October 2004
Retail Giant Wal-Mart's Health Insurance Scrutinized
The New York Times reports that they are under fire for leaving too many employees without benefits-based health insurance coverage. The impact on state budgets is discussed as is the Wal-Mart response.Labels: health insurance coverage, New York Times, Wal-Mart
Cosmetic Neurology
It isn't much of a story, nor are the ethics sound bites particularly new, but this was the only news coverage of the major new article by Anjan Chatterjee on cosmetic neurology.Labels: Anjan Chatterjee, cosmetic neurology, neuroethics, neuroscience
The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science
Brian Alexander let us know about this San Diego Union-Tribune review of Horace Freeland Judson's new book documenting the incredible increase in fraud in science. The book not only uses some "classic" fraud cases but vividly demonstrates the fraud in many well-known scientific endeavors, and the fraud perpetrated by many well-respected scientists. This book could clearly replace many of the "most scientists are great, and almost all are well-intentioned, but rare bad apples spoil it all" textbooks in research ethics.Labels: bad behavior, bad science, ethics in science, fraud, research ethics, scandals
Jon Eisenberg on the State of Schiavo: Not Good
The news is not encouraging from Florida on the most significant end-of-life case of the year.Gov. Bush, the Schindlers and their supporters are now taking a two-pronged approach to forestalling the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube despite the Florida Supreme Court's decision, and so far they have achieved success on both fronts.In the Florida Supreme Court case, Gov. Bush has obtained a 30-day stay
of the court's decision in order to to give him time to ask the United
States Supreme Court to take the case and issue a further stay.Meanwhile, the Schindlers filed a motion in the trial court asking the
judge to hold a retrial on the issue of Terri Schiavo's wishes in light
of the Pope's recent statement regarding tube feeding of PVS patients.
According to the Schindlers, Terri, who was Catholic, would take the
Pope's statement to mean she must remain on tube feeding. The judge
denied the motion, citing a prior appellate court determination that
Terri "did not regularly attend mass or have a religious advisor who
could assist the court in weighing her religious attitude about
life-support methods." However, the judge also issued an emergency stay
of the feeding-tube removal until December 6, 2004, to give the
Schindlers time to appeal this order. No doubt the Schindlers will file
an appeal and ask for a further stay from the state Court of Appeal
court pending the decision on the appeal.Thus, there are now two temporary stays in place. I think it doubtful
that the Supreme Court will take the case and issue a stay, but I think
it likely that the Court of Appeal will issue a stay pending its
decision on the Pope motion, which will likely last for the better part
of a year or longer.
Labels: Bush, Catholicism, end of life, Florida, Schiavo, Schindlers, Supreme Court, the Pope, US Circuit Court of Appeals
Interesting Spin on PGD - Embryos Help "Beat Cancer"
From London Times Sunday.Labels: cancer drugs, embryos, media spin, pgd
The Hypo-Allergenic Cat
From Allerca: A cat that just does not make you sneeze. But is it just hype?It is probably possible to create cats that do not produce the most common protein allergen, says Thomas Platts-Mills, director of the Asthma and Allergic Disease Center at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, US. But he adds that cats produce many more allergens, and that blocking production of the protein could damage the cat's health. Moreover, Allerca's claims that a technique called RNA-induced gene silencing can work in cats are "unfounded", says Greg Hannon at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state, and author of the book RNAi: A Guide to Gene Silencing. So far the technique has been used only in mice.
