Planeta Bioética

Premio María Dolores Vilá-Coro 2010

2010-03-10T21:46:43+00:00

El Premio María Dolores Vila-Coro 2010 se concederá al trabajo de investigación que a juicio del jurado mejor desarrolle cualquier...

The balance between legal liability and altruism

2010-03-10T17:45:48+00:00

Last week the US Ambassador visited the Medical School to meet with Maltese doctors to discuss the US health plan. He came across as a humble person, actually asking us about our system and how they, as Americans, can learn from Europeans, who have managed to create health care systems which are based on a social justice system different from that in the US. (The Malta Independent

Dr. George Daley: Stem Cell Research

2010-03-10T17:44:28+00:00

It’s been one year since President Barack Obama lifted the Bush era’s eight-year ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Read excerpts from producer Susan Goldstein’s and correspondent Betty Rollin’s recent interview about ethical guidelines, current research, and the limitations of Obama’s policy with Dr. George Daley of Children’s Hospital Boston, where a new web site is now available on the state of stem cell research. (PBS)

Juridical and ethical peculiarities in doping policy

2010-03-10T17:43:49+00:00

Criticisms of the ethical justification of antidoping legislation are not uncommon in the literatures of medical ethics, sports ethics and sports medicine. Critics of antidoping point to inconsistencies of principle in the application of legislation and the unjustifiability of ethical postures enshrined in the World Anti-Doping Code, a new version of which came into effect in January 2009. This article explores the arguments concerning the apparent legal peculiarities of antidoping legislation and their ethically salient features in terms of: notions of culpability, liability and guilt; aspects of potential duplication of punishments and the limitations of athlete privacy in antidoping practice and policy. It is noted that tensions still exist between legal and ethical principles and norms that require further critical attention. [Premium (Journal of Medical Ethics)]

David M. Cutler: Health Reform Passes the Cost Test

2010-03-10T17:42:53+00:00

Many people are worried that the health-care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will fail to bend the “cost curve.” A number of commentators are urging no votes because of this, and Republicans have asked the president to start health reform over, focusing squarely on the issue of cost reduction. [Premium (Wall Street Journal)]

What “Irrelevance” Means and What It Doesn’t

2010-03-10T17:41:45+00:00

I have proposed that a scenario of slower-than-disruptive tech development over the next 15-20 years combined with weak or reduced opposition to human enhancement could result in “increasing irrelevance” for transhumanists. But what exactly does that mean? (IEET)

Doctor Leads Quest for Safer Ways to Care for Patients

2010-03-10T17:40:27+00:00

Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, 45, is medical director of the Quality and Safety Research Group at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which means he leads that institution’s quest for safer ways to care for its patients. He also travels the country, advising hospitals on innovative safety measures. The Hudson Street Press has just released his book, “Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out,” written with Eric Vohr. An edited version of a two-hour conversation follows. (New York Times)

Disabled girl can be sterilised: court

2010-03-10T17:39:37+00:00

Disability groups are split over a Family Court decision to approve the sterilisation of an 11-year-old girl. Family Court judge Paul Cronin found that the performance of a hysterectomy on the child, identified only as Angela, was “in the child’s best interests”. (Sydney Morning Herald)

First report on WA Death with Dignity law

2010-03-10T16:01:18+00:00

The Washington Department of Health last week released its report on the first year's experience with the state's new Death with Dignity law. Of the 63 people dispensed lethal medication between March and December 2009, 36 died after ingesting it. Another 7 died of other causes. Some who opposed the law expressed concern that women may be disproportional users -- not necessarily out of their own deeply felt desire to die, but out of a sense of not wanting to burden their loved ones with their care. The stats reported by the DOH don't appear to bear this out: only 45% of the people who received medication under the law and died (either from the medication or otherwise) were women. Local media have run a number of human-interest stories about folks' experience with the law, mainly in the vein of applauding its success or reporting the difficulties some people experienced in trying to use the law. More information about Washington State's law is available here.

RETIRAN LIBRO EN MÉXICO

2010-03-10T12:33:00+00:00

Como muchos ustedes sabrán, durante el pasado mes de febrero tuve la oportunidad de visitar México, invitado por la Fundación Familia y Vida, de Chihuahua. En esa ciudad, miembros del Comité Independiente AntiSida impartimos charlas sobre prevención del Sida a estudiantes de muchos centros docentes de la ciudad. Más de 7000 estudiantes de Secundaria, Preparatoira y universitarios siguieron con

Scientism Isn't Science

2010-03-10T07:07:55+00:00

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC

There has been an attempt ongoing for some time to harness the respectability of science and conflate it with an increasingly popular philosophy known as scientism. But scientism and science are different things. The latter is a powerful method of obtaining and applying material facts and information. The latter creates a subjective world view using the pretense that science has the capacity to tell us objectively right from wrong, the ethical from the unethical, best from worst, etc..

