Bioethics.net

February 25, 2015

How Medicine Has Fared Under ISIS

by Craig M. Klugman, Ph.D.

Like much of the world, I find myself reading daily news stories about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).…

February 18, 2015

Precision Medicine Has Imprecise Ethics

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

How do physicians diagnose disease? First they go through a set of symptoms and then compile a list of differential diagnoses or what the underlying disease may be.…

February 9, 2015

Canadian Supreme Court: Legal Assisted Suicide In a Year

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

A year from now, all Canadians may have the right to assisted suicide. In February 6, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled “that the prohibition on physician-assisted dying is void insofar as it deprives a competent adult of such assistance where (1) the person affected clearly consents to the termination of life; and (2) the person has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.” In other words, a competent and capacitated person with a serious and unresolvable condition that creates suffering has a right to have assistance to end his or her life.…

February 4, 2015

The Unbearable Rightness of Handwashing

by Nanette Elster, JD, MPH and Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD

You may have seen at your doctor’s office a poster showing a climber scaling a sheer cliff.…

February 3, 2015

Don’t Weasel Out of the Measles Vaccine

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

By now, you have most likely been inundated with news about the measles outbreak tied to Disneyland in California.…

January 15, 2015

(Golden) Global Change and LGBT Rights

by Sean Philpott-Jones, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Clinical Leadership I make it a tradition to watch televised awards shows like the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys. This is not because I particularly care about the entertainment industry, but primarily because I enjoy providing a running commentary of snarky comments about the various nominee’s […]

January 14, 2015

Worrying about patient satisfaction only harms the patient

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

Anyone who has been in a hospital in the last 9 years has encountered a patient satisfaction survey.…

December 18, 2014

Physician, Torture Thyself

by Sean Philpott-Jones, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Clinical Leadership Last week, the US Senate Intelligence Committee released its long awaited report describing the techniques that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used to interrogate suspected terrorists and other combatants captured during our long running War on Terror. The so-called Torture Report, the product […]

December 14, 2014

Patients Abandoned—Who is to blame?

<p style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">The vast majority of developed nations in the world provide universal healthcare coverage for its citizens. The only developed nations that do not are “…<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/heres-a-map-of-the-countries-that-provide-universal-health-care-americas-still-not-on-it/259153/">a few still-troubled Balkan states, the Soviet-style autocracy of Belarus, and the U.S. of A., the richest nation in the world</a>.” </span></p> <p style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Yet the United States (US) has the most expensive healthcare system in the world, by far—there really isn’t a close second—spending just under 18% of GPD and around $8,500.00 per person on healthcare. One might assume that given that type of expense, we would be getting a lot more than other countries in return for our investment. According to the research provided by <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror">Mirror, Mirror</a>, from the Commonwealth Fund, the US sadly underperforms and often fails relative to other developed countries on major measures of performance. </span></p> <p><strong style="color: #34405b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our <a style="color: #000099; text-decoration: underline;" href="/Academic/bioethics/index.cfm">website</a>.</strong><span style="color: #34405b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span></p>

December 11, 2014

The CIA Torture Report: Health, Medicine & Ethics

by Craig Klugman, Ph.D.

On Tuesday, December 9, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on intelligence released its long awaited report on CIA interrogation and torture.…