Labels: Allerca, allergies, asthma, cats, Cold Spring Harbor, exaggerating claims, for-profit genomics, genomics, hype, intentional obfuscation
Mel Gibson, Stem Cell Advocate
Ok, he's not suffering from anything, nor does he have any other personal stake in the matter. But like Michael J. Fox, he is famous. And that seems to be enough for Mel, who shared with Good Morning America's viewers his passion for embryonic sanctity. Debating, well, me (McGee) with a self-described bioethicist by his side, he argued that there's nothing an embryonic cell can do that an adult cell can't. He'll be publishing that finding soon. UPDATE: Already the Southern Baptist Press is joining a growing chorus of conservatives in celebrating the first anti-stem cell celebrity.Labels: embryonic sanctity, ethics debate, Glenn McGee, Good Morning America, media and bioethics, Mel Gibson, Southern Baptist Press, stem cell research
A Permanent Ethics Panel on Vaccines at CDC
This is huge news for bioethics. If you've been wondering whether there will ever be a federal-level bioethics group with real teeth, many will tell you that this will be the one: The New York Times is reporting today that CDC has taken its most significant step ever into bioethics, creating a permanent panel on ethical issues in vaccine distribution. Senior scholars abound, including longtime CDC bioethics consultant and Yale fixture Robert Levine, John Arras, Tom Beauchamp, and Emory's Kathy Kinlaw. Great comments here from Arras.Labels: CDC, ethics of bioethics, New York Times, vaccination
Mark Yarborough of UCHSDenver on Record on Web Transplant
Well, we've blogged the heck out of the stupidest Internet health story of the year, the matchingdonors.com kidney transplant that was almost stopped by the hospital ethics committee, then was allowed, then stopped because of PR. Denver's bioethics director and transplant ethics scholar Mark Yarborough hits the issue on CBS.com, although we are still waiting for the story about how this happened in the first place. And how many people are sitting around waiting for a MatchingDonors.com "date." We do know now (from this piece) that MatchingDonors.com puts all its money into the "maintenance of the web site," which is a bit like a car dealership saying that all of the money it brings in goes to maintaining the car dealership...Labels: buying organs, matchingdonors.com, organ transplants, stupid internet stories
Women and Infants in HIV Trials
A WHO and UNAIDS meeting discussed the issues of gender and age, as well as race, in HIV trials. Macklin is quoted: "We have identified measures aimed at rectifying the injustice stemming from the frequent exclusion or low participation of women and adolescents in HIV vaccine clinical trials. Clinical trial enrolment needs to be more inclusive, so the benefits of research are more fairly distributed."Labels: clinical trials, gender, HIV, race, UNAIDS, vaccines, vulnerable subject populations, WHO
How Powerful are Drug Ads? Ask Hormone Replacement Therapy Manufacturers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on hormone replacement therapy rates today, based on an embargoed article in a Women's Health Initiative research project. The bottom line is that after the July 2002 shutdown of estrogen plus progestin therapy in WHI, due to results showing that standard-dose Prempro increase the risk of all sorts of things, and provided no benefit, promotional activities for hormone replacement therapy slowed dramatically across the board. The impact of the slowdown in promotion is incredible - a massive drop in prescriptions and use of all HRT, in direct correlation to spending on advertisements. No, drug ads don't matter a lot at all. Nope. Trust us ...Labels: health risks, hormone replacement therapy, marketing, Women's Health Initiative
Juv Diabetes Res Foundation Celebrates Bush Signing of Islet Cell Transplant Act of 2004
From their office:The JDRF Government Relations team is very pleased to announce the Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2004 was signed into law by President Bush on October 25, 2004.This important piece of legislation passed through both houses of Congress and reached the President's desk thanks in no small part to the hard work of JDRF advocates across the country. Your efforts to educate members of Congress on the promise of islet cell transplantation and ask for their support were crucial in ensuring the bill's success.
The Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2004 will increase the supply of pancreata for islet transplantation and improve the coordination of federal efforts and information regarding islet cell transplantation.
The recent progress made with islet cell transplantation is featured in the current Winter 2004 issue of JDRF's Countdown magazine.
Thank you for all the calls and visits made, and letters and emails sent in support of the Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2004. Once again, the efforts of JDRF advocates have translated into tangible results for the more than 1 million Americans living with Type 1 diabetes.