But that’s oxymornic. Science is incapable of doing any of that, since as a method, it is utterly amoral. Indeed, the amorality of science is precisely why ethical parameters must be built around it, hopefully loose enough to allow us to benefit from its prowess, yet strict enough ensure that science serves society rather than devours it. In that dual mandate (if you will) are dynamic tensions that can never be fully resolved.

An article by philosopher professor Edward Feser over at Public Discourse explores the differences between science and scientism. From the article:

Scientism is the view that all real knowledge is scientific knowledge—that there is no rational, objective form of inquiry that is not a branch of science…Despite its adherents’ pose of rationality, scientism has a serious problem: it is either self-refuting or trivial. Take the first horn of this dilemma. The claim that scientism is true is not itself a scientific claim, not something that can be established using scientific methods. Indeed, that science is even a rational form of inquiry (let alone the only rational form of inquiry) is not something that can be established scientifically. For scientific inquiry itself rests on a number of philosophical assumptions: that there is an objective world external to the minds of scientists; that this world is governed by causal regularities; that the human intellect can uncover and accurately describe these regularities; and so forth. Since science presupposes these things, it cannot attempt to justify them without arguing in a circle. And if it cannot even establish that it is a reliable form of inquiry, it can hardly establish that it is the only reliable form. Both tasks would require “getting outside” science altogether and discovering from that extra-scientific vantage point that science conveys an accurate picture of reality—and in the case of scientism, that only science does so.

Feser points out that philosophy often governs how scientific findings are interpreted, and then gets to his next critique:

Here we come to the second horn of the dilemma facing scientism. Its advocate may now insist: if philosophy has this status, it must really be a part of science, since (he continues to maintain, digging in his heels) all rational inquiry is scientific inquiry. The trouble now is that scientism becomes completely trivial, arbitrarily redefining “science” so that it includes anything that could be put forward as evidence against it.

Right. But all rational analysis isn’t scientific. And certainly, concepts of meaning and purpose–or lack thereof–are not scientific as such issues cannot be proved or disproved scientifically. And that problem leads scientism into necessary contortions:

The irony is that the very practice of science itself, which involves the formulation of hypotheses, the weighing of evidence, the invention of technical concepts and vocabularies, the construction of chains of reasoning, and so forth—all mental activities saturated with meaning and purpose—falls on the “subjective,” “manifest image” side of scientism’s divide rather than the “objective,” “scientific image” side. Human thought and action, including the thoughts and actions of scientists, is of its nature irreducible to the meaningless, purposeless motions of particles and the like. Some thinkers committed to scientism realize this, but conclude that the lesson to draw is not that scientism is mistaken, but that human thought and action are themselves fictions. According to this radical position—known as “eliminative materialism” since it entails eliminating the very concept of the mind altogether instead of trying to reduce mind to matter—what is true of human beings is only what can be put in the technical jargon of physics, chemistry, neuroscience and the like. There is no such thing as “thinking,” “believing,” “desiring,” “meaning,” etc.; there is only the firing of neurons, the secretion of hormones, the twitching of muscles, and other such physiological events.

Which I find ironic, because that kind of reductionism seems to lead directly to a variation of the Buddhist view that what we think we know is really all illusion.

And here comes the human exceptionalism part: We alone in the known universe are a believing species. Whether one is a Christian, Buddhist, atheist, or a follower of philosophical scientism, none of it is purely objective. At some point, unless we avoid all deeper reflection, we have to choose our subjective poison. And once we are in the realm of subjectivity, while we may use scientific findings to under gird our beliefs, we have actually left the realm of science behind. (Example: Science can tell us that a human embryo is a living organism. Deciding whether it is right or wrong to use that organism as a natural resource is not science.)

Medicine in the Dark

2010-03-10T07:06:24+00:00

Some doctors treat patients with early-stage prostate cancer with radiation. Others favor surgery, while some advocate only close monitoring. Which approach is most successful? No one knows.

Q&A: Electronic medical records

2010-03-10T07:04:52+00:00

The doctors' union claims that England's medical records database is being pushed through too fast, with details sometimes being uploaded without patients' knowledge. But those behind the new system say many patients are astonished that hospital doctors still do not have access to basic information, and the process to opt out is very straightforward. What are the issues?

Stem cells: home of HIV?

