 4-8, 2011 Ethics Teacher Training Course in Belgrade, Serbia, organized in cooperation with the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts June 27, – July 1, 2011 The Ethics Teacher Training Courses … Read More
March 29, 2011
The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 12, 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Medical Tourism and Bariatric Surgery: More Moral Challenges” by Jeremy Snyder and Valorie A. Crooks, 28 – 30. “Rethinking Roe v. Wade: … Read More
March 29, 2011
Debbie Purdy says that guidance on assisted suicide issued in 2009 is being “undermined” because the quality of life of MS sufferers is being damaged by inconsistent access to medication. (The Press Association)
March 29, 2011
The term “exploitation†is notoriously hard to define. Yet it is frequently invoked to frame moral concerns about clinical research. Recently, a group of influential authors have proposed a so-called nonexploitation framework for the ethics of randomized controlled trials that … Read More
March 29, 2011
The media is awash with stories of so-called ‘‘fashion babies’’. Whether we’re talking about Elton and David’s son Zachary, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s ‘‘gestational carrier’’ or Brisbane couple Melissa Keevers and Rosemary Nolan’s new quintuplets, everyone is apparently entitled … Read More
March 29, 2011
The challenge of reining in the rising costs of the Medicare Program is particularly thorny because it confronts a recalcitrant societal tension between the necessity for cost control and the value of open-ended technology use for life extension in the … Read More
March 29, 2011
The challenge of reining in the rising costs of the Medicare Program is particularly thorny because it confronts a recalcitrant societal tension between the necessity for cost control and the value of open-ended technology use for life extension in the … Read More
March 29, 2011
Hispanics, especially first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans, are less likely to donate organs than Americans as a whole, according to organ donation experts. (Reuters)
March 29, 2011
Republican Rep. Lynn Luker of Boise argued that outlawing assisted suicide was necessary to help prevent abuse of elderly residents by their caregivers who are seeking to profit from their patients’ demise. (The Republic)
March 29, 2011
In addition to making the drug unaffordable for some women, experts fret about the added costs for insurers that choose to pay for it, especially Medicaid programs already being slashed in states struggling with deficits. (The Washington Post)
March 29, 2011
The physician-assisted suicide total represents a 42% rise from the 36 doctor-aided deaths in 2009, though the law didn’t take effect until March of that year. In Oregon, the only other state with a law authorizing physician-assisted suicide, 65 patients … Read More
March 28, 2011
A large tranche of contemporary bioethical inquiry is self-consciously focused on purpose and methodology. Bioethics is a field of disparate disciplines, and it is not always clear what role the philosopher plays in the wider scheme. Even when philosophical reflections … Read More
March 28, 2011
The results of the application of reductionism in modern biomedical research and practice has been nothing short of miraculous, but while wondrous for some things, reductionism alone is incomplete. (KevinMD)
March 28, 2011
A survey of over 9,000 people in 7 different countries across Europe has shown that the majority would want to improve the quality of life in the time they had left, rather than extend it. (redOrbit)
March 28, 2011
Stem-cell researchers in Europe are reeling after the Court of Justice of the European Communities issued an opinion last week questioning the ethics of their work and threatening to ban them from patenting procedures that involve human embryonic-stem-cell lines. Some … Read More
March 28, 2011
The use of assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination, is becoming more widespread among U.S. troops and cancer patients as they are increasingly banking their sperm to prevent a premature death or sterility-inducing injury from … Read More
March 28, 2011
New body should end bizarre paradox in medicine and make trials cheaper and easier to run. (The Guardian)
March 25, 2011
Many deadlines for implementing the law championed by President Barack Obama to expand health insurance to roughly 30 million Americans are fast approaching. (Reuters)
March 25, 2011
A paralyzed woman was still able to accurately control a computer cursor with her thoughts 1000 days after having a tiny electronic device implanted in her brain, say the researchers who devised the system. The achievement demonstrates the longevity of … Read More
March 25, 2011
Silver Sling, an 11-minute film by director Tze Chun, is another cinematic gem from the Future States series that Biopolitical Times blogged on last week. The film presents a future scenario in which affluent couples hire young women, some of … Read More
March 25, 2011
Some Oregon legislators want a law to ban the sale of helium hoods, a new device produced by a two-person company in California to help people commit suicide. Three months ago, a 29-year-old man in Oregon killed himself using the … Read More