Labels: Bush, clinical research, Congress, laws, type 1 diabetes
The 'Pyrric Victories of the Pro-life Lobby'
Times Online London opines about the legal maneuvering of the anti-abortion lobby in the UK.Labels: anti-abortion, Britain, pro-life
Indonesia Stem Cells
China Times reports that Indonesia will take a middle ground on hES research while continuing a ban.Labels: hESC, Indonedia, research bans
A Venter and Collins...PLAY
NPR did a story yesterday on a new play about Venter and Collins: "The Sequence." Seems kind of interesting; they made a specific note that the playwright really incorporates technical science into the play rather than glossing over the actual specifics. Evidently, the actor playing Venter actually explains the shotgun sequencing technique. The play is in LA (in readings). - Art CaplanLabels: Art Caplan, bioethics on broadway, Francis Collins, J. Craig Venter, theater
organs.eBay.com (UPDATED AGAIN)
St. Luke's (Denver) ethics committee tried to stop the transplant of a kidney from one man, who paid $290 to post his profile on the Internet at a new website called MatchingDonors.com, to another. In a "compassionate exception" the hospital decided that this was an appropriate thing to do just this once, before they debate things. Precedent doesn't seem to be an issue for them. And the CEO of the hospital took great pains to say that it is not endorsing the website. Mr. Smitty, the donor, was to be paid $5,000 for his kidney ... I mean ... for his travel expenses. UPDATE: After innumerable stories reported on the phenomenon, hospital officials decided to cancel the transplant. Interestingly, George Annas uses the case as a (brilliant) opportunity to demonstrate that we would not have problems like this if organ procurement were both a higher priority and better executed. UPDATE2: Rocky Mountain News' piece is just out and interesting. Art Caplan is interviewed on it at Medscape. UPDATE3: A shakedown for life? UPDATE4: USA Today begins the spinning of the implications of the matchingdonors saga.Labels: Art Caplan, buying organs, George Annas, matchingdonors.com, organ transplants
Mooney on Kinsley on Stem Cells
Chris C Mooney notes the Michael Kinsley piece in New Republic, describing it as the "must read" stem cell argument for this week. Kinsley is a Parkinson's patient now, and his argument is fascinating regarding the sacrifice involved in the research.Labels: Michael Kinsley, Parkinson's disease, stem cell research
Vatican Backs Total Cloning Ban Including for Stem Cells
No surprise here, although it still remains to be explained how Catholics arrive at the notion that a nuclear transfer derived colony of cells with no potential for birth can be called an embryo. More in Catholic News.Labels: Catholicism, cloning, cloning prohibitions, stem cell research, Vatican
Cell Hacking
Occasionally Popular Science magazine is really on top of a new phenomenon. This is one such moment. In their lengthy piece on the programming of bacteria, the mag covers virtually every issue associated with the creation of cell colonies from industrial-level programming - a highly controversial DARPA-funded program that is coming into its own. Magnus is quoted.Labels: cell hacking, DARPA, David Magnus, Popular Science
Natural Sound
Probably the best article about musicians' use of beta blockers to prepare for performance. Not particularly in-depth about the ethical issues, but perhaps that is because this phenomenon remains untouched in the bioethics literature.Labels: anxiety, beta-blockers, music, off-label use, performance anxiety
Failing to Reveal Conflicts of Interest
A Sunday story that wasn't picked up very much by Marilynn Marchione does a great job of ransacking the current wave of denials concerning how conflict of interest affects physicians engaged in drug consultation and in other ways affiliated with drug companies.Labels: big pharma, Conflict of Interest, denial is a river, pharmaceutical industry
German Workplace Genetic Testing
The Germans are well on the way to creating the most comprehensive workplace genetic testing regulations, according to a report in Der Spiegel. Ethics is very much involved in the debate, with a likely outcome a total ban.Labels: banning technology, ethics debate, genetic testing, Germany, regulations
1 in 3 UK Physicians Asked for Assisted Suicide
Medix UK polling on behalf of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society found this this week. The Guardian also reports more in depth.Labels: assisted suicide, Britain, euthanasia, The Guardian
Global Genetic Epidemiology Initiative UPDATED
Data on population health has become the most important component of research into genetics and disease. In this CDC Genomics article, Muin Khoury, one of the key bioethics people within the CDC, makes the argument that something roughly analagous to the human genome project should be developed for the globalization of genetic epidemiology. It is an extraordinary proposal that follows on Francis Collins' earlier proposal for an intra-US program. UPDATE: Voice of America reports on a Canadian argument for essentially the same initiative, sponsored by the U Toronto bioethics group.Labels: CDC, Francis Collins, genetic epidemiology, genomics, human genome project, U Toronto
Hopkins' Berman Institute now a Funding Priority
As if they didn't have enough money at Hopkins, one of the best bioethics research organizations around, Johns Hopkins Gazette reports that the Berman Bioethics Institute is a funding priority in a current capital project. The goal? New better digs in an expanded nursing building. Given that Hopkins was the first to raise $1.5Labels: Berman Bioethics Institute, bioethics centers, Johns Hopkins
Proposed Protest at ASBH Against Kass
From MCW Today a Proposal to Protest Leon Kass, which comes right on the heels of an international media conversation about how the President is misusing bioethics, an argument made in nature. The protest idea is from Rosamond Rhodes:Dear ALL,
When ASBH first announced the inclusion of Leon Kass and Francis
Fukuyama
on the meeting program, I privately voiced my objections.
Nevertheless,
their spot on the program remained and the ASBH website promotes it as
"A
notable two-hour Keynote session."I had considered boycotting the session. I have decided that an
invisible protest might allow me the illusion of clean hands, but as a
bioethicist I have a moral responsibility to do more.