2010-03-09T20:59:37+00:00

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can infect bone marrow cells — including, possibly, hematopoietic stem cells, according to a study published online today (March 7) in Nature. The findings suggest the virus can hide in an inactive state for long periods of time, evading treatment, even in individuals without detectable viral loads. (The Scientist)

Warnings about unlicensed cord blood collection

2010-03-09T20:55:27+00:00

The UK Human Tissue Authority (HTA) has issued an official warning that unlawful collections of umbilical cord blood have been taking place in the UK, and that such instances ‘may compromise safety and quality standards’. (PHG Foundation)

Op-Ed: Shocking truths

2010-03-09T20:54:19+00:00

THE JUDGE Rotenberg Center in Canton, which stands alone in its use of painful skin shocks to eradicate self-mutilation and sudden assault, is a storehouse of ethical and medical dilemmas. But it’s no shock - and no shame - that the parents of some autistic and mentally retarded children embrace this controversial school. (The Boston Globe)

Hospice Study Finds Racial Disparities

2010-03-09T20:53:07+00:00

Among patients with advanced heart failure, blacks and Hispanics are less likely to receive hospice care than whites, researchers found. After adjustment for sociodemographic, clinical, and geographic factors, blacks were 41% less likely to have hospice care than whites (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.73) and Hispanics were 51% less likely (OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.66), according to Jane Givens, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues. (MedPage Today)

Oregon faith healers get 16 months for son’s death

2010-03-09T20:51:57+00:00

The judge who sentenced an Oregon couple to prison Monday for the death of their son says members of their church must quit relying on faith healing when their children’s lives are at stake. (The Associated Press)

Dutch group endorses right to suicide for elderly

2010-03-09T20:50:52+00:00

A campaign to give elderly people in the Netherlands the right to assisted suicide said Monday it has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, hoping to push the boundaries another notch in the country that first legalized euthanasia. (The Associated Press)

Bunny’s Last Days: When Living Will Isn’t Enough

2010-03-09T20:49:47+00:00

When 87-year-old Bunny Olenick suffered a massive stroke in December 2008, doctors told her family there was no chance she could recover fully, although her limitations probably wouldn’t be known for months. A neurologist told her sons that if she did survive, her ability to communicate would be diminished, and she would likely need around-the-clock care for the rest of her life. (Kaiser Health News)

Doctor Leads Quest for Safer Ways to Care for Patients

2010-03-09T12:48:19+00:00

Money Talks, Nobody Walks on the Medicare Gravy Train

2010-03-09T12:44:43+00:00

What if Medicare were run like a corporation, with a CEO and a tightly managed budget? That’s the provocative question posed by Daniel Callahan, a healthcare expert at the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research institute.

LEGALISMO ERRÓNEO EN EL CASO HAIDAR

2010-03-09T12:29:00+00:00

Hace unos meses escribí una entrada sobre el caso Haidar. Un caso en el que se manifiesta un conflicto de intereses: el derecho de autonomía del paciente y el deber de los médicos por mantenr una vida humana. Entre los comentarios, dos personas qeu discrepan de la solución que apuntaba yo. Por ellos y por todos mis lectores añado esta entrada, con un artículo publicado en ABC del jurista Andrés

100,000 Dutch Sign Petitions to Permit Assisted Suicide of the Elderly

2010-03-09T07:23:57+00:00

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC

The Dutch show the consequences of opening the door to the assisted suicide banshee. A proposal to allow doctors to assist suicides based solely on age is gaining strength in the Netherlands. From the story:

A campaign to give elderly people in the Netherlands the right to assisted suicide said Monday it has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, hoping to push the boundaries another notch in the country that first legalized euthanasia. The signatures are enough to force a debate in parliament, where it is certain to face resistance. Even if widely approved, the proposal would normally go through a lengthy process of committee work and consensus-building that could take years. The legalization of euthanasia for the terminally ill in 2002 was preceded by decades of discussion and quiet negotiation that attached stringent conditions and medical supervision.

Can’t media ever get it right? Assisted suicide has been openly practiced since 1973, only being formally legalized in 2002. It has never been limited to the terminally ill, and the “guidelines” are not “stringent,” nor are they enforced with any vigor. Indeed, Dutch doctors now openly engage in infanticide, nearly 1,000 people are euthanized each year who have not asked to die, and the country’s Supreme Court has made it legally available to the depressed.

Those points aside, this story proves what I have stated repeatedly: The Culture of Death is never satiated. It is always hungry. It always wants more.

