Get Published | Subscribe | About | Write for Our Blog    

Bioethics news.

Crowdfunding for Covid-Related Needs: Unfair and Inadequate
Crowdfunding is a response to personal and social crises. Not surprisingly, many individuals and organizations are turning to crowdfunding to help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These campaigns have already received over $60 million in donations. While this is, in most respects, an understandable and admirable response to a global emergency, crowdfunding also shows where we have failed as a society....
The Hastings Center, 04/06/2020
Scarcity in the Covid-19 Pandemic
There is still a possibility that the coronavirus pandemic will be manageably bad rather than unmanageably catastrophic in this country. Immediate, powerful, and sustained federal action could make the difference.
The Hastings Center, 04/04/2020
Where America Didn’t Stay Home Even as the Virus Spread
Stay-at-home orders have nearly halted travel for most Americans, but people in Florida, the Southeast and other places that waited to enact such orders have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates, according to an analysis of cellphone location data by The New York Times.
The New York Times, 04/03/2020
‘We have no choice.’ Pandemic forces polio eradication group to halt campaigns
The COVID-19 pandemic is imperiling the worldwide, 3-decade drive to wipe out polio. In an unprecedented move, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has recommended suspending polio vaccination campaigns to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Science Mag , 04/02/2020
Underlying Health Disparities Could Mean Coronavirus Hits Some Communities Harder
As the coronavirus spreads across the country, millions of Americans already struggling with health and finances — especially those in minority communities — could bear the brunt of it.
NPR, 04/01/2020
How Much Should the Public Know About Who Has the Coronavirus?
As the coronavirus spreads across the United States the limited disclosure of data by officials would seem to be a footnote to the suffering and economic disruptions that the disease is causing. But medical experts say that how much the public should know has become a critical question that will help determine how the United States confronts this outbreak and...
The New York Times, 03/31/2020
New York’s bioethics experts prepare for a wave of difficult decisions
As the coronavirus pandemic fills medical beds, saps supplies of lifesaving equipment and protective gear, and exhausts clinicians, ethics experts will be on hand to help hospitals make tough choices. At the heart of the matter is a question: How do you choose between patients when allocating limited resources?
The Washington Post, 03/30/2020
India’s Coronavirus Lockdown Leaves Vast Numbers Stranded and Hungry
Millions of migrant laborers in Indian cities live and eat where they work, and the sudden shutdown of businesses has upended their lives. Anger is rising.
The New York Times, 03/29/2020
How Johnson & Johnson companies used a ‘super poppy’ to make narcotics for America’s most abused opioid pills
As the United States was succumbing to an epidemic of addiction, the Johnson & Johnson family of companies became the leading maker of narcotics for popular opioid pills, a dominance achieved through decades of innovation, navigation of U.S. drug policy, and the cultivation of poppies in this remote haven on the other side of the world.
The Washington Post, 03/28/2020
How well are we social distancing? Smartphone location data can rank the states
Health officials have begged Americans to practice social distancing and many states and cities have issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of coronavirus. But not everyone is listening. Now, a tech company is using smartphone data to see where people are taking these instructions seriously.
USA Today, 03/27/2020
Hospitals consider universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients
Worry that ‘all hands’ responses may expose doctors and nurses to...
The Washington Post, 03/26/2020
Clinical Data Sharing for AI: Proposed Framework Could Rouse Debate
A group of doctors from Stanford University has proposed a framework for sharing clinical data for artificial intelligence (AI) that could set off a firestorm of debate about who truly owns medical data, ethical obligations to share it, and how to properly police researchers who use it. On the other hand, the envisioned approach has parallels to the open science tactics currently being...
Clinical Research News , 03/25/2020
‘I Will Not Apologize for My Needs’
Even in a crisis, doctors should not abandon the principle of nondiscrimination.
The New York Times, 03/24/2020
Ethicists agree on who gets treated first when hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus
As health care systems are overwhelmed with more patients than they can feasibly treat, medical personnel are forced to decide who should get the available ventilators and ICU beds. Quartz spoke with eight ethicists, all of whom agreed that in such dire situations, those who have the best chance of surviving get priority. Despite the unanimity, all agreed that this...
Quartz, 03/21/2020
At-home tests for coronavirus are here. Should you take them?
With delays in testing hampering the country’s ability to accurately track the new coronavirus and shelter-in-place orders keeping many Americans at home, startups are swooping in with a seemingly ideal solution: at-home tests
STAT, 03/21/2020
Millions Of Older Americans Live In Counties With No ICU Beds As Pandemic Intensifies
More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up ― older patients who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19.