Professional meetings are usually inappropriate venues fr political
action. Yet, the inclusion of the Chairman of the President's Council
on
Bioethics, on the ASBH program Thursday, 1:15-3:15, is political. I
shall
be protesting Kass & Fukuyama's positions, actions, and inclusion on
the
program with silence (NO APPLAUSE). Protest signs (my favorite so far
is
"SAVE LIVES, CLONE STEM CELLS.") or leaving in the middle of the speechare other possibilities. I invite you to share your ideas in this
forum
as well.Yours,
Rosamond Rhodes
Rhodes' is accessible by email at Rosamond.Rhodes@mssm.edu. Alex Capron and others have argued that a protest would be inappropriate or unseemly. McGee has replied that a protest is right on target and on time.
Labels: ASBH, Bush, Glenn McGee, misusing bioethics, politics, protest
Monitor on Stem Cells
Somebody at the Christian Science Monitor has decided that it is bioethics week. This stem cell piece does a great job of establishing the real effect that $6 billion in Prop 71 money for stem cell research in California would have on the rest of the nation and on the stem cell debate. Great quotes from Annas, Caplan and Kahn.Labels: bioethics week, California, Christian Science Monitor, George Annas, Jeffrey Kahn, Proposition 71
UN Cloning Situation UPDATED
Leave it to the Christian Science Monitor to produce the first thoughtful description of the current state of the UN debate concerning the several versions of proposed international bans on several kinds of cloning technologies. UPDATE: The vote has stalled again as New Scientist reports in this great piece.Labels: Christian Science Monitor, cloning, cloning prohibitions, international bans, New Scientist, United Nations
Bioethics Tenure and Moves from Penn
The Chronicle ran "Penn's Medical School Denies Tenure to 2 Bioethicists" in this week's issue, in a piece whose purported focus was the move of McGee from Penn to Albany. Jeffrey Brainard commented on the tenure situation in the Penn department of medical ethics. Brian Leiter blogs the topic.Labels: AMBI, editors, Glenn McGee, Penn, tenure
Medtronic (Again)
A Des Moines hospital employee has filed suit over alleged Medtronic pacemaker kickbacks in excess of $1 million. This is one of the bigger, clearer conflict of interest and kickback scandals of the past five years. Miles is quoted.Labels: Conflict of Interest, Medtronic, scandals
Chris C Mooney - Kerry Speech
Chris C Mooney is always on top of everything. He blogs the Kerry speech, which included an introduction by Reeve's widow.Labels: blogging, Christopher Reeve, politics
Primate Cloning - Schatten Results from ASRM
Gerald Schatten's work in primate cloning has led to a number of primate pregnancies, and although there have not yet been births, Schatten and his amazing group at Pittsburgh are using a number of techniques aimed at both primate cloning and at harvesting - in the longer term - hES-like pluripotent cells. This is huge news in the stem cell world and points to some interesting vulnerabilities in oocytes - it is better to "squeeze" than to "suck out" the nucleus. More in NatureOnline.Labels: Gerald Schatten, hESC, primate cloning
Profile: Jane Maienschein's Consortium
Arizona State's bioethics program continues to grow, as discussed in this piece about their new multi-institutional consortium and its public programs. ASU has been in a hiring cycle for quite some time.Labels: Arizona, bioethics centers
Around the World News
It is a huge day for bioethics news.Interesting non-U.S. perspective on the positioning of Bush and Kerry on embryonic stem cell research and abortion, finds that there is great confusion and deception in both campaigns.
Jakarta Post announces a national bioethics body for Indonesia.
They must love George in the U.K., where he has just attacked their stem cell policy, reports The Times London.
LifeNews reports that the Dutch law extending euthanasia to children is being attacked in several ways in public policy forums.
