Tag: policy
Blog Posts (13)
June 28, 2012
Waiting for the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare? Read AJOB.
As the nation waits on pins and needles for SCOTUS’ decision regarding Obamacare, take a few minutes to bone up on the ethics of healthcare reform and governance with AJOB’s Special Issue on healthcare reform.…
March 2, 2012
Meet Our New Associate Editor, Kayhan Parsi, JD PhD
AJOB is proud to have Kayhan Parsi as our new Associate Editor. Kayhan has worked with AJOB closely for the last three years serving as its Book Review Editor.…
October 10, 2011
Saving the USPS by Cutting Healthcare Costs?
What does the postal service have to do with healthcare? Sure, the USPS delivers medical supplies to individuals and organizations. But that is not the connection that the nation’s postmaster general is making between healthcare and the viability of the postal service.…
April 7, 2011
Women's Health Shouldn't Be Partisan--But It Is!
As Donna Shalala writes on the Huffington Post today: “health of our women should not be a partisan preference”, but as we all know the politics of women’s health continues to plague access to reproductive health services, equitable access to health services generally, and more broadly remind us that there is still a critical gap between males and females in regard to health in our country.…
June 24, 2010
NY State to Presume Consent For Organs?
NY State will presume consent for organ donation, that is, if Assemblyman Richard Brodsky gets his way. Acknowledging that the demand for transplantable organs vastly outstrips supply and the fact that presumed consent works in other European nations, Brodsky has proposed that the default would be that all New Yorkers would donate their organs upon their death unless they were to check a box “opting out” on their driver’s license registration form.…
April 29, 2010
Will Taking the Happy Out of the Happy Meal Keep Kids from Getting Fat?
Well, at least one California county is trying. You have to give them that. In an effort to curb childhood obesity, Santa Clara county, California has banned toys from meals with over 485 calories, effectively fast food.…
July 1, 2009
Common Ground on Abortion? Not Likely.
President Obama isn’t really asking for much. Really it’s quite simple: both sides of the issue, conservatives and liberals, must give up a little bit to reach a “common ground” on a perennial issue to lay this “culture war” on abortion aside.…
June 17, 2009
Your Out! Auf Wiedersehen to the Doctor's White Coat
They never were fashion-forward, but the AMA had a much better reason to vote out the traditional doctor’s white coat this week.…
April 20, 2009
Powers' Chicken and The Egg Problem
Madison Powers’ eloquent essay from CQPolitics.com last Friday analyzes Obama’s two-fold problem passing healthcare reform.
What Powers calls “decoupling” the two key arguments about cost containment and expanding access to healthcare, I call his “chicken and the egg problem”.…
February 11, 2009
Can You Hear Van Halen Playing In The Background?
A new report issued by the Center for Genetics and Society has been released titled, “Responsible Federal Oversight of New Human Biotechnologies: Opportunities for the New Administration”.…
Published Articles (6)
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 10 Issue 5 - May 2010
Stem Cell Tourism and Doctors' Duties to Minors?A View From Canada Amy Zarzeczny
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 10 Issue 3 - Mar 2010
Response to Open Peer Commentaries on ?Trans Fat Bans and Human Freedom? David B. Resnik
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 10 Issue 3 - Mar 2010
Trans Fat Bans and Human Freedom David B. Resnik
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 7 Issue 6 - Jun 2007
Public Health, Public Trust and Lobbying Matthew K. Wynia
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 6 Issue 2 - Mar 2006
ELSI Priorities for Brain Imaging Judy Illes
American Journal of Bioethics: Volume 4 Issue 1 - Jan 2004
Will Lower Drug Prices Jeopardize Drug Research? A Policy Fact Sheet Donald Light
Resources (24)
American Medical Forensic Specialists, Inc.
America's premier medical expert witness and consulting company.
Congressional Budget Office Report on Cost of Tort Liability
Proposes guidelines for limiting tort liability in medical malpractice suits.
Federation of State Medical Boards Policy Documents
The FSMB periodically convenes representatives of state medical boards, together with experts in specific subject areas, to study and develop recommendations on issues pertinent to medical regulation. The policies described on this site are intended to give guidance and encourage consistency among state medical boards in addressing trends in medical practice and regulation.
Florida Medical Malpractice
Provides general information to consumers and lawyers about Florida malpractice issues.
Health Administration Responsibility Project
HARP is a resource for patients, doctors, and attorneys seeking to establish the liability of HMOs, Managed Health Care Organizations, and Nursing Facilities for the consequences of their decisions.
Institute of Medicine Reports on Medical Errors
Provides resources on medical error prevention and information on current projects.
The Limitations of Secular Medical Ethics
Gary S. Fischer, M.D. discusses Medical Ethics and Religion.
