Bioethics.net

October 18, 2012 5:19 pm

Many Needlessly Getting Steroid Injections for Back Pain, Bioethicist Says. (NBC News)

The quest for relief from pain has now resulted in the deaths of 19 people and a total of 247 confirmed infections of fungal meningitis from tainted steroid injections.  The horrific outbreak has resulted in the outrage about a lack of oversight of the compounding pharmacy.  But, this tragedy has another aspect that is not getting sufficient attention. Why are so many Americans getting spinal injections?

October 17, 2012 4:09 pm

Bioethicist: Retractions of Fraudulent Medical Articles on Rise - Why That's Good News (NBC News)

Can you trust what biomedical researchers have to say about your health?  There are plenty of people out there who say no, including anti-vaccinators, mega vitamin proponents, lovers of non-Western medicine and those who see a pharmaceutical company plot behind every drug, device or genetically altered seed. Few of these skeptics have any sound evidence to offer on behalf of their distrust. Often their opposition is based more on ideology or politics than it is solid evidence for doubt.

But, that does not mean that biomedical science should ignore problems that do undermine public trust in what they have to say. One of the most important and disturbing is fraud.

September 13, 2012 1:28 pm

The activist athlete (Philadelphia Inquirer)

When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Boston in the late 1960s, I had little firsthand contact with minorities. But I knew a lot about one African American man who kept showing up on our new color television and in the sports pages that I devoured every day: Muhammad Ali.  Due to chronic illness, Ali can’t speak as eloquently as he once did. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been heard.

June 20, 2012 11:51 am

Bioethicist: Where is outrage over Pakistan polio vaccine ban? (MSNBC)

The world’s reaction to a powerful Taliban commander in northern Pakistan banning the vaccinationof 161,000 children against polio, in retaliation against frequent drone attacks by the United States, has been more or less “no comment.” That is unacceptable.

May 29, 2012 9:58 am

German doctors apologize for Holocaust horrors (MSNBC)

The German Medical Association has issued a remarkably blunt and straightforward apology, more than six decades after the end of World War II, for the role it played during the Holocaust in the mass murder, sterilization and barbaric medical experiments done on Jews and many other groups.

May 24, 2012 10:56 am

Caplan: Bad tests bad for your health (Milford Daily News)

We all want to believe that early detection of cancer is a good thing. A large number of doctors are committed to early detection too. But, using a bad test is actually worse than not testing at all.

May 18, 2012 12:43 am

Bioethicist sees promise in home HIV test, but raises serious questions (Public Radio International)

The FDA is considering whether to approve the use of an at-home HIV test. But, as a bioethicist points out, the test doesn’t come with counseling for people who test positive or negative and it’s only 93 percent accurate.

May 17, 2012 10:08 am

Art Caplan reflects on a career in bioethics while leaving for NYU (Newsworks)

It wasn’t that long ago that the term “bioethics” wasn’t well known. But more than any other American scientist, Dr. Arthur Caplan has been credited for bringing this somewhat abstract intersection of philosophy and medicine into to the public discourse. After founding the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics, Caplan is now taking his expertise to New York University.

May 2, 2012 12:21 pm

Ethics: Withhold Genetic Test Results if Mother Will Abort? (Medscape)

Can a doctor lie about the results of a genetic test if he or she thinks that they might lead to an abortion? The State of Arizona is considering a law that might make it possible to make the answer to that question “yes.” They are passing a law that says they are not going to accept lawsuits for wrongful births. Wrongful birth lawsuits basically say that if a doctor doesn’t offer a test, doesn’t give the results of a test, or gives them inaccurately, the doctor still can’t be sued for making that kind of decision.

May 1, 2012 11:58 am

For organ donation, Facebook beats the DMV, bioethicist says (MSNBC)

True story about my experience at the DMV: When I went to renew my license here in Pennsylvania, I told the official at the counter that I wanted to be an organ donor. She frowned and said maybe that was not a good idea, since she had heard that people who check the wish to donate box might not get aggressive care at the hospital. She had heard wrong, of course. But the point is, being asked to donate by someone who does not know the facts, or, does not really care about them, while waiting in a crummy environment, is not the best way to identify donors.