Labels: abortion, bioethics, Britain, ethics of politics, hESC, hodge-podge, Holland, stem cell research
Major IVF Study by Genetics & Public Policy Center
Kathy Hudson and the gang reviewed an enormous pool of data - 2,500 papers - on comparative IVF/non-IVF incidence of hereditary or other disorders and found that there are slightly elevated, and greatly elevated risks. It will be interesting to see how this data is institutionalized in clinical ART care!Labels: genetics, IVF, reproduction
Caplan & NYT on Flu Shot "Public Health Disaster"
From the MSNBC column. Chris Mooney posts the New York Times review of the facts about the whole flu vaccine problem, which is also must-reading.Labels: Art Caplan, New York Times, vaccines
National Review on Kerry on Abortion
Dr. Kathleen Raviele, a Georgia obstetrician, on Abortion & Election 2004 on National Review Online.Drug Industry Ghostwriters
The Health Care Blog noted some new analysis and numbers about drug firms writing major articles on behalf of clinicians - articles that continue to make their way into major peer reviewed journals. David Healy is quoted. Industry Veteran fumes about THCB's seeming moderation on the issue.Labels: bad behavior, big pharma, blogging, ghost writing
Kass Will Now Officially Say Anything
The Independent UK reports on Leon Kass' latest extraordinary statements. Kass is on the stump, although this time not so much for the President as against every nation that wants to do hES research using nuclear transfer. He is speaking on behalf of all the, um, yet to be created. "Britain is wrong. A woman's body should not be a laboratory for research or a factory for spare body parts. No child should be forced to say, 'My father or mother is an embryonic stem cell'." For what it is worth, there is no evidence that producing 5 day-old blastocyst-like organisms through nuclear transfer would make reproductive cloning any more likely to work. But the metaphor is great: little people alone and alienated, crying out "my mommy is a cell! my mommy is a cell!" The other members of the Presidential Bioethics Council must be so proud of this heroic effort.Labels: Britain, hESC, human cloning, Leon Kass, President's Council on Bioethics, reproduction, say anything
The Web Made Me Sicker
University College London studied the health effect of the use of interactive tools, including the web, by patients with chronic illness. The study found that while the patients were more knowledgeable, they had no improvement in health outcomes or were in fact more ill.Labels: chronic illness, educated patients, health outcomes, internet, University College
Who Stole My Husband's Brain?
A report of the NHS in Britain today that at least 21,000 brains were harvested from deceased patients between 1970-1999. The study was motivated by a campaign by a woman from Manchester who discovered that her husband's brain was removed after he committed suicide in 1987. The study seems not to have provided any insight into the exact percentage of tens of thousands of brains that were harvested without consent, but it is clear that "there had been widespread failure to do so..." Researchers are fearful that the outrage concerning "stolen brains" will radically reduce the amount of brain tissue available in the U.K..Labels: Britain, NHS, stealing cadaver tissue
From MCW - Drafting Docs
Will President Bush begin drafting physicians and under what circumstances? James Hughes posted this NYT piece at MCW-B/E.Labels: draft, military, New York Times
Cholesterol Guidelines Become Morality Play
An interesting piece the AP has out out that has appeared in many newspapers around the country discusses the huge conflicts of interest that exist between many of the leading physicians responsible for new guidelines on cholesterol. - David MagnusLabels: Conflict of Interest, David Magnus, morality plays
Ezekiel Emanuel IOM Fellow
...among this year's class of fellows he is the only bioethics/medical humanities person.Labels: bioethics scholars, Ezekiel Emanuel, fellowships, IOM
Please, Someone, Teach These Journalists?
In the fiftieth poorly-researched assisted reproductive technology piece of the year, New Scientist lets us all in on the big news of the week: the Brits have "applied for a license" for something that is "banned" - yes banned - in the U.S., supposedly: "creating children with three parents." You have to be curious as to whether they just make these little snippets up...three person reproduction isn't banned in any national or even in any state law. The truly interesting thing is that New Scientist was able to miss any of the facts about the multiple egg issues in either the literature or even among those who work on these questions all the time. So get ready for a spate of "three moms" pieces!Labels: Britain, common sense, confused journalists, exaggerating claims, intentional obfuscation, poor research, reproduction
A Tax Break for Organ Donors?