The American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics
Provides educational information at the intersection of law, medicine, and ethics. Also provides information about two nationally acclaimed peer-reviewed journals.
Pediatric Ethics Consortium
Dedicated to helping develop a better understanding of the ethical issues in the care of children.
News (38)
September 20, 2012 8:42 pm
N.C. Woman With Stage 4 Cancer Fights Foreclosure (ABC News)
When Kirk Davis of Mount Holly, N.C., describes his wife’s cancer and subsequent treatment, he never says it was “her” diagnosis or chemo. He says “we were diagnosed with breast cancer” on June 2, 2008. The diagnosis, which was followed by medical bills and both having to take pay cuts, led to the Davis’ struggle to save their home from a scheduled foreclosure in December. Cindi Davis, 50, had to resign from her job as a school teacher to go on long-term disability. She said she has stage four cancer, now that it has spread to her lymph nodes, lungs and liver.
September 5, 2012 7:57 pm
Do Current Organ Transplant Policies Restrict Potential Donors? (Huffington Post)
A friend of mine, a transplant surgeon, was emotionally recounting a recent experience. A young woman with organ failure desperately needed a transplant, but none was available, and she was sinking rapidly. She, her family, and the medical team expected that she would be dead before the morning, and she had already said her goodbyes. The team was in despair, knowing that they could have saved her if only the means had been available. Then, suddenly, news came that a donor had been found. Everyone rushed into action, and by the next day joy was unconfined. That story had a happy ending, but its purpose was to emphasize the thousands of similar stories that end in tragedy. Innumerable people experience firsthand the misery of failing organs, and their doctors suffer the intense distress of knowing they have the skills to save them but not the organs themselves.
September 5, 2012 7:41 pm
Former Harvard professor Marc Hauser fabricated, manipulated data, US says (Boston.com)
Marc Hauser, a prolific scientist and popular psychology professor who last summer resigned from Harvard University, had fabricated data, manipulated results in multiple experiments, and described how studies were conducted in factually incorrect ways, according to the findings of a federal research oversight agency posted online Wednesday. The report provides the greatest insight yet into the problems that triggered a three-year internal university investigation that concluded in 2010 that Hauser, a star professor and public intellectual, had committed eight instances of scientific misconduct. The document, which will be published in the Federal Register Thursday, found six cases in which Hauser engaged in research misconduct in work supported by the National Institutes of Health. One paper was retracted and two were corrected, and other problems were found in unpublished work.
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 8, 2012 3:31 pm
Bioethicist: Families, stop thwarting organ donors (NBC News (blog))
Despite the great demand, very few Americans donate their organs when they die. But the reason for that may not be what you’d think — it’s your relatives. That’s what David Shaw, honorary lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, thinks the real problem is. In an article published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, he writes that one of the biggest reasons more people don’t wind up donating is veto by their family.
July 24, 2012 9:15 am
Ban on pharma meals for physicians overturned (American Medical News)
In May, the Massachusetts Medical Society adopted policy supporting a change in the state’s gift ban so long as the modification conformed to guidelines from the ACCME and the American Medical Association. The AMA Code of Medical Ethics says it is OK for physicians to accept gifts worth $100 or less from industry so long as they benefit patients.
July 10, 2012 4:32 pm
An Organ 'Donor' Revolution (The Wall Street Journal)
With all eyes fixed on the Supreme Court’s recent health-care decision, a life-saving development swooped in under the radar: It is now legal to compensate bone-marrow donors. This represents a triumph for the 2,000-3,000 people with cancer and blood diseases who die each year while awaiting a marrow transplant.
July 9, 2012 9:20 pm
Lesbians allowed to donate blood in China (Examiner.com)
In a reversal of government health policy, the People’s Republic of China now allows lesbians to donate blood, the United Nations reported Sunday. “The ban still applies to men who are sexually active with other men, but celibate homosexuals are permitted to give blood, CNN reported.
June 28, 2012 9:44 am
Let grandma have sex! (Salon)
A new article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics takes nursing homes to task because elderly patients’ “sexual expression” is often “overlooked, ignored or even discouraged.” The authors of the Australian paper argue, “The formation of relationships, physical intimacy and the expression of sexuality are a basic human right and a normal and healthy part of aging,” and caregivers should respects patients’ “decisions about their sexuality, intimacy and physical relationships.”
May 15, 2012 10:40 am
Unintended Consequence for Dialysis Patients as Drug Rule Changes (New York Times)
A shift last year by the federal government in how it pays for drugs to treat dialysis patients may have had an unintended and potentially dire consequence, according to new research: a significant jump in blood transfusions for patients who now may not be getting enough of the medications. The findings are seen by some experts as a stark illustration of how the government’s reimbursement policies can drive the practice of medicine.