June 17, 2010
PATIENTS in a vegetative state are, by definition, unable to respond to stimulation with any form of overt behaviour. Recently, however, a group of British and Belgian researchers have shown that some of them respond to simple commands by altering … Read More
June 17, 2010
A combination gene therapy that endows human stem cells with three ways to resist HIV has passed its first safety test in humans. Four patients with AIDS who were infused with these cells tolerated the treatment, and the cells produced … Read More
June 17, 2010
As the nation’s biomedical research agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must ensure that the research it funds on the behalf of US taxpayers is scientifically rigorous and free of bias. Over the course of more than 65 years … Read More
June 17, 2010
In “The Rhetoric of Dehumanization: An Analysis of Medical Reports of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project,†Martha Solomon brilliantly demonstrates how the project’s researchers hid their work in plain sight. Specifically, Solomon used the published reports of the Tuskegee syphilis study … Read More
June 17, 2010
Have you ever thought about whether to have a child? If so, what factors entered into your decision? Was it whether having children would be good for you, your partner and others close to the possible child, such as children … Read More
June 17, 2010
More people are saving the lives of family members and friends by giving them an organ, figures show. (Guardian)
June 17, 2010
The idea of a “living will” may sound like you have control over what happens to you if you temporarily or permanently can’t make medical decisions for yourself, but in practice it’s not so clear cut. (CNN)
June 17, 2010
The biggest stars of stem cell research are converging on San Francisco this week for a global conference focused on the latest science, but also on how the experts studying it should best go about applying that science to practical … Read More
June 17, 2010
NEJM (Volume 362, Number 22, June 3, 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Incentives for Drug Development – The Curious Case of Colchicine” by A. S. Kesselheim and D. H. Solomon. “Health Care Reform and Primary Care … Read More
June 17, 2010
Cell Stem Cell (Volume 6, Issue 6, June 4, 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Multiple, Interconvertible States of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells” by Candace L. Kerr and Linzhao Cheng, 497. “The Life of a Cell: Probing … Read More
June 17, 2010
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (Volume 19, Issue 3, July 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Guest Editorial: Ignoring the Social and Cultural Context of Bioethics Is Unacceptable” by Renée Fox and Judith P. Swazey, 278-281. “Japanese … Read More
June 16, 2010
JAMA (Volume 303, Number 23, June 16, 2010) is now available by subscription only Articles Include: “Managing Financial Conflict of Interest in Biomedical Research” by Sally J. Rockey and Francis S. Collins “Quality of Care-How Good is Good Enough?” by … Read More
June 16, 2010
A growing need for Hispanic doctors and the challenges of obtaining an American medical license have many Latin America–trained doctors practicing illegally. (Newsweek)
June 16, 2010
The NIH Advisory Committee to Director Francis Collins recommended that the agency reject federal research funding for 47 embryonic stem cell lines because of a sentence of legal language in a contract signed by embryo donors, USA Today reports. RGI, … Read More
June 16, 2010
With the World Cup in South Africa underway, Wimbledon beginning next week, and London 2012 drawing ever closer, Oxford Online Debates continue this week with the launch of the latest discussion, ‘Performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in sport’. (PhysOrg)
June 16, 2010
Synthetic biology is an extension of the spirit of genetic engineering that focuses on the development of biological systems with new, defined characteristics, assembled according to the principles of engineering. Synthetic biology has the potential to be used for a … Read More
June 16, 2010
The persistent question of children — “Where do babies come from?†— has always confronted parents. The answer to this has become more and more complex, while medical technology has traversed far ahead. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) requires sympathetic responses … Read More
June 16, 2010
Way back when, during the final decades of the last century, if a woman had a hard time conceiving, she saved her dollars by the tens of thousands and passed them over to a clinic specializing in assisted reproductive technology. … Read More
June 16, 2010
Bioethics (Volume 24, Issue 6, July 2010) is now available by subscription only Articles Include: “Publication Ethics and the Ghost Management of Medical Publications” by Sergio Sismondo and Mathieu Doucet “Elective Twin Reductions: Evidence and Ethics” by Leah McClimans “A Study … Read More
June 15, 2010
Assisted suicide is illegal in the state of Connecticut. But two doctors have sought to circumvent the law by requesting that the administration of lethal agents to terminally ill patients be classed as “aid in dying†rather than assisted suicide. … Read More
June 15, 2010
When dozens of overdose victims who got painkillers from the same Kansas clinic started showing up at emergency rooms and the county morgue, federal prosecutors accused a doctor and his wife of indiscriminately writing prescriptions for powerful drugs at a … Read More
June 15, 2010
While modern reproductive technologies might seem like a blessing to some, they are certainly not free of major problems. Indeed, many people have warned about the brave new world scenarios assisted reproductive technologies (ART) might create. (Christian Today)
June 15, 2010
On April 20, 2010, Arizona State University (ASU) agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 members of the Havasupai Indian tribe to settle legal claims that university researchers improperly used tribe members’ blood samples in genetic research.1 The settlement closes a … Read More
June 15, 2010
People in this country must slash their calories and increase physical activity because the obesity epidemic is “the single greatest threat to public health in this century,” says an expert panel in a report out Tuesday. (USA TODAY)
June 15, 2010
This paper investigates the question of what an organ is from a phenomenological perspective. Proceeding from the phenomenology of being-in-the-world developed by Heidegger in Being and Time and subsequent works, it compares the being of the organ with the being … Read More