From Christian Science Monitor.Labels: organ donation, organ transplants, tax breaks, UNOS
Washington Post: Erasing Your Memory
Rob Stein asks what the problems would be with erasing traumatic memories. Magnus and Dresser are quoted.Labels: David Magnus, erasing memories, Washington Post
Another Op Ed Asks Why the Bioethics Council Head is Stumping for Bush
From Mass High Tech.Labels: Bush, Leon Kass, President's Council on Bioethics
Paul Root Wolpe on Neuroethics
Technology Review "Picking Your Brain" picks Paul's brain.Labels: neuroethics, Paul Root Wolpe, technology
I'm not Fat, I Just Have an Overabundance of Stem Cells
The search for a source of versatile stem cells may have landed on your belly bulge. It turns out that the best source of adult stem cells may be in our fat deposits, which would be great news. It is far easier to get fat -- which people are happy to donate -- than bone marrow or other sources of cells. Also, if we get to the point where we can use our own adult stem cells to create tissues for ourselves when we need them, almost all of use have enough fat cells to donate. While fat stem cells are not a replacement for embryonic stem cells -- which are more versatile, live forever, and can be engineered for experimentation with a host of diseases -- it is an exciting development to know we have a virtually inexhaustible supply of adult stem cells in such an easily accessed, dispensable tissue.Labels: adult stem cell research, fat
Better Performances Through Chemistry
The New York Times reports in its Sunday "Arts and Leisure" Section about classical musicians using drugs to calm fears before performances. It has been an open secret for some time that doctors prescribe beta-blockers, as well as other drugs, to quell performance anxiety. This article reports that, in the classical music world at least, its use is ubiquitous. Some doctors have prescribed one-time use for nervous grooms or people scared to fly; but should they be routinely used by performers who find their calming effect improves their performance?Labels: anxiety, beta-blockers, music, New York Times, off-label use, performance anxiety
A Paraplegic's View on Stem-cell Research
This month it has been a seller's market for bioethics "talks" on stem cell research. Every organization in the nation seems to be inviting ever bioethics scholar in the nation, and more than a few dozen ministers and lobbyists and politicians (including many who cannot spell 'pluripotent') to address group after group on hES and the election. On a weekend that Peter Singer (of Princeton) was protested at University of Vermont - giving the Dewey lectures - for discussing stem cells and disability, it seems important to note the perspective often adopted by several of the disability organizations and many with disabilities: stem cell research debates, and perhaps the research itself, can lead to odd and pernicious views of disability, it is argued. Kelly Hollowell offers one such view in the WorldNet.Labels: bioethics scholars, disability, hESC, Singer, stem cell research
Scientists Highlight Bad Science in (Often Bad) Movies
Science news reports that scientists are trying to teach the public about bad science by using the science found in popular movies. The American public is notoriously ill-informed about science and medicine. Why not use their love affair with the movies to try and educate them? That is exactly what some scientists are trying to do, using popular movies as a vehicle to illustrate what science can and cannot do, what is good science and what is bad. While most of the examples in the article are about physics and geology, bioethical issues are commonly portrayed on television and the in cinema, and movies can sometimes be the best vehicle for raising discussion -- as Jurrasic Park did for genetic engineering of endangered and extinct species.Labels: bad science, education, media and bioethics, movies
All Science, All the Time
This morning the first all-science television network launches, leading with a bioethics of stem cells program. The network is financed broadly and will soon be on many cable networks and all of satellite. Zoloth is quoted.Labels: bioethics commentary, media and bioethics, television
Harvard Team Seeks to Clone Embryos
The Washington Post is reporting this morning - mistakenly as best one can determine - that Harvard is attempting to create the first cloned human embryos for medical research in the U.S. The piece mentions that UCSF tried and failed to harvest stem cells from embryos. But as early as 1996 a team at the University of Massachusetts was working on identifying cells for harvesting from cow-human embryos, whose nucleii were human, embryos which were created using somatic cell nuclear transfer. Previous reports of cloned human embryos from both China and Korea have also resulted, albeit much later and in one case in Chinese, in publications ... Weiss reports that another such attempt at ACT failed, but that misses the point: Harvard hasn't done it either, so the only news here is that someone ELSE is trying. The question of whether it can migrate into "the private sector" has already been answered! Rick Weiss reports that the group at Harvard is waiting on approval from Harvard's ethics "boards" by which he means IRBs, but as Rick knows very well the IRB doesn't review "ethics" in the sense in which he is describing "ethics boards." It's an important piece spun to be more important - and it illustrates the problem with creating accurate reporting about the most complex political issue to hit science in a long time.Labels: ACT, chimeras, human cloning, media and bioethics, media spin, Washington Post
Implantable Chip to Store Health Records
The New York Times announced a new implantable 'Identity Badge' chip for health care that goes under the skin. It is about the size of a grain of rice and can hold your health care records. Interestingly, it is not only the usual objections of surveillance and privacy that the paper writes about, but also the fundamentalist Christian worry that it could be the "mark fo the beast" warned about in the Book of Revelation.Labels: fundamentalism, identity chips, mark of the beast, New York Times, privacy advocates, rfid
