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Author Archive: Craig Klugman

05/16/2013

Vermont Passes Physician-Assisted-Suicide

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

Awaiting the governor’s signature, Vermont is poised to become the fourth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. While Oregon and Washington legalized physician-aid-in-dying through public referendum and Montana through a court decision, Vermont’s is occurring through the legislative process.

The first U.S. aid-in-dying law was the Oregon 1994 Death with Dignity Act. The law faced a referendum to appeal it in 1997 and a Bush administration court challenge was ruled on in 2006.

The Vermont law mirrors those of Oregon and Washington. The patient must be at least 18 years of age, have a life-threatening condition and be a state resident.…

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This entry was posted in End of Life Care, Featured Posts, Politics and tagged . Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

05/14/2013

Carbon, Bioethics and Planetary Health

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

On May 9, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography independently reported measurements of mean concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels of nearly 400 parts per million (it was actually 399.89 ppm).  For the last 800,000 years, the Earth has not broken 300ppm. This is significant because it shows that despite weak international efforts, atmospheric carbon levels are increasing on an exponential curve.

The number 400ppm is arbitrary but was chosen as a milestone to draw attention to the continuing scientific concern over the increase of atmospheric carbon. The last time that the Earth saw levels this high is believed to be the Pliocene epoch, 3.2 million to 5 million years ago.…

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This entry was posted in Environmental Ethics, Featured Posts, Politics. Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

05/09/2013

Magical NC Bill Builds Obstacles to Teen Health

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

If you’re a teen in North Carolina, a new bill before the legislature may make it more difficult for you to get sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, mental health counseling, pregnancy care or even substance abuse treatment. To receive any of those, a teen would need written, notarized parental consent. A parent could not simply give permission on the phone, via a note, or even by signing a consent form. No, the parent has to use a notary to give permission.

And of course in most states, teens are permitted to receive reproductive health care without parental permission.…

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This entry was posted in Cultural, Featured Posts, Health Care, Health Disparities, Health Regulation & Law, Politics, Public Health, Reproductive Medicine. Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

05/03/2013

Medical Slang Leading to Logical Fallacy: A Practice to be Avoided

Maurice Bernstein, M.D.

Medical slang is a form of slang used by doctors, nurses, paramedics and other hospital or medical staff. It is expressed either in informal vocabulary as words, abbreviated terms or also as acronyms (words made up of initial letters of the words the acronym represents) related to medical terms or conditions, persons or events. Presumably the basis for the use of medical slang is to communicate one’s concept or clinical finding or evaluation or diagnosis to other caregivers in a rapid and concise way. Unfortunately, the use of medical slang may lapse into derogatory expression or become ambiguous. Derogatory means that findings or persons are expressed in a disrespectful or degrading manner.…

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This entry was posted in Featured Posts, Philosophy & Ethics and tagged , . Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

05/01/2013

Maybe Size Does Matter

by Craig Klugman Ph.D.

Most of us know about the health risks of being obese. These include gallstones, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, stroke, sleep apnea, gout, arthritis, asthma, metabolic syndrome, cancer, and infertility. But new studies show that being obese can also have a detrimental effect on your relationship with your doctor.

A report in the journal Obesity showed that doctors “are less likely to build emotional rapport with overweight and obese patients” (Gudzune et al 2013). What is emotional rapport? That term means empathy, listening, shared decision-making and focusing on the patient. In other words, if a patient is obese, a physician is less likely to listen to you, to express caring about you, and to look at you as a partner in your medical care.  The researchers discovered this finding by audio-taping and analyzing physician-patient conversations.…

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This entry was posted in Cultural, Featured Posts, Health Care, Health Disparities. Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

04/24/2013

In quest for excellence, athletes ingest unregulated drugs

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

Have you ever wondered what happens to drugs when a company finds them to lack promise or they prove to be dangerous in animal testing? One might expect that such compounds are shelved or destroyed. But in the case of GW501516 by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the compound has become the darling of competitive athletics.

According to Julie Deadorff’s article in the Chicago Tribune, one drug known as GW501516 failed because it caused cancers in lab animals. GSK began looking at the drug in 2005 as a treatment for raising HDL cholesterol to counter metabolic syndrome. By 2006, GKS had ceased research on the drug and made its findings public.…

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This entry was posted in Featured Posts, Health Regulation & Law, Sports Ethics. Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

04/19/2013

NUBC: Undergraduate Students Take on Environmental Ethics

Jennifer Chevinsky, B.S.

A recent study led by a University of Washington research team has found that air pollution is among the top five threats to the health of people living in China.  According to the World Health Organization, Mongolia has the highest level of outdoor pollution internationally, a value which correlates with three times the amount of pollution found in China and approximately fifteen times the amount in the United States.  It is not by luck however, that U.S. air pollution statistics are on the lower end of the spectrum.  Over the past 50 years, the U.S. Congress has enacted an Environmental Protection Agency as well as multiple Clean Air Acts, leading to large drops in emissions.…

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This entry was posted in Environmental Ethics, Featured Posts. Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

04/17/2013

DNA, Patents and the Supreme Court

Craig Klugman, PhD

In 1994, researchers at the University of Utah discovered that mutations in the genes BRCA1 and 2 correlated with higher rates of breast and ovarian cancer. The DNA portions in question show genetic predilection for cancer including breast, colon, uterine and ovarian. Utah patented the methods for using these sequences to test for breast cancer as well as patented a test kit, the isolated gene fragment, and cloned DNA (cDNA) of the sequence.  The University made an exclusive license deal with a private company, Myriad Genetics.

In a recent letter-at-large, Peter Meldrum, CEO of Myriad says that his company deserves the patents because of their work and their investment in time and money.…

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This entry was posted in Featured Posts, Genetics, Health Regulation & Law. Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

04/03/2013

PSST. THERE’S A DRUG SHORTAGE

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

There is a silent crisis in medical care that has received little press and little discussion, and yet will affect every patient who requires hospitalization or medication. America is dealing with an enormous drug shortage that is forcing hospitals and doctors to make substitute prescriptions and in some cases to postpone elective treatments.

The shortage is not for expensive new drugs, but rather for generics and regular everyday chemicals that are necessary for the care of many types of patients. This list includes antibiotics, calcium, phosphate, potassium, zinc, salt, bicarbonate, alcohol, dextrose (sugar), lipids (fats) for artificial nutrition, pain relievers like morphine, as well as many drugs used in anesthesia, cardiac and neonatal medicine.…

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This entry was posted in Featured Posts, Health Care and tagged . Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.

03/21/2013

Bioethics in the Media

Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

The way that the media reports on bioethics issues can have a strong influence on how information is presented and what conclusions the reporters offer to their readers and viewers. For example, this week, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released a report that examined whether trials on an anthrax vaccine in children should be undertaken. The idea for the trial came about from a 2011 bioterrorism exercise in San Francisco based on the scenario of an anthrax attack. The exercise suggested that 8 million people would die, including 2 million children. Federal plans in the event of such an attack call for the immediate distribution of anthrax vaccine.…

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This entry was posted in Cultural, Featured Posts and tagged . Posted by Craig Klugman. Bookmark the permalink.