May 25, 2012
The New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 366, Issue 20, May 17, 2012) is now available on-line and by subscription only. Articles include: “Emergency Departments, Medicaid Costs, and Access to Primary Care — Understanding the Link” by A.L. Kellermann and … Read More
May 24, 2012
For almost a decade, Jacob Bell was living his dream: making millions playing professional football, starting 100 games for the Tennessee Titans and the St. Louis Rams. (ABC News)
May 24, 2012
Italian doctors have saved the life of a 16-month-old boy by implanting the world’s smallest artificial heart to keep the infant alive until a donor was found for a transplant. (Reuters)
May 24, 2012
Stem cells have assumed near-mythical status in the popular imagination as a possible cure for every disease under the sun. But while public attention has focused on their potential in regenerative medicine, stem cells have quietly gained a foothold in … Read More
May 24, 2012
Premila Vaghela, 30, had opted to become a surrogate mother and deliver child of a US-based couple to supplement her family income and brighten the future of her own two kids. (Times of India)
May 24, 2012
In a boost for the field of regenerative medicine, a small biotechnology company has received regulatory approval in Canada for what it says is the first manufactured drug based on stem cells. (NY Times)
May 24, 2012
Journal of Applied Philosophy (Volume 29, Issue 2, May 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “The Global Reach of Human Rights” by Amartya Sen, 91–100. “Conscientious Objection and the Morning-After Pill” by Corrado Del Bo, 133–145.
May 23, 2012
Half a century ago, in the drug industry’s golden era, we were bestowed with countless pills to lower blood pressure, control blood sugar and get rid of infections. But today it costs about $1bn to bring a new medicine to … Read More
May 23, 2012
The military-industrial complex just got a little bit livelier. Quite literally. That’s because Darpa, the Pentagon’s far-out research arm, has kicked off a program designed to take the conventions of manufacturing and apply them to living cells. (Wired)
May 23, 2012
Of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States, Alzheimer’s disease — which ranks sixth — is particularly devastating in that there is no cure, no way to prevent it and no proven way to slow its progression. (Nature News)
May 23, 2012
Researchers have encoded a form of rewritable memory into DNA. (Nature News)
May 23, 2012
Scientists have for the first time succeeded in taking skin cells from patients with heart failure and transforming them into healthy, beating heart tissue that could one day be used to treat the condition. (Reuters)
May 23, 2012
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (Volume 9, Issue 2) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Organ Donation, Discrimination After Death, Anti-Vaccination Sentiments, and Tuberculosis Management” by John Coggon, Bill Madden, Tina Cockburn, Cameron Stewart, Jerome Amir Singh, Anant Bhan, … Read More
May 22, 2012
A powerful health advisory agency says Britain should extend free fertility treatments to women up to age 42 as well as same-sex couples, recommendations likely to be followed by many of the U.K.’s medical centers. (Washington Post)
May 22, 2012
Twins conceived through in vitro fertilization after their father’s death are not eligible for Social Security survivor benefits, the Supreme Court decided Monday in its first review of “posthumous conception.†(Washington Post)
May 22, 2012
If you were in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, would you want to know? That question will haunt a growing number of people and their families as scientists devise more ways to diagnose the degenerative brain disease before it … Read More
May 22, 2012
The University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New York and 41 other Roman Catholic institutions sued the Obama administration in federal court Monday, the latest push against a requirement in the health-care-overhaul law that employers cover contraception in workers’ … Read More
May 22, 2012
A follow-up study on an AIDS vaccine trial that had to be stopped early has confirmed the worst fears of researchers: The vaccine made it more likely, not less, that some men would become infected with H.I.V. (NY Times)
May 22, 2012
The task of finding the genetic roots of common disease seems much harder, dimming the promise of personal genomics and the chances of quick medical payoffs from the human genome project, given new data about the human genome in two … Read More
May 22, 2012
The Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume (Volume 86, Issue 1, June 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “The Demands of the Human Right to Health” by Jonathan Wolff, 217–237. “A Human Right to Health? Some Inconclusive Scepticism” by … Read More
May 21, 2012
Bioethics (Volume 26, Issue 5, June 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Ethics and Chronic Disease: Where Are the Bioethicists?” by Jennifer L. Gibson and Ross E. G. Upshur, ii-iv. “The Dangers of Euthanasia and Dementia: How … Read More
May 21, 2012
In most developed countries, children with autism are usually sent to school where they get special education classes. But in France, they are more often sent to a psychiatrist where they get talk therapy meant for people with psychological or … Read More
May 21, 2012
Cancer patient Kathy Watson voted Republican in 2008 and believes the government has no right telling Americans to get health insurance. Nonetheless, she says she’d be dead if it weren’t for President Barack Obama’s health care law. (Washington Post)
May 21, 2012
The Obama administration is asking a presidential commission to help decide an ethical quandary: Should the anthrax vaccine and other treatments being stockpiled in case of a bioterror attack be tested in children? (Washington Post)
May 21, 2012
Heather Bixler wishes she could undo the moment she’s relived countless times: She was leaving her New York apartment with her 4-year-old daughter and infant son, who was in a baby carriage. It was May 2, 2003, and they were … Read More
