February 7, 2012
It is a landmark moment: 22 years after the cystic fibrosis gene was discovered, some patients are about to receive a drug called Kalydeco to treat the defect that causes their lungs to clog up with sticky mucus. (New Scientist)
February 7, 2012
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a law aimed at controlling assisted suicide was unconstitutional, a decision that is likely to help shape the national debate over the practice. (NY Times)
February 7, 2012
The Obama administration is increasing spending on Alzheimer’s research — planning to surpass half a billion dollars next year — as part of a quest to find effective treatments for the brain-destroying disease by 2025. (Washington Post)
February 7, 2012
Students at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania can get the “morning-after” pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine, an idea that has drawn the attention of federal regulators and raised questions about how accessible emergency contraception should be. (MSNBC)
February 7, 2012
A parent’s anguished online plea for an organ transplant for her developmentally disabled daughter and new research on kidney transplantation eligibility among elderly patients have refocused attention on the vexing decisions that face physicians who determine which patients are suitable … Read More
February 7, 2012
Bioethics (Volume 26, Issue 2, February 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Hard Paternalism, Fairness and Clinical Research: Why Not?” by Sarah J.L. Edwards and James Wilson, 68–75. “On Using People Merely as a Means in Clinical … Read More
February 7, 2012
Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 38, Issue 2, February 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Opt-out organ donation without presumptions” by Ben Saunders, 69-72. “Discrepancy between participants’ understanding and desire to know in informed consent: are they … Read More
February 7, 2012
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (Volume 15, Issue 1, January 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Sliding doors: should treatment of gender identity disorder and other body modifications be privately funded?” by Simona Giordano, 31-40. “Socializing the … Read More
February 6, 2012
AMERICANS spent $2.6 trillion on health care in 2010, a staggering 18% of GDP. Yet few of them have the faintest idea what any treatment costs or how it compares with any other treatment. (The Economist)
February 6, 2012
An 83-year-old Belgian woman is able to chew, speak and breathe normally again after a machine printed her a new jawbone. Made from a fine titanium powder sculpted by a precision laser beam, her replacement jaw has proven as functional … Read More
February 6, 2012
Directed energy weapons that use wave beams to cause pain, and electrical brain stimulation that boosts a soldier’s combat ability – it may sound like science fiction warfare, but experts say advances in neuroscience mean it’s on the horizon. (Reuters)
February 6, 2012
Minnesota’s state health department has this week begun to destroy blood samples that are routinely collected to diagnose serious inherited and congenital diseases in newborn babies. (Nature News)
February 6, 2012
All 11- and 12-year-old boys should be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, according to new vaccination guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (ABC News)
February 3, 2012
Plenty of geeks are already obsessed with self-tracking, from monitoring sleep rhythms to graphing caffeine intake versus productivity. Now, the Department of Defense’s far-out research agency is after the ultimate kind of Quantified Self: Soldiers with implanted body sensors that keep intimate tabs on … Read More
February 3, 2012
Norway is set to become the first country to incorporate genome sequencing into its national health-care system. The Scandinavian nation, which has a population of 4.8 million, will use ‘next-generation’ DNA sequencers to trawl for mutations in tumours that might … Read More
February 3, 2012
The Obama administration’s decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception. (Washington Post)
February 3, 2012
Malaria kills 1.2 million people each year, more than twice as many deaths as previously thought, according to new research published in the Lancet. (ABC News)
February 3, 2012
A 9-year-old Maine girl is home from a Boston hospital healthy, active and with high hopes — and a new stomach, liver, spleen, small intestine, pancreas, and part of an esophagus to replace the ones that were being choked by … Read More
February 2, 2012
A federal judge is considering whether Washington state can require pharmacies to stock and sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, even in the face of religious objections by druggists who believe they destroy human life. (Washington Post)
February 2, 2012
Sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco and should be regulated, claim US health experts. (BBC News)
February 2, 2012
Taiwanese health authorities said Tuesday that tougher checks on illegal gender-selective abortions prevented nearly 1,000 terminations of female foetuses last year. (AFP)
February 2, 2012
Treating stroke patients with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow appears to safely help them regain some of their lost abilities, two small new studies suggest. (US News and World Report)
February 2, 2012
Because a 35-year-old father is not in the country legally, a San Francisco hospital is refusing to perform a life-saving kidney transplant, the Contra Costa Times reports in an article highlighting a clash between immigration law and medical ethics. (USA … Read More
February 2, 2012
In a declaration that will have legal implications in its 47 member states, the Strasbourg-based organisation announced that such practices “must always be prohibitedâ€. (Telegraph)
February 1, 2012
Three common chemotherapy drugs cause DNA mutations not only in mice that receive treatment, but also in their offspring, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. (Scientific American)