New Issue of Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology is Now Available

2010-03-09T04:05:39+00:00

Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology (Volume 3, Issue 3, 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

“Nanotechnologies and Equal Access to Healthcare” by Eduardo Missoni and Guglielmo Foffani.
“The Impact of Nanomedicine Development on North-South Equity and Equal Opportunities in Healthcare” by Michael G. Tyshenko.
“Nano Applications, Mega Challenges: The Case of the Health Sector in India” by Jayashree Vivekanandan.
“The Principle of Justice and Access to Nanomedicine in National Healthcare Systems” by Mette Ebbesen.
“International Harmonization of Regulation of Nanomedicine” by Gary E. Marchant, Douglas J. Sylvester, Kenneth W. Abbott, and Tara Lynn Danforth.
“Avoiding the Mistakes of Biotech: How Intellectual Property Can Be Better Managed to Advance Nanotechnology Research” by Richard Gold.”

New Issue of Sociology of Health & Illness is Now Available

2010-03-09T03:48:07+00:00

Sociology of Health & Illness (Volume 32, Issue 2, February 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

“A Sociological Approach to Ageing, Technology and Health” by Kelly Joyce and Meika Loe, 171-180.
“A History of the Future: The Emergence of Contemporary Anti-Ageing Medicine” by Courtney Everts Mykytyn, 181-196.
“In the Vanguard of Biomedicine? The Curious and Contradictory Case of Anti-Ageing Medicine” by Jennifer R. Fishman, Richard A. Settersten Jr, and Michael A. Flatt; 197-210.
“Ageing in Place and Technologies of Place: The Lived Experience of People with Dementia in Changing Social, Physical and Technological Environments” by Katherine Brittain, Lynne Corner, Louise Robinson, and John Bond; 272-287.
“‘But Obviously Not for Me’: Robots, Laboratories and the Defiant Identity of Elder Test Users” by Louis neve, 335-347.

University of Michigan Scientists Identify Reservoirs Where HIV-Infected Cells Can Lie in Wait

2010-03-08T17:58:49+00:00

University of Michigan scientists have identified a new reservoir for hidden HIV-infected cells that can serve as a factory for new infections. Targeting these reservoirs of latent cells may open a door to new treatments.

Defibrillator Implants Often Overlooked in Hospice, End-of-Life Care

2010-03-08T17:53:33+00:00

A large percentage of hospices do not account for patients with defibrillator implants, which can lead to unnecessary - and uncomfortable - shocks to patients, new research shows.

Washington: First Year Under Legalized Assisted Suicide

2010-03-08T17:00:00+00:00

Today is the first anniversary of the law in which Washington legalized the practice through a public referendum, Initiative 1000. Dominican Sister Sharon Park, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, states that the law places vulnerable people at risk of abuse. The legislation, she said, was written to prevent adequate safeguards for persons most in need of care and support.

State's Assisted-Suicide Law Faces Major Test Monday

2010-03-08T17:00:00+00:00

Two Connecticut physicians, Gary Blick and Ronald M. Levine, sued the state last year hoping to ensure that doctors who prescribe medication to enable a patient to end his own life will not be charged with second-degree manslaughter under the law. The heart of the case is how suicide will be defined under Connecticut law.

Planeta Bioética

Premio Mar&iacute;a Dolores Vil&aacute;-Coro 2010

The balance between legal liability and altruism

Dr. George Daley: Stem Cell Research

Juridical and ethical peculiarities in doping policy

David M. Cutler: Health Reform Passes the Cost Test

What “Irrelevance” Means and What It Doesn’t

Doctor Leads Quest for Safer Ways to Care for Patients

Disabled girl can be sterilised: court

First report on WA Death with Dignity law

RETIRAN LIBRO EN MÉXICO

Scientism Isn't Science

Medicine in the Dark

Q&A: Electronic medical records

Stem cells: home of HIV?

Warnings about unlicensed cord blood collection

Op-Ed: Shocking truths

Hospice Study Finds Racial Disparities

Oregon faith healers get 16 months for son’s death

Dutch group endorses right to suicide for elderly

Bunny’s Last Days: When Living Will Isn’t Enough

Doctor Leads Quest for Safer Ways to Care for Patients

Money Talks, Nobody Walks on the Medicare Gravy Train

LEGALISMO ERRÓNEO EN EL CASO HAIDAR

100,000 Dutch Sign Petitions to Permit Assisted Suicide of the Elderly

New Issue of Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology is Now Available

New Issue of Sociology of Health & Illness is Now Available

University of Michigan Scientists Identify Reservoirs Where HIV-Infected Cells Can Lie in Wait

Defibrillator Implants Often Overlooked in Hospice, End-of-Life Care

Washington: First Year Under Legalized Assisted Suicide

State's Assisted-Suicide Law Faces Major Test Monday

Premio María Dolores Vilá-Coro 2010