Bioethics News.
08/23/2018
For Cervical Cancer Screening, Women Over 30 Can Now Choose The HPV Test Only
NPR
Federal health advisors say women can now consider three options when it’s time for their cervical cancer screening tests. The influential group, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), has expanded its recommendations for this potentially life-saving exam. The new recommendations are published in the latest issue of JAMA.
08/22/2018
Congo’s new Ebola outbreak is hitting health care workers hard
Science
Health care workers have been especially hard hit by the current outbreak of Ebola in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). To date, nine of the 51 confirmed cases of Ebola have been in people caring for the ill, says Peter Salama, an epidemiologist based in Geneva, Switzerland, who heads the response to the outbreak for the World Health Organization (WHO).
08/21/2018
Salk Institute asks judge to narrow scope of gender-discrimination suit
Nature
Lawyers for the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences went to court on 16 August in San Diego, California, asking a judge to narrow the scope of a gender-discrimination lawsuit filed by molecular biologist Beverly Emerson.
08/20/2018
Researcher at the center of an epic fraud remains an enigma to those who exposed him
Science
The first thing that went through Alison Avenell’s head when she heard Yoshihiro Sato had died was that it might be a trick. It was March 2017, and in the previous years, Avenell, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom, had spent thousands of hours combing through Sato’s papers, together with three colleagues in New Zealand. They had discovered that Sato, a bone researcher at a hospital in southern Japan, had fabricated data for dozens of clinical trials published in international journals. “With so much going on, so much fabrication, you just wonder if it’s convenient for the person to go and hide,” Avenell says.
08/17/2018
Treating Teen Depression Might Improve Mental Health Of Parents Too
NPR
An estimated 12.8 percent of adolescents in the U.S. experience at least one episode of major depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. According to previous studies, many of those teens’ mental health is linked to depression in their parents. But new research suggests there’s a flipside to that parental effect: When teens are treated for depression, their parents’ mental health improves, too.
08/17/2018
The Next Phase of Human Gene-Therapy Oversight
The New England Journal of Medicine
The NIH envisions using the RAC as an advisory board on to- day’s emerging biotechnologies, such as gene editing, synthetic bi- ology, and neurotechnology, while harnessing the attributes that have long ensured its transparency. We at the NIH and the FDA look for- ward to working together with all our stakeholders to implement thesechanges.Wesharecommon goals: advancing science and hu- man health and accelerating the availability of safe and effective gene therapy, along with the many promising new products that fu- ture biotechnologies may bring.
08/16/2018
Why the Vatican continues to struggle with sex abuse scandals
The Washington Post
With revelation after revelation, a new wave of sexual abuse scandals is rocking the Roman Catholic Church and presenting Pope Francis with the greatest crisis of his papacy. In Chile, prosecutors have raided church offices, seized documents and accused leaders of a coverup. In Australia, top church figures are facing detention and trials. And in the United States, after the resignation of a cardinal, questions are swirling about a hierarchy that looked the other way and protected him for years.
08/16/2018
Fentanyl use drove drug overdose deaths to a record high in 2017, CDC estimates
The Washington Post
Drug overdose deaths surpassed 72,000 in 2017, according to provisional estimates recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That represents an increase of more than 6,000 deaths, or 9.5 percent, over the estimate for the previous 12-month period. That staggering sum works out to about 200 drug overdose deaths every single day, or one every eight minutes.
08/15/2018
Bayer shares slide after Monsanto’s Roundup cancer trial
Reuters
Shares in Bayer (BAYGn.DE) plunged more than 10 percent to their lowest in almost two years after a California jury ordered the German company’s subsidiary Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages last week.
08/15/2018
Psychologists keep policy on U.S. detainees, but issue remains open wound
Science
The American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington, D.C., has decided to retain a policy banning military psychologists from working with detainees at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and other national security detention facilities. But the political machinations surrounding a decisive vote this week by APA’s governing body suggest the 115,000-member organization is still far from resolving a decadelong debate over the ethical rules of conduct for psychologists in the U.S. government’s ongoing war against terrorism.
