November 14, 2017
(STAT News) – The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued a public health advisory about the potential risks of an herbal supplement called kratom, warning that people who use it to treat pain in place of opioids or to … Read More
November 14, 2017
(Spectrum) – Several research teams are using so-called induced pluripotent stem cells to study autism. These cells are derived from skin cells and have the same genetic makeup as the donor. A cocktail of chemicals and growth factors transforms the … Read More
November 14, 2017
(Quartz) – The health-care community lit up in conversation after news broke that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the world’s first digital drug. It’s a pill that contains a minuscule chip—made of magnesium, silicon, and copper—that … Read More
November 14, 2017
(NPR) – Does a California law violate the Constitution by requiring anti-abortion pregnancy centers to inform clients about free or low-cost abortion and contraception services? That’s the question the Supreme Court is taking on, in a new case it accepted … Read More
November 14, 2017
(The Scientist) – Engineering an immune cell to recognize and kill a cancer cell is the key to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, but modified immune cells also have the potential to cause problems for patients. One such complication, … Read More
November 14, 2017
(New York Times) – The full genetic sequences of Ms. Michelson, Mr. Harris and Ms. Morano are among some three dozen genomes of North American, Caribbean and European supercentenarians being made available this week by a nonprofit called Betterhumans to … Read More
November 13, 2017
(News-Medical) – Patients who had lost their sight to an inherited retinal disease could see well enough to navigate a maze after being treated with a new gene therapy, according to research presented today at AAO 2017, the 121st Annual … Read More
November 13, 2017
(Sydney Morning Herald) – Before she had her two sons, Leighee Eastbury was told she wasn’t a carrier for Fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that her boys will now live with for the rest of their lives. It wasn’t … Read More
November 10, 2017
(STAT News) – The teachers’ experience is a stark example of what’s happening around the country to union members fighting addiction. Treatment center operators and middlemen who act as brokers for those facilities are targeting these workers because they usually … Read More
November 10, 2017
(STAT News) – The entire process, from basic research to Food and Drug Administration approval, averages about 10 years for drugs and 10 to 15 years for vaccines. A public health crisis doesn’t change the process or let you circumvent … Read More
November 10, 2017
(Reuters) – Merck & Co Ltd’s drug to prevent serious infection in patients who undergo a type of stem cell transplant was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the drugmaker said on Thursday. Merck said the drug, which … Read More
November 10, 2017
(The Guardian) – The number of people euthanised in the Netherlands this year is set to exceed 7,000 – a 67% rise from five years ago – in what has been described by the director of the country’s only specialist … Read More
November 10, 2017
(Newsweek) – If a pregnant woman is murdered, does the death count as one or two victims? When a gunman entered a Texas church and methodically shot everyone he saw, he killed 25 people, including an eight-month pregnant woman named … Read More
November 9, 2017
(Quartz) – The life-extension methods that Silicon Valley visionaries are pumping millions of dollars into will, by definition, be prohibitively expensive. Cryogenics, for example, can range in price from the $28,000 price tag of smaller firms to the $200,000 charged … Read More
November 9, 2017
(The Guardian) – Van Dongen, who had begun to see another woman, suffered 25% burns, lost a leg, his left eye and most of the sight in his right eye and was left paralysed. He applied for euthanasia in Belgium, … Read More
November 9, 2017
(STAT News) – These micro quasi-brains are revolutionizing research on human brain development and diseases from Alzheimer’s to Zika, but the headlong rush to grow the most realistic, most highly developed brain organoids has thrown researchers into uncharted ethical waters. Like virtually … Read More
November 9, 2017
(Undark Magazine) – This dystopian nightmare might not be that farfetched, some academics warn, given the rise of big data, advances in machine learning, and — most worryingly — the current rise in studies that bear a troubling resemblance to … Read More
November 9, 2017
Journal of Academic Ethics (vol. 15, no. 3, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Academic Doping: Institutional Policies Regarding Nonmedical use of Prescription Stimulants in U.S. Higher Education” by Ross Aikins, Xiaoxue Zhang, and Sean Esteban McCabe
November 9, 2017
The American Journal of Bioethics (vol. 17, no. 8, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Saving or Creating: Which Are We Doing When We Resuscitate Extremely Preterm Infants?” by Travis N. Rieder
November 9, 2017
Medical Law Review (vol. 25, no. 2, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Does the Law on Compensation for Research-Related Injury in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand Meet Ethical Requirements?” by Joanna M. Manning “Seeking Certainty? Judicial Approaches … Read More
November 9, 2017
BMC Medical Ethics has new articles available online. Articles include: “Development of a Consensus Operational Definition of Child Assent for Research” by Alan R. Tait and Michael E. Geisser “Are Advance Directives Helpful for Good End of Life Decision Making: … Read More
November 9, 2017
NanoEthics (vol. 11, no. 2, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Reflection as a Deliberative and Distributed Practice: Assessing Neuro-Enhancement Technologies via Mutual Learning Exercises (MLEs)” by Hub Zwart et al. “Nanoethics, Science Communication, and a Fourth Model for … Read More
November 8, 2017
(STAT News) – Octodrine did indeed show up in one of the products Cohen analyzed. But the others contained three different stimulants, with unknown or potentially risky side effects. They could speed up heart rate and raise blood pressure. And … Read More
November 8, 2017
(The Atlantic) – In August, De Luca and Pelligrini got the green light to try their technique. In September, they collected a square inch of skin from Hassan’s groin—one of the few parts of his body with intact skin. They … Read More
November 8, 2017
(Nature) – It might take years or even decades until BCI and other neurotechnologies are part of our daily lives. But technological developments mean that we are on a path to a world in which it will be possible to … Read More
