January 16, 2015
(ABC News) – On her 50th birthday, Sandy Oltz sat on the film set of “Still Alice” and listened to actress Julianne Moore speak a line that Oltz, an early onset Alzheimer’s patient, had struggled to write. “Please do not … Read More
January 5, 2015
(Tech Times) – A widow is suing ABC television and a New York hospital, saying the network, without her permission, aired footage of her husband’s death in the hospital emergency room where frantic treatment failed to save him after he … Read More
December 19, 2014
(Medical Xpress) – And technologies such as IVF, egg donation and egg freezing allow women to beat the biological clock, freeing them from the tyranny of their own biology. A recent Newsweek headline, for example, announced that women can now … Read More
December 18, 2014
(NPR) – Years of efforts to reduce the racial disparities in health care have so far failed to eliminate them. But progress is being made in the western United States, due largely to efforts by managed care plans to identify … Read More
November 14, 2014
(New York Times) – But if the show had its flaws, the medical themes it raises are much the same as those I encounter as a physician: Are primary-care doctors more true to their profession than specialists? How bad is … Read More
October 27, 2014
Science as Culture (Volume 23, No. 4, December 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles Include: “The therapeutic promise of pluripotency and its political use in the Italian stem cell debate” by Lorenzo Beltrame “Fighting fat: the role of ‘field … Read More
October 22, 2014
The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (Volume 42, No. 3, Fall 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Where do we go from here? An inside look into the development of Georgia’s youth concussion law” by Amanda … Read More
October 21, 2014
(New York Times) – When the Ebola outbreak in West Africa began to escalate a few months ago, the writer Richard Preston was working on a children’s fantasy novel. He dropped that and called David Remnick, the editor of The … Read More
October 17, 2014
(Wired) – The Finnish photographer recently released Leftover/Removals, a collection of stark and clinical images that reflect on the body, disease, and the medical procedures we use to protect the former from the latter. They are difficult to look at, … Read More
October 14, 2014
(Associated Press) – Despite worsening U.S.-North Korean relations, an American charity is ramping up efforts against an epidemic of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the isolated country, where it says it is making inroads in fighting the deadly disease. The Eugene Bell … Read More
October 14, 2014
Clinical Pediatrics (Volume 53, No. 13, November 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Sexual media exposure, sexual behavior, and sexual violence victimization in adolescence” by Michele L. Ybarra, Victor C. Strasburger, and Kimberley J. Mitchell “Parental perception of … Read More
October 9, 2014
(Fox News) – Americans are living longer than ever before, according to a new government report filled mostly with good news. U.S. life expectancy inched up again and death rates fell. Rates also dropped or held steady for nearly all … Read More
September 23, 2014
(The Atlantic) – An African-American woman is almost five times likelier to have an abortion than a white woman, and a Latina more than twice as likely, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of abortion … Read More
September 19, 2014
(The Economist) – GOFUNDME bills itself as a crowdfunding site where visitors can discover “Amazing Stories from Incredible People”. A swift scroll through the projects does yield some impressive stories—a special-needs teacher who got hit by a car trying to … Read More
September 17, 2014
(Nature) – Is race biologically real? A clutch of books published this year argue the question. All miss the point. Michael Yudell’s Race Unmasked and Robert Sussman’s The Myth of Race can be read as inadvertent retorts to former New … Read More
September 12, 2014
(North Coast Journal) – Last June, Golden Gate Bridge directors voted to fund 20-foot-wide “suicide nets” on each side of the bridge, at a cost of $76 million. Over 1,600 people have jumped to their deaths since the bridge was … Read More
September 11, 2014
(Cornell) – A patient’s race and ethnicity dramatically influence their preferences about the care they receive at the end of their lives, which in turn significantly affect the likelihood they will complete a do-not-resuscitate order (DNR), say a team of … Read More
August 25, 2014
(Journal of Women’s Health) – No prior study has empirically characterized the association between health risks and reading popular fiction depicting violence against women. Fifty Shades—a blockbuster fiction series—depicts pervasive violence against women, perpetuating a broader social narrative that normalizes … Read More
August 20, 2014
(The Telegraph) – Obvious Child is being described as an ‘abortion comedy’. It tells the story of 20-something Donna, who works in a bookshop and does stand-up comedy in her spare time. When she falls pregnant after a one-night stand … Read More
July 18, 2014
(New York Times) – Dr. Joep Lange, a leading AIDS researcher, is presumed dead in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was apparently shot down over Ukraine, according to a statement issued on Friday by the University of … Read More
July 17, 2014
(Wired) – Whether you find it exhilarating or terrifying (or both), progress in robotics and related fields like AI is raising new ethical quandaries and challenging legal codes that were created for a world in which a sharp line separates … Read More
July 16, 2014
(Slate) – I was about two-thirds of the way through my medium popcorn when the Stanley Tucci character in Transformers: Age of Extinction shouted defensively at one of the autobots, “I know you take the bioethical issues very seriously!” It … Read More
July 15, 2014
(Washington Post) – Last month, NBC found itself the target of criticism after reports surfaced that the network had declined a digital ad for the independent movie “Obvious Child,” which concerns a young woman’s decision to have an abortion, because … Read More
July 8, 2014
(ABC News) – One of the most dramatic scenes so far from the second season of ABC’s New York Med had nothing to do with gunshot wounds or heart transplants. It came when emergency room nurse Katie Duke was fired … Read More
June 20, 2014
(The Times Higher Education) – Was birth control a feminist issue? For anyone who reads this book, the conclusion will be a resounding yes. But social movements are complex. The birth control campaign included socialists, neo-Malthusians and eugenicists, many of … Read More
