July 21, 2025
A New Edition of Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Is Now Available
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (vol. 22, no. 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Global Bioethics
July 18, 2025
U.S. officially withdraws from enhanced WHO pandemic response
(UPI) – The United States officially won’t be involved in an enhanced pandemic global response enacted by the World Health Organization, the Trump administration said Friday. The International Health Regulations Amendments approved on June 1, 2024, would allow the WHO … Read More
July 18, 2025
China’s New Plan to Encourage More Births: $500 a Year
(Wall Street Journal) – Local governments in China have tried mostly in vain to lift the country’s shrinking birthrate with perks, cash rewards and housing subsidies. Now, the central government is stepping in. Beijing plans to pay a basic national … Read More
July 16, 2025
WHO, UNICEF say more than 14 million infants worldwide remain unvaccinated
(Medical Xpress) – Data released this week by the World Health Organization and UNICEF indicate modest gains in childhood vaccination rates, but globally, more than 14 million children remain unvaccinated. Last year, 89% of infants globally (~115 million) received at … Read More
July 15, 2025
Big Brother gets new powers in China with digital ID system
(Washington Post) – With the new centralized ID system, the Chinese government will take over the process. Users who submit a trove of personal information — including scans of their faces — will receive a unique code to access online … Read More
July 15, 2025
Israel and Iran Usher In New Era of Psychological Warfare
(New York Times) – Information warfare, often called psychological operations, or psyops, is as old as war itself. But experts say the effort between Israel and Iran was more intense and more targeted than anything that had come before, and … Read More
July 14, 2025
The First Babies Have Been Born Following “Simplified” IVF in a Mobile Lab
(MIT Technology Review) – This week I’m sending congratulations to two sets of parents in South Africa. Babies Milayah and Rossouw arrived a few weeks ago. All babies are special, but these two set a new precedent. They’re the first … Read More
July 11, 2025
In the country with the world’s lowest birth rate, fertility clinics are booming
(BBC) – While South Korea continues to struggle with the world’s lowest birth rates, fertility clinics are in growing demand – a bright spot in the country’s demographic crisis. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of fertility treatments carried out … Read More
July 11, 2025
A British Surgeon on What She Saw in Gaza’s Hospitals
(New York Times) – On the morning of June 1, Dr. Victoria Rose was nearing the end of her 21-day stint as a volunteer in Gaza when she saw news of a mass shooting of Palestinians near a food distribution … Read More
July 11, 2025
Fungal infections are getting harder to treat
(NBC News) – The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus tops the World Health Organization’s list of worrying fungal diseases. It’s growing increasingly resistant to the first-line drug used to treat it. Fungal infections are getting harder to treat as they grow more … Read More
July 11, 2025
Burkina Faso’s only eye doctor for children sees the trauma of both play and conflict
(ABC News) – “The trauma has become severe,” Yaméogo said of Diallo’s condition as she attended to him recently at the Sanou Sourou University Hospital in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. “Cases like (Diallo’s) must be treated within the first six … Read More
July 10, 2025
More employers offer immigrant doctors visa support
(Axios) – A small but growing number of employers are offering immigrants support in obtaining visas and green cards — especially those looking for physicians and surgeons, according to new data from jobs site Indeed. Why it matters: Immigration plays … Read More
July 9, 2025
The World Bank set out to transform health care for the poor in Africa. It drove patients deeper into poverty.
(ICIJ) – A surge in private equity funding for hospitals left a trail of crushing debts, patient detentions and broken promises. In over 70 interviews, former and current doctors, nurses and executives from [International Finance Corp]-backed facilities in Kenya and … Read More
July 9, 2025
First malaria treatment for newborn babies approved for use
(Washington Post) – Malaria caused 597,000 deaths worldwide in 2023, with children under 5 accounting for 76 percent of all malaria deaths in the World Health Organization’s Africa region. The first malaria drug for newborn babies and those weighing less … Read More
July 8, 2025
First malaria treatment for babies approved for use
(BBC) – The first malaria treatment suitable for babies and very young children has been approved for use. It’s expected to be rolled out in African countries within weeks. Until now there have been no approved malaria drugs specifically for … Read More
July 8, 2025
The doctor fighting for women’s health on Ukraine’s front line
(BBC) – In a rural village close to the Ukrainian front line, a group of women queue quietly outside a purple and white ambulance, waiting to be seen by a doctor with his shaved head dyed the blue and yellow … Read More
July 7, 2025
A New Edition of Journal of Medical Humanities Is Now Available
Journal of Medical Humanities (vol. 46, no 2, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 2, 2025
Anne Merriman, ‘Mother of Palliative Care’ in Uganda, Dies at 90
(New York Times) – A medical doctor and former nun, she found an affordable way to expand palliative care in the developing world, bringing pain relief to poor, terminally ill patients. Working as a doctor in Singapore in the 1980s, … Read More
July 1, 2025
Chinese students are using AI to beat AI detectors
(Rest of World) – Across China, tens of thousands of students like Xiaobing are navigating an academic crackdown that has ironically triggered a surge in the use of AI: Many students are turning to AI tools to outsmart the tests … Read More
July 1, 2025
Eat Your AI Slop or China Wins
(The New Atlantis) – The new cold war means a race with China over AI, biotech, and more. This poses a hard dilemma: win by embracing technologies that make us more like our enemy — or protect ourselves from tech … Read More
June 30, 2025
A.I. Is Starting to Wear Down Democracy
(New York Times) – Content generated by artificial intelligence has become a factor in elections around the world. Most of it is bad, misleading voters and discrediting the democratic process. Since the explosion of generative artificial intelligence over the last … Read More
June 27, 2025
Rising poverty in conflict zones ‘causes a billion people to go hungry’
(The Guardian) – Extreme poverty is accelerating in 39 countries affected by war and conflict, leaving more than a billion people to go hungry, according to the World Bank. Civil wars and confrontations between nations, mostly in Africa, have set … Read More
June 27, 2025
The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back
(Rest of World) – Content moderators say they’re exposed to graphic violence, psychological trauma, and union-busting tactics, and now a larger movement is brewing. Yavuz is at the forefront of an international movement to demand better recognition, rewards, and working … Read More
June 23, 2025
His Kidney Failed. He’ll Never Know if a Transplant Drug From a Banned Factory Was to Blame.
(ProPublica) – When Joe DeMayo’s donated kidney started to fail earlier than expected, he didn’t know that the drug he was taking could’ve left him vulnerable — and that one of the most formidable drug regulators in the world may … Read More
June 20, 2025
How Weight-Loss Drugs Blew Out the U.S. Trade Deficit
(Wall Street Journal) – Shipments have propelled Ireland, a country of 5.4 million, to the second-largest goods-trade imbalance with the U.S., behind China Planes have been jetting from Ireland to the U.S. this year carrying something more valuable than gold: … Read More
