May 20, 2010
Insurance-industry executives are urging state regulators to thwart what they call widening efforts by professional investors to use various consumer products to turn a profit. Insurers maintain that without aggressive enforcement of current laws and regulations that apply to insurance … Read More
May 20, 2010
The House Energy and Commerce Committee and its subcommittee on oversight and investigations sent letters to Pathway Genomics Corp. of San Diego, 23&Me Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., and Navigenics Inc. of Foster City, Calif., requesting information about their tests. … Read More
May 20, 2010
In Elle magazine on Monday, writer Stephanie Fairyington examined efforts to expand men’s legal rights in cases where a sex partner becomes pregnant and the two disagree on whether to carry the pregnancy to term or have an abortion. Fairyington … Read More
May 20, 2010
Children were the leading growth demographic for the pharmaceutical industry in 2009, with the increase of prescription drug use among youngsters nearly four times higher than in the overall population, according to a report by Medco Health Solutions Inc (MHS.N). … Read More
May 20, 2010
Doctors who ignore the wishes of patients after they ask for treatment to be stopped can be struck off and sacked, according to rules set down yesterday. They risk their careers if they defy the terms of ‘living wills’ under … Read More
May 20, 2010
In recent years society’s attitude to various types of personal enhancement has shifted. Examples include the popularity of multivitamins and diet pills, the widespread use of caffeine (despite side effects such as anxiety, tremor, and tachycardia), and the unregulated off-label … Read More
May 20, 2010
There is a severe organ donation crisis in New York. Ten thousand New Yorkers are on the waiting list for organs in literally a “life-and-death” waiting game. Hundreds die each year waiting for an organ that never comes. (USA TODAY)
May 20, 2010
Where Canadians live often makes a difference in whether or not they are able to die with dignity where they wish, according to a new report released Wednesday. The Canadian Cancer Society released a special report about end-of-life care with … Read More
May 20, 2010
Thousands of people across the country could finally receive life-saving organ transplants after the Ministry of Health gave the go-ahead to use organs from dead donors. (The National Newspaper)
May 20, 2010
Nature Medicine (Volume 16, Number 5, May 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Regulators must step up stem cell oversight,” 492. “Vaccine contamination prompts safety review” by Megan Scudellari, 493. “Survey details stem cell clinics ahead of … Read More
May 20, 2010
Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 36, Number 5, May 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Paternalism in Practice: Informing Patients About Expensive Unsubsidised Drugs” by Tim Dare, Mike Findlay, Peter Browett, Karen Amies, and Sarah Anderson, 260-264. … Read More
May 19, 2010
Those who champion assisted suicide laws like the one we have in Oregon, tend to claim that there exists a “Right to Die.†The Death With Dignity National Center, an organization that seeks to enact assisted suicide laws throughout the … Read More
May 19, 2010
Nanotech research into bio-tech applications has been on the upswing the past several years, and now a team of research scientists has announced another new breakthrough. The team succeeded in constructing nano robots from the molecules that compose DNA. These … Read More
May 19, 2010
The cell’s membrane, which under normal circumstances acts as an impermeable barrier to the passage of most molecules, will develop transient pores when hit by highly localised laser beams. These pores will make it possible for foreign DNA in the … Read More
May 19, 2010
Project Prevention, founded by Barbara Harris, offers cash to drug addicts prepared to accept sterilisation or long term contraception. (BBC News)
May 19, 2010
Physicians frequently encounter patients who make decisions that contravene their long-term goals. Behavioral economists have shown that irrationalities and self-thwarting tendencies pervade human decision making, and they have identified a number of specific heuristics (rules of thumb) and biases that … Read More
May 19, 2010
A Canberra psychologist and a disability support group have questioned the validity of last week’s national literacy and numeracy tests, claiming inappropriate time limits were imposed on some disabled students while other parents were encouraged to keep children at home … Read More
May 19, 2010
The promises that nanotechnology brings to mankind is so huge that there are some sectors who fear that if its applications are not properly regulated, it can bring harm to mankind instead of the good it is projected to give … Read More
May 18, 2010
Some 90% of gay men in the Asia-Pacific region are denied access to HIV/Aids help because of discriminatory laws in many states, a UN-backed report says. (BBC News)
May 18, 2010
The potential role of genomics in medicine is changing rapidly as technological developments make quick, affordable genome sequencing increasingly feasible. Governments, health services, doctors, scientists and the wider public around the world are interested in how genomic medicine is likely … Read More
May 18, 2010
Some facilities are giving surgical patients individualized risk estimates. Will cost and quality data be the next elements included in informed consent documents? (American Medical News)
May 18, 2010
As soon as President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the administration, members of Congress who voted for the legislation, and key interest group began the campaign to “sell†the new health care reform law to a … Read More
May 18, 2010
Technology assessment is a practice intended to enhance societal understanding of the implications of emerging scientific and technological developments, thereby ensuring their responsible implementation. (PHG Foundation)
May 17, 2010
What does a Jewish child need most from a mother? Forget about the chicken soup—it’s all about the eggs, say a growing number of prominent rabbis. Several recent rabbinic rulings on fertility treatment dictate that a child conceived in vitro … Read More
May 17, 2010
The new guidelines, which will come into force in Scotland later this year, mean that paramedics, GPs and hospital doctors will be forbidden from reviving terminally ill patients whose hearts stop if they do not wish to be resuscitated. (Scotsman)
