June 17, 2025
A New Edition of Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy Is Now Available
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (vol. 28, no. 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Disability Ethics
June 12, 2025
Supreme Court rules for girl with epilepsy in opinion that could affect education access lawsuits
(ABC News) – The Supreme Court sided with a teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy on Thursday in a unanimous ruling that could make it easier for families like hers to go to court over access to education. … Read More
June 2, 2025
Do Patients Without a Terminal Illness Have the Right to Die?
(New York Times) — When Canada’s first MAID law, Bill C-14, passed in 2016, it was reserved for those who were over 18, eligible for health care and mentally competent to consent to death. They needed to have a “serious … Read More
June 2, 2025
Outrage over Democrat state’s sneaky attempt to quietly pass assisted suicide bill
(Daily Mail) — A controversial amendment allowing assisted suicide is making its way through the Illinois state legislature as representatives snuck the measure into a bill on sanitary food preparation. Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, a Democrat representing Evanston, … Read More
May 30, 2025
The boy who came back: the near-death, and changed life, of my son Max
(The Guardian) – I’ve thought a lot about why I’m writing this. I know that I’m repelled by the kind of spiritual vultures who might scour Max’s story for shareable aphorisms, and that ideally, I’d like to slap them with … Read More
May 22, 2025
Parliament must reject the assisted dying bill
(The Critic) – The potential for inhuman cruelty that it contains is vast The supporters of the assisted dying bill did not merely dismiss or ignore the incredibly cogent and powerful arguments made by its critics, they seemed not even … Read More
May 20, 2025
Coming to a Brain Near You: A Tiny Computer
(Wall Street Journal) – In the next 12 months, the number of people with a brain-computer interface is set to double A high-stakes technology race is playing out in the human brain. Brain-computer interfaces are already letting people with paralysis … Read More
May 14, 2025
New York’s euthanasia bill targets me Suicide-by-doctor cheapens disabled lives
(Unherd) – Last September, I found myself — confused, groggy, and irritable — staring into the surgical dome light of my local hospital’s emergency room. The doctor and my parents at my bedside informed me that I had been found … Read More
May 12, 2025
A New Edition of Hastings Center Report Is Now Available
Hastings Center Report (vol. 55, Issue 2, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
May 5, 2025
A father battles Canada’s suicide machine. His autistic daughter has been cleared for MAiD
(Unherd) – On 31 January, 2024, Wade was running out of time. He had tried everything to persuade his 28-year-old daughter, Marge, that she could get better. But Marge had been scheduled to die by assisted suicide at 2 p.m. … Read More
April 22, 2025
Radioactive Man
(Harper’s Magazine) – Over dozens of phone calls, in rants that often strayed some distance from the subject at hand, Frank told me his story. Following his discharge from the Air Force, he was homeless for nearly twenty years, all … Read More
April 7, 2025
AI Tools Helped Restore Speech for a Woman With Paralysis: ‘She Felt Embodied’
(CNET) – Scientists used a brain implant and generative AI to give a woman her voice back and help her talk in near real time. It’s one example of how generative AI tools — using the same underlying technology that … Read More
April 7, 2025
‘I could live 30 years but plan to die’: How assisted dying law is dividing Canadians
(BBC) – April was born with spina bifida and was later diagnosed with tumours at the base of her spine which she says have left her in constant, debilitating pain. She’s been taking strong opioid painkillers for more than 20 … Read More
March 28, 2025
Their Physical Therapy Coverage Ran Out Before They Could Walk Again
(KFF Health News) – Millions of Americans rely on physical and occupational therapists to regain strength and motor skills after operations, diseases, and injuries. But recoveries are routinely stymied by a widespread constraint in health insurance policies: rigid caps on … Read More
March 21, 2025
This ‘Wicked’ Broadway Actor Is Making History for Performers with Disabilities
(NBCU) – In March, Jenna Bainbridge will be the first wheelchair user to play the role of Nessarose in “Wicked” on Broadway. Her announcement comes months after Marisa Bode, who also uses a wheelchair in real life, portrayed Nessa in … Read More
March 20, 2025
Synchron’s Brain-Computer Interface Now Has Nvidia’s AI
(Wired) – The company has partnered with Nvidia to develop “cognitive AI,” which it says will allow people with severe physical disabilities to have more natural interactions with the world around them. Neurotech company Synchron has unveiled the latest version … Read More
March 12, 2025
What a Wrongful Death Lawsuit Reveals About America’s Largest Oxygen Provider
(ProPublica) – When an at-risk sleep apnea patient needed his breathing machine replaced, Lincare, a $2.4 billion behemoth with a decadeslong history of regulatory and legal problems, acted slowly. The result was disastrous. Lincare, a giant respiratory-device supplier with a … Read More
February 13, 2025
Motor Neuron Disease Took Their Voices. AI Is Bringing Them Back.
(MIT Technology Review) – Rodriguez and his wife, Maria Fernandez, who live in Miami, thought they would never hear his voice again. Then they re-created it using AI. After feeding old recordings of Rodriguez’s voice into a tool trained on … Read More
January 24, 2025
People With A.D.H.D. Are Likely to Die Significantly Earlier Than Their Peers, Study Finds
(New York Times) – A large study found that men lost seven years of life expectancy and women lost nine years, compared with counterparts without the disorder. The study, which was published Thursday in The British Journal of Psychiatry, is … Read More
January 20, 2025
A New Edition of Hastings Center Report Is Now Available
Hastings Center Report (vol. 54, Issue S2, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
January 7, 2025
Americans with Dementia Are Grieving Social Media
(The Atlantic) – When my father turned on his iPad again about a year after his seizure, he couldn’t find the Photoshop app because the logo had changed. Instagram, which now had Reels and a shopping tab, was unnavigable. Some … Read More
January 6, 2025
Health Insurers Limit Coverage of Prosthetic Limbs, Questioning Their Medical Necessity
(KFF Health News) – “Insurance covers a knee replacement if it’s covered with skin, but if it’s covered with plastic, it’s not going to cover it,” said Jeffrey Cain, a family physician and former chair of the board of the … Read More
January 6, 2025
Why Medicaid cuts could be a ‘crisis’ for people with disabilities
(STAT News) – Advocates worry about cuts to long-term care as well as home- and community-based services The changes would dramatically alter states’ budgets and could curtail or end care for millions of people with disabilities. Two expensive programs in … Read More
December 24, 2024
For young adults, caregiving isn’t just hard. It can shape you for life
(NPR) – Young caregivers have always been there, doing all the same things that adults do — helping people get dressed, charting symptoms and medicines, dealing with doctors and bills. About one-quarter of all family caregivers are between 18 and … Read More
December 19, 2024
Could psychedelic drugs improve the mental health of autistic people?
(Science) – A brace of new studies probes benefits and risks for an understudied group Profound feelings of unity, transcendence, ineffability, and awe—as well as improved mental health. Those were among the testimonials in a recent survey of 233 people … Read More