08/14/2018
Too cute? Colleges, courts grapple with the role of companion animals
CNN
08/13/2018
Japanese medical university admits to discriminating against female applicants
Science
A prominent Japanese medical university said yesterday that school administrators have deliberately manipulated entrance exam scores to limit the number of women admitted. The confession helps explain the lopsided gender ratio of graduates from Tokyo Medical University (TMU) and strengthens suspicions that similar practices have prevailed at other Japanese medical schools.
08/13/2018
Cancer: one in four too scared to seek medical help over symptom
The Guardian
Despite discovering a potential symptom of cancer, half the UK population would not seek medical help with many too afraid that they may be wasting a doctor’s time by raising it. In addition, one in four people would not bother having a symptom examined for fear of what the doctor might find, according to a new survey by Populus. Similarly, one in five (21%) adults – 18% of men and 25% of women – would put off acting on their discovery through worry that they would be wasting a doctor’s time.
08/10/2018
It started as a hobby. Now they’re using DNA to help cops crack cold cases
CNN
08/09/2018
Burqa ban: First woman charged in Denmark under new law banning full-face veil
The Independent
A woman has become the first person in Denmark to be charged with wearing a veil in public, under a new law that bans Islamic face coverings.
08/09/2018
Doctors With Disabilities Push For Culture Change In Medicine
NPR
Doctors are often portrayed as pinnacles of health, superhumans responding to emergencies around the clock, performing miracles of all kinds. They’re seen as the fixers, not the ones ever in need of accommodations or care. “This profession historically has viewed themselves as able-bodied in the extreme,” Iezzoni says. Now, a growing movement of current and aspiring doctors with disabilities is starting to challenge that narrative, saying it is a disservice both to the medical profession and to patients.
08/08/2018
These tiny, stretchy speakers and microphones let your skin play music
Science
If you’re prone to forgetting your headphones, new wearable technology that could turn your skin into a speaker should be music to your ears. Created in part to help the hearing and speech impaired, the new “smart skin” could be embedded into the ears—or into a patch on the throat. A similar device, described in the same study, acts as a microphone, which can be connected to smartphones and computers to unlock voice-activated security systems.
08/07/2018
Tickborne Diseases — Confronting a Growing Threat
The New England Journal of Medicine
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of reported cases of tickborne disease has more than doubled over the past 13 years.
08/06/2018
California Wildfires Reignite Old Trauma For Survivors Of Last Year’s Blazes
NPR
Confronting constant reminders of what fire can do has become a terrifying reality for people who survived last year’s flames and are still piecing their lives back together. As psychologists, therapists and other counselors offer comfort and tips for quenching the terror, they also assure survivors that surges of panic, grief, and agitation are healthy and normal.
08/03/2018
Ancestry, 23andMe and others say they will follow these rules when giving DNA data to businesses or police
The Washington Post
Ancestry, 23andMe and other popular companies that offer genetic testing pledged on Tuesday to be upfront when they share users’ DNA data with researchers, hand it over to police or transfer it to other companies, a move aimed at addressing consumers’ mounting privacy concerns. Under the new guidelines, the companies said they would obtain consumers’ “separate express consent” before turning over their individual genetic information to businesses and other third parties, including insurers.
08/03/2018
Growing homophobia will fuel the HIV epidemic, experts fear
CNN
“Our concern at the moment is that there is a shift towards the right,” said Shaun Mellors, director of knowledge and influence at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, who coordinates the Elton John Foundation’s rapid response grants. “It’s all bubbling up, and it’s all increasing at the moment in a really scary way.”