CORRECTED Parents Fight to Keep Dead Son on Life Support
KSL, the NBC affiliate from Salt Lake City reports yesterday on a confrontation in a children's hospital between parents and doctors over whether or not a 6 yr old boy is dead. The parents maintain that he is alive and that there is hope for him to continue on a trajectory that KSL describes as "filled with miracles." The photos in the story are remarkable. Doctors declared "very" pronouced death meaning that there is internal decomposition; an injunction has been filed to stop action by the physicians. The story has not been mentioned in any of the listservs. CORRECTION - Armand Antommaria of Utah corrected us on our assumption that KSL is in St. Louis. Oops.Labels: controversy, death, end of life, life support, when children die
DeCode Funded by NIH to Study Genetics of Infectious Disease
Jon Merz pointed us to this amazing piece on the funding of Iceland's for-profit genomics company, DeCode, which has official authorization to conduct population-based genomics research using the health histories and gene samples from Icelanders. NIH is funding a study of the genetics of infectious disease and vaccine response, which would access genome-wide scans of Icelanders. But does funding from NIH, though, imply the Fed's assent - or might anyway - to DeCode's "presumed consent" model?Labels: DeCode, for-profit genomics, genomics, Iceland, NIH, vaccines
Male Homosexuality Described as Heritable...Again
An article in the Royal Society's Biological Sciences Journal makes the argument that a "gay trait" is passed in the context of higher fertility. It is a peculiar argument indeed.Labels: genes, homosexuality, strange arguments
The Tissue Culture & Art Project
This web site defies description. Suffice it to say that The Tissue Culture & Art Project is a thoroughly unusual chronicle of the efforts to grow all sorts of things from human and animal cells.Labels: bio-art
Face Transplantation
The New York Times has devoted an essay in its health section today to The American Journal of Bioethics Target Article on Face Transplantation. The story has, Taylor & Francis tells us, been front page news in - get this - more than 800 newspapers worldwide. The Times piece, though, is the first significant mass media editorial on face transplantation and it puts a bioethics journal squarely into the mix. We're pretty happy about that. It is all the more rewarding that the exchange comes from our friends at Hastings Center!Labels: AJOB, face transplants, Hastings Center, New York Times
Health Care System is Broken
This is a great start to a 5 part series that the SF Chronicle is running on the problems with the U.S. health care system. While (unfortunately) they don't turn to any of the bioethics folks who work in this area, there are a lot of good economists and health services researchers who weigh in and the piece is quite substantial--and very scary for anyone who has been trying hard not to think about the cliff we seem to be heading towards. CORRECTED: link was broken! - David MagnusLabels: David Magnus, healthcare costs
Prop 71/Stem Cell Conference in Los Altos
Proposition 71, on the Nov. 2 ballot, poses a quandary for California voters. The "California Stem Cells for Research and Cures Initiative" entails two major questions: Should the state of California assume additional debt through a constitutional amendment? Should the state of California fund contentious research and development in an area that has been typically carried by the federal government, biotech, big pharmaceutical companies and venture capital? Community Connections of Los Altos has scheduled two discussions with experts in the scientific and ethical communities so voters can be better informed. Henry T. (Hank) Greely, law professor at Stanford University, and Jennifer C. Lahl, the national director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, will discuss the ethical issues surrounding stem cell research 7-9 p.m., Oct. 17. The talks will be moderated by Los Altos Hills resident Tom Gutshall, CEO of Cephied. Both talks will be held at Main Street Cafe & Books, 134 Main St., Los Altos. - David MagnusLabels: California, David Magnus, Proposition 71, stem cell research
Christopher Reeve Dies
The New York Times reports on 'Superman' and "Crusader for Stem Cells"Labels: Christopher Reeve, death, obituary, stem cell research
Brain-activated Computer...Here
USA Today profiles the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehab conference presentation of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems' new device trial. The patient / subject in the trial is able to control a computer through more than 100 sensors implanted in his brain, enabling him to open email, control a television and play Pong "with 70% accuracy." Cyberkinetics, along with Neural Signals and other small companies growing with money from DARPA and investors, is moving along a path that many describe as "suddenly explosive."Labels: brain-activated computer, Cyberkinetics, DARPA, paralysis
Pew Online Drug Study
Pew finds that 26% of Americans have purchased prescription drugs on the Internet.Labels: online drugs, Pew
WMA "Clarifies" Helsinki Declaration
The World Medical Association issued a press release today concerning paragraph 30 of the Declaration, which reads that "At the conclusion of the study every patient entered into the study should be assured of access to the best proven prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic methods identified by the study." In what might be the most significant shift in the history of the Declaration, the WMA amended it to read: "The WMA hereby reaffirms its position that it is necessary during the study planning process to identify post-trial access by study participants to prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures identified as beneficial in the study or access to other appropriate care."Labels: Helsinki Declaration, human subjects, World Medical Association
Did the FDA Work Against Revealing Vioxx Findings?
