March 26, 2009
INTIMATE secrets hidden in your DNA could be stolen without you even realising. By taking a glass from which you have drunk, a “genome hacker” could obtain a comprehensive scan of your genome, revealing DNA variants that help determine your … Read More
March 26, 2009
In what may be a first, a bioethics program finds itself on the chopping block. Medical ethicists cry foul. (American Medical News)
March 26, 2009
Ten members of the President’s Council on Bioethics published a statement today at the Hastings Center Bioethics Forum expressing disappointment with President Obama’s remarks and policies on the funding of embryonic stem cell research. They take the president to task … Read More
March 26, 2009
Doctors face being struck off if they do not respect the wishes of patients who want to die by refusing treatment, according to draft guidance from the General Medical Council. (Telegraph)
March 26, 2009
Both the number of families checking embryos for genetic defects and the number of conditions being tested for are growing rapidly around the world. Last year, the leading U.S. genetic diagnosis clinic—the world’s largest—performed more than 1,800 tests aimed at … Read More
March 25, 2009
The recently passed ‘Stimulus’ funding will create a huge amount of electronic medical information in the next few years, but legal uncertainty about who owns the information “presents a major obstacle to integrating and using” it to improve public health … Read More
March 25, 2009
In lifting restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research this month, did President Obama leave the door open to human cloning? To hear Obama say it, the answer is unequivocally no. “We will ensure that our government never opens … Read More
March 25, 2009
The health insurance industry offered Tuesday for the first time to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems. The offer from America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue … Read More
March 25, 2009
Implanting single embryos into the wombs of women seeking to boost fertility is more effective and less costly than placing two embryos at a time, a pair of studies released Wednesday found. (PhysOrg)
March 25, 2009
A NEW technique to “knit together” torn knee tissue using stem cells is set to be tested in patients within the next year, scientists in Edinburgh were told yesterday. (The Scotsman)
March 25, 2009
Developing World Bioethics (Volume 9, Issue 1, April 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Global Health Ethics for Students” by Andrew D. Pinto and Ross E.G. Upshur, 1-10. “Challenges Faced by Research Ethics Committees in El Salvador: … Read More
March 25, 2009
Artificial Organs (Volume 33, Issue 4, April 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Form Ectopic Woven Bone In Vivo Through Endochondral Bone Formation” by Sophia Chia-Ning Chang, Ching-Lung Tai, Hui-Ying Chung, Tsung-Min Lin, and … Read More
March 25, 2009
 UNESCO Ethics Teacher Training Course in Windhoek, Namibia (24-28 August 2009)  One of the activities undertaken to disseminate information concerning the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted in 2005 by UNESCO, is the Ethics Education Program. This program is mapping existing teaching … Read More
March 24, 2009
Today US District Judge Edward R. Korman ordered the FDA to make the morning after pill available to 17-year-old minor girls without a physician’s visit or prescription and without parental consent. (News-Medical)
March 24, 2009
Gerald F. Joyce admits that when he saw the results of the experiment, he was tempted to halt further work and publish the results immediately. After years of trying, he and his student Tracey Lincoln had finally found a couple … Read More
March 24, 2009
A year ago, Sweden’s most prestigious medical school found itself in an international uproar after it unknowingly admitted a student who was a Nazi sympathizer and a convicted murderer, then scrambled to find a way to expel him. (New York … Read More
March 24, 2009
Research shows doctors rarely help anyone who is terminally ill to die, while two-thirds are opposed to changing the law. (Guardian)
March 24, 2009
Rita Charon describes narrative medicine as a clinical practice, “defined as medicine practiced with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness.” The idea of narrative medicine is a fine one: emphasize the … Read More
March 24, 2009
The pharmaceutical and medical device industry traditionally has supported physician education by funding some of the costs of scientific meetings and training materials. Removing that support would reduce the amount of needed quality education, restrict medical research and impair scientific … Read More
March 24, 2009
Scientists in UB’s Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and UB’s Department of Medicine have developed a stable nanoparticle that delivers short RNA molecules in the brain to “silence” or turn off a gene that plays a critical role in … Read More
March 24, 2009
When patients choose to leave the hospital against medical advice, they put themselves at increased risk for additional illness and death, according to a review published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. (Reuters)
March 24, 2009
The Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow and theJohns Hopkins University (JHU) will be conducting a training program and evaluation of on-line and on-site courses in Introduction to Ethics of Human Subject Research and Biostatistics. This is a free program … Read More
March 24, 2009
The Bioethics Program/PAHO-WHO International Conference: Health Regulations Ethics April 23-25, 2009 Hotel Intercontinental, Avda. Vitacura 2885, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.  The purpose of this meeting is to reflect upon the ethical and philosophical bases of regulations related to biomedical research in … Read More
March 24, 2009
The Healthcare Ethics and Law (HEAL) Institute of Samford University’s McWhorter School of Pharmacy 2009 Annual Conference The Intersection of Faith and Ethics in Healthcare Friday April 17, 2009 8:25 am-3:30 pm Samford University Birmingham, Alabama The conference’s invited speakers, … Read More
March 23, 2009
In recent years the mushrooming power, functionality and ubiquity of computers and the Internet have outstripped early forecasts about technology’s rate of advancement and usefulness in everyday life. Alert pundits now foresee a world saturated with powerful computer chips, which … Read More