08/02/2018
Experts: Don’t use dog DNA tests to make life-or-death decisions
The Mercury News
The claims dog DNA-testing companies make can seem all but definitive: One quick cheek swab can tell you not only about the breeds that make up your pooch but also offer it a lifetime of health. Pay $65, and you can make smarter, science-based decisions about veterinary care. You can be a more responsible dog owner. But three canine genetics experts have now hurled cold water on those claims, saying the entire business of consumer-marketed canine genetics testing is an “untamed wilderness” of weak science, unvalidated outcomes and conflicts of interest.
08/02/2018
What Is a Genetically Modified Crop? A European Ruling Sows Confusion
The New York Times
Mushrooms that don’t brown. Wheat that fights off disease. Tomatoes with a longer growing season. All of these crops are made possible by a gene-editing technology called Crispr-cas9. But now its future has been clouded by the European Union’s top court. This week, the court ruled that gene-edited crops are genetically modified organisms, and therefore must comply with the tough regulations that apply to plants made with genes from other species. Many scientists responded to the decision with dismay, predicting that countries in the developing world would follow Europe’s lead, blocking useful gene-edited crops from reaching farms and marketplaces. The ruling may also curtail exports from the United States, which has taken a more lenient view of gene-edited foods.
08/02/2018
Bayer hits back at new Netflix medical device documentary
Reuters
The company, in a statement released Thursday night, said the documentary “The Bleeding Edge,” which debuted on the streaming site on Friday, lacks scientific support and cherry-picked facts to present an inaccurate and misleading picture of Bayer’s permanent birth control device Essure, one of the products spotlighted in the film.
08/01/2018
Bill Of The Month: A Plan For Affordable Gender-Confirmation Surgery Goes Awry
NPR
After mother and daughter complained about the last-minute surprise, a hospital representative offered a solution: If they paid out of pocket and in full before Vetens’ surgery — forgoing their use of insurance — the hospital would accept just $20,080, assuring them the hospital would charge nothing to Vetens’ insurer. But if they did not decide and pay up right away, the surgery would be canceled. “I certainly felt that I had no choice,” Vetens said.
07/31/2018
Experimental Alzheimer’s drug stirs hope after early trials
CNN
After a series of prominent failures, there’s reason to be hopeful in the search for a drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Results of an early trial of an experimental drug showed that it improved cognition and reduced clinical signs of Alzheimer’s in the brains of study participants, and experts are “cautiously optimistic” that the results will be duplicated in future clinical trials.
07/30/2018
European court ruling raises hurdles for CRISPR crops
Science
Hopes for an easier regulatory road for genetic engineering in European agriculture were dashed today by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In a closely watched decision, the court ruled that plants created with new gene-editing techniques that don’t involve transferring genes between organisms—such as CRISPR—must go through the same lengthy approval process as traditional transgenic plants.
07/27/2018
A Growing Number Of Pharmacists Are Denying Patients Their Medication Because Of Moral Objections
WGBH
A CVS pharmacist in Fountain Hills, Arizona, was fired last Friday after refusing to fill a hormone prescription for a transgender woman. This is the second recent incident of a pharmacist in Arizona refusing to give medication to a customer. Last month, a Walgreens pharmacist in Peoria, Arizona, refused to give a pregnant women medication that was intended to cause a miscarriage because her baby had stopped developing within her womb. Arizona is one of the six states along with, Georgia, Idaho, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Mississippi, that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on moral or religious reasons.
07/26/2018
Clean, Sober and $41,000 Deep in Out-of-Pocket Addiction Recovery Costs
The New York Times
People recovering from opioid addiction and their families discuss the financial and emotional costs of treatment.
07/25/2018
The DEA wanted new suppliers of marijuana for research. Two years later, nothing has changed
STAT
Two years ago, federal drug authorities said they would consider licensing new suppliers of marijuana grown for scientific purposes, a move seen as an acknowledgment of the need for additional rigorous research into potential medical uses and risks of cannabis and its components. Hope you weren’t holding your breath. The Drug Enforcement Administration still has not granted additional licenses for a grow operation, despite receiving more than two dozen applications in the year after it announced it was open to approving one.