Bioethics News.
05/14/2013
Task Force Recommends Screening All Adults for Alcohol Misuse
About 21% of American adults admit that they engage in risky drinking behaviors, from overindulging, which can lead to physical and mental harm, to alcohol dependence. And it remains the third leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
05/14/2013
Hospital probes E German ‘human guinea pig’ drug tests
A top Berlin hospital plans to investigate the conduct of drug trials in the former East Germany amid allegations that some patients were used as human guinea pigs.
05/13/2013
Want to Improve Health Care? Spend Less on It
According to a new study of Medicaid recipients in Oregon, increased health-care spending has only a limited impact on improving people’s health.
05/10/2013
Judge refuses to delay ruling on Plan B
In the latest twist of the court fight over “Plan B” emergency contraception, a federal judge has denied the Obama administration’s request to delay his ruling ordering the government to make the pills available to everyone, without restrictions.
05/10/2013
Disruptions in Trash-Collecting Genes Fuel Disorder
Genetic mutations that halt a cell’s ability to scrap unnecessary proteins may cause a condition marked by ataxia, hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism, and dementia, researchers found.
05/10/2013
Genetics Reveal Europe Is One Big Family
From Ireland to Turkey, Europeans are all related, sharing a link with ancestors who were alive just 1,000 years ago, according to a new genetic study.
05/10/2013
New Natural Bone Can be Regrown With Reprogrammed Stem Cells
Bone replacements that are needed due to trauma or disease like osteoarthritis, can now be grown in a patient-specific way from pluripotent skin stem cells.
05/10/2013
American Health Care as a Source of Humor
The health system in the United States is in many ways so risible that it comes across as droll even when a dour German-born economist describes it.
05/09/2013
Why Psychiatry’s Seismic Shift Will Happen Slowly
The DSM is the past and, for the time being, the present…but it won’t be the future. The future it will be either improved or replaced by a more physiologically based set of diagnostic criteria. That may change the whole landscape for diagnosis.
05/09/2013
Hospital Billing Varies Wildly, Government Data Shows
Data being released for the first time shows that hospitals charge Medicare wildly differing amounts — sometimes 10 to 20 times what Medicare typically reimburses — for the same procedure.
05/08/2013
Reports show gun homicides down steeply since 1993 peak, further fueling Congress’ gun debate
Gun homicides have dropped steeply in the United States since their 1993 peak, a pair of reports released Tuesday showed, adding fuel to Congress’ battle over whether to tighten restrictions on firearms.
05/08/2013
US engineers “print” functioning artificial ear
Scientists at Princeton University in the US used off-the-shelf printing tools to create a functional ear that can ‘hear’ radio frequencies beyond the range of normal human capability.
05/07/2013
Rabbi okays HIV-positive organ donation
In halachic precedent, Israel’s former Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron rules life-saving organ donation can be received from HIV-positive patient, even if recipient may be infected with disease.
05/07/2013
Skin Cells Used To Create Personalized Bone Substitutes
A team of scientists from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute announced Monday the generation of patient-specific bone substitutes from skin cells capable of repairing large bone defects.
05/07/2013
Why Expand Care With No Proven Benefits?
A monumental new study finds that “Medicaid coverage generated no significant improvements in measured physical health outcomes” for poor adults.
05/07/2013
Almost Any Cost Is Catastrophic if You’re Poor
This is just one small study. Evidence shows that Medicaid has been beneficial nationwide and this study shows a range of benefits.
05/06/2013
Psychiatry’s Guide Is Out of Touch With Science, Experts Say
Just weeks before the long-awaited publication of a new edition of the so-called bible of mental disorders, the federal government’s most prominent psychiatric expert has said the book suffers from a scientific “lack of validity.”
05/06/2013
Episcopal church says football player who was banned from another church will speak there
At least one Wisconsin episcopal church has invited former Green Bay Packer LeRoy Butler for a speaking engagement in reaction to another congregation nixing a scheduled address by Butler because of his support for a gay NBA player.
05/06/2013
Harmful flame retardants found in 84 percent of Calif. couches
Couches tested in random CA households overwhelmingly contained hazardous flame retardant chemicals that have been known to harm hormone production and cause cancer, a new study says.
05/03/2013
Latinos Not Prepared for Looming Changes in the U.S. Health Care System
Media and Latino Decisions in conjunction with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Health Policy Center, today released key findings of a national Latino poll indicating that less than a quarter of Latinos feel well informed about the ACA.
05/03/2013
Stem cells give young girl a new life
Hannah Warren, a 2-year-old born without her trachea, was the recipient of a new windpipe grown from her own stem cells at the Children’s Hospital of Illinois.
05/03/2013
Genomes provide clues for treating leukemia, endometrial cancers
Efforts to sequence the genomes of cancer cells — to pinpoint the changes that occur in cancer cells’ DNA when a person has the disease — are pointing to ways to target cancer treatment.
05/02/2013
Church bans football player for backing gay NBA player
A congratulatory tweet to Jason Collins cost former Green Bay Packers safety LeRoy Butler $8,500 and a speaking engagement at a Wisconsin church.
05/02/2013
FDA approves Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive without a prescription for women 15 years of age and older
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has approved an amended application submitted by Teva Women’s Health, Inc. to market Plan B One-Step (active ingredient levonorgestrel) for use without a prescription by women 15 years of age and older.
05/02/2013
Most people aren’t meeting exercise guidelines
Most adults in the USA aren’t meeting the federal physical activity recommendations for both aerobic exercise and muscle-strengthening activity, according to government statistics out today.
05/02/2013
Cancers Share Gene Patterns, Studies Affirm
Scientists have discovered that the most dangerous cancer of the uterine lining closely resembles the worst ovarian and breast cancers.
05/02/2013
Toxic Lipstick? Metals In Some Lip Products May Be Dangerous, Study Says
Lipsticks and glosses may contain potentially troubling levels of metals, according to a preliminary new study.
05/02/2013
Alzheimer’s sufferer dies from snake bite after his family chooses NOT to give him anti-venom
Richard Flora, 76, was bitten by an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake but the family decided not to give him anti-venom and he died at hospital 11 hours later.
05/01/2013
Federal panel says everyone 15 to 65 should have HIV test
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force finalizes its guideline that everyone 15 to 65 be screened for the virus that causes AIDS.
05/01/2013
Learning Goals Spur Backlash
As more classrooms across the country roll out universal math and reading standards, a growing group of critics are pressing officials to slow their implementation or dump the learning goals entirely.