October 10, 2017
(ABC News) – On Thursday, U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers will consider whether to recommend approval of a gene therapy that improved vision for these three youths and some others with hereditary blindness. It would be the first gene … Read More
October 4, 2017
(Quartz) – Brain-surgery training can be very different from the real experience in an operating room. Cadavers are expensive and so neurosurgeons-in-training typically watch videos of the surgeries, then practice on fruits and vegetables. Doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital wanted … Read More
September 8, 2017
(NPR) – Wealthy Chinese woman are hiring Americans to be surrogate moms. We explore how the relationship between a Chinese woman and her American surrogate changed during a particularly difficult pregnancy.
August 11, 2017
(NPR) – My guest is a critical care and palliative care physician who is among the health care professionals trying to find a more humane approach to helping people as they reach the ends of their lives. Dr. Jessica Nutik … Read More
June 20, 2017
(PBS Newshour) – In vitro fertilization has grown to a $3 billion industry in the U.S. that is responsible for more than 1 million babies. But implanting several embryos under pressure for success often obscures potential complications and added responsibilities … Read More
January 16, 2017
(Aeon) – In 1979 China introduced one of the largest social engineering efforts in human history – the ‘one-child policy’ – to combat population growth. In addition to leaving the country with problematic demographic imbalances, this family planning policy has created an underclass of … Read More
January 9, 2017
(Medscape) – Hi. I am Art Caplan, head of the Medical Ethics Division at the New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City. Typically, I use these blogs to talk about an issue, give my opinions, or draw … Read More
January 4, 2017
(NPR) – The 21st Century Cures Act promised more money for medical research, but some worry it will make patients more vulnerable. Ailsa Chang talks to Dr. Jerry Avorn about possible changes under the law.
September 27, 2016
(World Health Organization) – Despite the positive global trends there are large differences among and within countries. Over 200 million women worldwide would like to avoid a pregnancy but are not using an effective method of contraception. Reasons for this … Read More
July 1, 2016
(CNN) – Stem cell research can run the gamut from Nobel Prize-winning scientists to hucksters in lab coats making a buck off desperate, seriously ill people. The results of one new study may be less than hoped for, but the … Read More
June 23, 2016
(News-Medical) – The risk of HIV infection as a result of receiving an organ transplant is low. All organ donors undergo screening for HIV risk factors and are tested for the infection. However, although HIV testing is very accurate, the … Read More
April 19, 2016
Bioethicist Wendell Wallach talks about the moral challenges of Artificial Intelligence. http://www.thirteen.org/openmind/science/angels-and-demons-of-a-i/5395/
March 3, 2016
(Med Page Today) – New data from Europe demonstrate that the number of physician-assisted deaths is increasing. In a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine, a group reports that the rate of assisted suicide in German-speaking regions of Switzerland more … Read More
February 23, 2016
(Med Page Today) – The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the treat of ISIS, have presented an ongoing series of challenges to medical ethics, whether it involved the “role” of psychiatrists and psychologists in interrogations or questions … Read More
November 20, 2015
(Bloomberg) – The history of prosthetics is a history of compromises. Uncomfortable devices, limited movement. And while amazing advances have been made, none is more stunning than Johnny Matheny’s arm. Amputated in 2008 because of cancer, the arm has worn a … Read More
September 23, 2015
(Med Page Today) – How can physicians better navigate the alphabet soup of end-of-life care forms? That was the question on the mind of Ferdinando Mirarchi, DO, of UPMC Hamot in Eerie, Pa., when he approached Michael Barton, MD, of … Read More
September 10, 2015
(The World Post) – J. Craig Venter is the pioneering cartographer of the human genome, the sequence of which he and other scientists mapped in 2000. The WorldPost recently spoke with this modern Prometheus about the promises and perils of … Read More
August 24, 2015
(The Guardian) – Neil Harbisson, the world’s first certified cyborg, speaks to the media in Brisbane. Harbisson, who is completely colour blind, has an antenna with a camera at its end permanently implanted in his head that allows him to … Read More
July 21, 2015
(CNN) – An anti-abortion group says a second under cover video proves that Planned Parenthood is selling the body parts of aborted fetuses, a practice that is illegal and that the group denies doing. The Center for Medical Progress, an … Read More
July 17, 2015
(Time) – Egg freezing has been hailed as a game-changer for women, an “insurance policy” to revitalize waning fertility, a breakthrough as revolutionary as the birth control pill. But how well does it really work? In this week’s issue of … Read More
July 13, 2015
(Huffington Post) – It seems an obvious thing to do, right? I mean why shouldn’t research be used to help alleviate the struggles of some of the world’s most vulnerable people? Well, as it turns out, researchers do not exactly … Read More
June 3, 2015
(BBC) – When she penned comedies like Bhaji on the Beach and Goodness Gracious Me, Meera Syal looked to her own family’s experiences to tell stories about the lives of Asian women. But it was a chance viewing of a … Read More
May 28, 2015
(CNN) – “The experiment worked,” the doctor told me, “but the patient died.” The patient was my father, who was diagnosed with leukemia. Three months earlier, the doctor said my father would probably live only three months. No effective therapy … Read More
May 1, 2015
(ABC.net) – The recent case of baby Gammy shed light on the underground world of international commercial surrogacy. Gammy was the Down syndrome baby abandoned to his surrogate mother in Thailand when the Australian couple who’d paid for him didn’t … Read More
April 7, 2015
(ABC News) – The United Kingdom is set to open its first three proton beam therapy centers to treat cancer after a 5-year-old boy appeared to make a complete recovery after seeking the treatment in the Czech Republic. The parents … Read More
