Tag: medical ethics
News (51)
October 23, 2012 6:44 pm
Reproductive Tourism: Paying Women in Poor Countries to Bear Our Babies is Rife with Ethical Problems (HealthCanal.com)
In their upcoming paper, “Ethical concerns for maternal surrogacy and reproductive tourism” in theJournal of Medical Ethics, Professor Raywat Deonandan et al. enumerate the specific ethical challenges posed by this emerging new industry. Along with six other concerning issues, the authors identified the tension between business ethics and medical ethics as being at the heart of the industry’s ethical problem, along with an insufficiently broad definition of “informed consent.” When desperately poor, illiterate and vulnerable village women are entering into complicated contracts to sell their reproductive health to wealthy foreigners, often some of the softer social risks are not communicated to them, such as their risk of estrangement from their communities, or the risk of domestic unease with their spouses and existing children.
August 28, 2012 12:45 pm
Doctors Refuses To Treat 200-Pound Woman Because Of Her Weight (Business Insider)
In an interview with WCVB-TV, Dr. Carter explained, “After three consecutive injuries (with other patients) trying to care for people over 250 pounds, my office is unable to accommodate a certain weight and we put a limit on it.”
And Carter is completely within her professional rights to do so. Under Opinion 9.12 of the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, both physicians and patients are free to decline a relationship. “A physician may decline to undertake the care of a patient whose medical condition is not within the physician’s current competence,” the code says.
August 15, 2012 1:35 pm
Autism Transplant Denial Sparks Debate (ABC News)
Dr. David Cronin, an associate professor of transplant surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, told ABCNews.com he does not know the case, but organ transplant denial tends to be easier for people to accept because of an anatomic problem, such as calcified blood vessels that would prevent the successful implantation of a new kidney.
August 14, 2012 7:51 pm
Doctors Fail to Review Tests Before Hospital Discharge (Businessweek)
Doctors who order tests for hospital patients don’t always read the results before the patient is discharged, raising the risk of missing potentially dangerous conditions, an Australian study found. About half of the unread tests were ordered on the day the patient left the hospital, according to research today in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Many of those results still hadn’t been reviewed two months later, the researchers said.
August 12, 2012 6:39 pm
More voices raising questions about consumer gene testing (Silicon Beat)
The Mercury News editorial page had a great column today from three experts on genetic testing that provides the medical perspective on why a physician should be involved in the direct-to-consumer genetic testing process. They argue that these are indeed medical tests, despite industry arguments otherwise. And the results are complex.
August 6, 2012 7:46 pm
Organ Transplant Scandal Shocks Germany (Democratic Underground)
A surgeon identified as Dr. Aiman O. is suspected of fraudulently manipulating dozens of his patients’ test results, making them appear sicker than they were to get them liver transplants more quickly — and possibly putting them ahead of people who more desperately needed them. The case first emerged in late July at the University Medical Center Göttingen, in the northern German state of Lower Saxony, from where the senior physician has been suspended since November for allegedly tampering with some 23 transplant cases. A gastroenterologist suspected of involvement has also been suspended.
July 26, 2012 4:20 pm
Circumcision for Non-Medical Reasons Is Wrong (Spiegel Online)
As the debate over the medical ethics of circumcision rages in Germany, some have argued that the practice provides health benefits. But many in the medical community disagree. Circumcision is not in the best interest of boys who undergo the procedure.
July 17, 2012 4:08 pm
Penn expert addresses ethical implications of testing for Alzheimer's disease risk (Eureka Alert)
VANCOUVER – Diagnostic tests are increasingly capable of identifying plaques and tangles present in Alzheimer’s disease, yet the disease remains untreatable. Questions remain about how these tests can be used in research studies examining potential interventions to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will today participate in a panel at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2012 (AAIC 2012) discussing ways to ethically disclose and provide information about test results to asymptomatic older adults. In contrast to diseases like cancer – where tumor progression and genetic markers can be measured to determine appropriate preventative steps or targeted treatments – Alzheimer’s disease tests has improved diagnosis and assessment of risk, but no treatments or preventative measures are available to alter the disease progression.
July 13, 2012 1:09 pm
Turkish doctors face fines for elective caesareans (The Guardian)
Itil is concerned that doctors might not be ready to opt for surgery once the law is in place: “How can a law decide when a patient requires a certain treatment? This is against medical ethics, and the art of medicine in general. Turkey will set a very negative example with this law.”
July 12, 2012 12:35 pm
Patients reluctant to disagree with doctor's advice (Chicago Tribune)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although most people who participated in a new survey preferred making medical decisions together with their doctor, the majority said they wouldn’t speak up if what they wanted conflicted with their physician’s recommendations.