Bioethics.net

May 15, 2012

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.

May 07, 2012

Health disparities persist as overall care quality slowly improves (American Medical News)

Health disparities continue to plague the U.S. health care system, but small gains are giving federal officials some hope that progress will be made in years ahead with implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released its ninth annual National Healthcare Disparities Report and the National Healthcare Quality Report on April 20. The reports showed that although overall quality improved at a rate of 2.5% per year between 2002 and 2008, access to care did not.

May 02, 2012

Debate Over Who Should Be Allowed to Administer Anesthesia Moves to Courts (New York Times)

May 02, 2012

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.

Apr 27, 2012

California Considers Criminalizing Unauthorized Collection, Use of Genetic Information (GenomeWeb)

California lawmakers are considering a new proposal that would address concerns about keeping genetic information private by making it illegal to analyze, share, or store an individual’s genetic information without that person’s written consent. The Senate Judiciary Committee in the state, which already has adopted enhanced public protections against discrimination based on genetic information, has now passed the California Genetic Information Privacy Act (SB 1267).

Apr 25, 2012

Obamacare collapse would put employers in charge (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

If the Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, don’t look to government for what comes next. Employers and insurance companies will take charge. They’ll borrow some ideas from Obamacare, ditch others, and push even harder to cut costs.

Apr 23, 2012

Assisted human reproduction and the law (CBC News)

An air of confusion surrounds Canada’s rules governing fertility issues, such as assisted human reproduction. Although the federal government passed a law in 2004 that tackled a wide swath of the socially and ethically controversial issues surrounding reproduction, covering everything from human cloning to payment for sperm, the law hasn’t lived up to expectations.

Apr 18, 2012

Bioethicists urge less regulatory burden for low-risk comparative effectiveness research (EurekAlert)

In an opinion article published in this week’s theme edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association focusing on comparative effectiveness research, a team of Johns Hopkins University bioethicists argues forcefully for streamlining federal restrictions on at least some low-risk clinical comparative effectiveness research, instead of easing them – as is now proposed – solely for low-risk social and behavior research involving surveys, interviews and focus groups.

Apr 17, 2012

It's Not About Broccoli!: The False Case Against Health Care (The Atlantic)

The challengers of the health insurance mandate have focused on the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. As conservative Judge Silberman held, the text giving Congress the power to “regulate commerce” does seem to include a power to mandate purchases, given 1780s dictionary definitions of “regulate.” The challengers argue that this plain meaning should nonetheless be resisted because otherwise the clause would lack any “limiting principle,” and thus could be used to force us to buy GM cars, cell phones, burial insurance, or — their favorite bugaboo — broccoli.

Apr 16, 2012

Can the Innovator Class Save Healthcare? (The Atlantic)

Perched on the banks of the Potomac River, the TEDMED gathering weighed in last week on what it considered the greatest challenges facing healthcare. A meeting closely associated with the high tech-optimism of Silicon Valley and other outposts of America’s innovator class, TEDMED came east this year from it’s previous home in San Diego. The idea was to bring the gathering’s ethos and its troupe of entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, doers, and artists to our nation’s political capital.