Kaiser Health News, 03/20/2020
Hospitals Need to Cancel Elective Procedures: This is a pandemic – No time for business as usual.
As an anesthesiologist and medical ethicist working on the front lines of this pandemic, I’m keenly aware of the ethical dilemmas facing healthcare workers, like never seen in modern medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic will stress hospital resources to their breaking points.
Just Security , 03/19/2020
Doctors Fear Bringing Coronavirus Home: ‘I Am Sort of a Pariah in My Family’
One doctor dreamed he was surrounded by coughing patients. “Most physicians have never seen this level of angst and anxiety in their careers,” a veteran emergency room doctor said.
The New York Times, 03/18/2020
‘Is Ordering Takeout Unethical?’ A Medical Ethicist Answers Some of the Most Common Moral Questions Around Coronavirus
An epidemic is a test not just of our mettle but our morals. In a time of lockdowns and quarantines, restaurant closings and shuttered schools, the temptation is often to bend the rules, relying on the familiar just-this-once or it-couldn’t-hurt dodge. TIME spoke to Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, about...
Time, 03/17/2020
An expert guide to social distancing – and what to do if friends and family aren’t onboard
Officials around the world say that “social distancing” is the key to slowing the spread of coronavirus. But does that mean you can have friends over, and what do you do if you live with someone who’s throwing caution to the wind? We asked three experts for their thoughts.
The Guardian , 03/17/2020
Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions
In pandemics, as we see with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its resulting disease COVID-19, communities have to decide which interventions, if any, to implement before adequate vaccine and antiviral supplies are developed and distributed. These nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) encompass traditional public health strategies of isolation and quarantine, school closures, and social distancing measures such as gathering bans, the...
The Hastings Center, 03/16/2020
Coronavirus privacy: Are South Korea’s alerts too revealing?
As South Korea battles a snowballing number of Covid-19 cases, the government is letting people know if they were in the vicinity of a patient. But the volume of information has led to some awkward moments and now there is as much fear of social stigma as of illness, as Hyung Eun Kim of BBC News Korean reports.
BBC, 03/15/2020
EU lawmakers are eyeing risk-based rules for AI, per leaked white paper
The European Commission  is considering a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technology, according to a draft proposal for regulating artificial intelligence. Creating rules to ensure AI  is ‘trustworthy and human’ has been an early flagship policy promise of the new Commission. But the leaked proposal suggests the EU is in fact leaning towards tweaks of existing rules, rather than anything as...
Tech Crunch , 03/12/2020
This Is What Pro Sports, Youth Sports And Esports Need To Do To Manage Coronavirus
Golden State Warriors basketball star Steph Curry was recently sidelined with symptoms of new coronavirus. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. Curry turns out to have come down with a case of the flu, the symptoms of which are easily confused with those of the coronavirus. Still, the scare raises a question: What should the outbreak of COVID-19 infections...
Forbes, 03/11/2020
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine: Special Issue on CRISPR
A special issue on CRISPR in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine adds to the rich corpus of ideas and arguments that will inform a technology bound to influence generations to come.
Project Muse, 03/10/2020
Medically Assisted Dying and Suicide: How Are They Different, and How Are They Similar?
The practice of medically assisted dying has long been contentious, and the question of what to call it has become increasingly contentious as well. Particularly among U.S. proponents of legalizing the practice, there has been a growing push away from calling it “physician‐assisted suicide,” with assertions that medically assisted dying is fundamentally different from suicide.
The Hastings Center, 03/09/2020
With Test Kits in Short Supply, Health Officials Sound Alarms
Despite efforts by President Trump and others to reassure the public that tests are getting disseminated quickly, several states, doctors and patients complained that access was limited.
The New York Times, 03/07/2020
Public Trust In Health Authorities Is Key To Fighting Coronavirus — Is It At Risk?
During infectious disease outbreaks, public trust in the government and health agencies becomes critical. Officials need to convince millions of people that they are telling the whole truth, and that their guidance on what to do — and not do — should be followed.
NPR, 03/06/2020
As Coronavirus Numbers Rise, C.D.C. Testing Comes Under Fire
Federal health officials botched an initial diagnostic test and restricted widespread screening. Missteps may have raised the risks to Americans, critics say.
The New York Times, 03/05/2020
F.C.C. to Fine Cellphone Carriers for Selling Customers’ Locations
The Federal Communications Commission is set to propose about $200 million in fines against four major cellphone carriers for selling customers’ real-time location data, according to three people briefed on the discussions.
The New York Times, 03/04/2020