Washington Post quotes an FDA official, David Graham, who indicates that in fact he was told to "water down" the report on the hazards of Vioxx.Labels: FDA, intentional obfuscation, scandals, Vioxx, Washington Post
First Person Account of "Soldiers as Guinea Pigs"
An ex-commander of the Dover AFB says his troops were used as guinea pigs in illegal medical experiments under the anthrax vaccine program. Dover has become the most important location in which the program occured, so this claim is an important one.Labels: anthrax vaccine program, Dover AFB, human guinea pigs, illegal medical experiments, vaccines
Updated: Leon Kass on Playing Politics?
Playing Politics With the Sick is the title of Leon Kass' editorial concerning politics and stem cells. Given the title of his Op Ed, it is particularly interesting that he does not distance himself or recuse himself from his official political role or from the opinions of other members of the Presidential Bioethics Council. In fact his affiliation in the piece is listed as chairman of the President's Council of Bioethics. Kass is speaking at ASBH this month; it will be interesting to see if that is raised. Is it a problem?? UPDATE: Chris Mooney argues that Kass' use of science in the editorial is ironic and incredibly misleading.Labels: ASBH, Leon Kass, politics, President's Council on Bioethics, stem cell research
UPDATED: ES Cells Save Embryos
onwisconsin.com and Washington Post are running pieces on Memorial Sloan-Kettering's work aimed at saving mouse embryos who were destined to die, using mouse embryonic stem cells. Robert Schatz of Scripps in La Jolla describes the procedure as "the birth of a new science." The knockout mice had extraordinary cardiac defects, and the stem cells did not change the DNA that had caused those defects. "Instead, [the stem cells] influenced the young mice's ability to express certain genes." Benezra: "stem cells act like nurses, restoring 'sick' [embryonic] cells to health." The human implications are already in trials using adult stem cells. This is huge news, and it will be interesting to see how quickly it makes its way into the mainstream media. The ethical issues are going to be no fun at all for those who oppose hES research. AND UPDATE: Here's the first piece on the ethics of the matter: Medical News of Today.Labels: adult stem cell research, embryonic stem cell research, ethics of bioethics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Washington Post
Derrida Dead
The "father of deconstructionism" has died of cancer at age 74, and an obituary in The New York Times filed today is just the beginning of what will likely become a more mainstream appraisal of the significance of his work.Labels: death, Derrida, New York Times
Blogging the "Healthcare & Science" Aspects of the Debate
You know blogs have come a long way when the best debate coverage concerning healthcare - hands down - is on the blogs. The partisan stuff includes The Official Kerry-Edwards Blog and The Official Campaign Blog of Bush/Cheney. But virtually every analyst has a blog - most have a special blog for the debate! The most popular blogs are also the most anachronistic - yet they demonstrate why they are popular in that they all have much more polling and other information than CNN or MSNBC websites. See the DailyKos and of course, at your own risk, Wonkette.Wisconsin Worries it Will Fall Behind in Stem Cell Research?
Gazing at the California initiative proposed in Proposition 71, the Wisconsin Journal Times speculates that Wisconsin may fall behind. Now, this would be a reasonable fear in most US states. But Wisconsin? As Alta Charo acknowledges, "UW-Madison has strong adult and embryonic stem cell programs for now because all the federally allowed embryonic cell lines are at the university..." Finally, someone comes close to admitting that Wisconsin benefits enormously from the policy presided over by its former governor, HHS head Tommy Thompson. It is arguably a huge advantage, giving enormous intellectual property protection to the corporation started by Wisconsin's alumni association to hold (and collect fees for licensing) patents on the discoveries of James Thompson and colleagues at Wisconsin, and to collect fees for the use of Wisconsin's "Bush-approved" cell lines. Those patents, by the way, cover a huge range of activities in embryo engineering and science - virtually ensuring Wisconsin a place at the table in any embryonic stem cell-based IP dispute. So it is a surprise that Charo notes that Wisconsin "should be, by far, the single state everybody in the world looks to for the first, best discoveries on both embryonic and adult stem cells. And we're not."Labels: Alta Charo, brain drain, hESC, state stem cell politics, Wisconsin
Wynia New ASBH President
The votes are tabulated and informed minds tell us that Matthew Wynia MD PhD, Director of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association and assistant professor of medicine at Chicago, has been elected President of the American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities.Labels: American Medical Association, ASBH, Matthew Wynia
Clinical Ethics Fellowship in Houston
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center invites applications for a full-time, one-year Fellowship in Clinical Ethics. The Fellowship provides an intense clinical and research ethics experience for individuals with advanced degrees (both pre-doctoral and post-doctoral) at one of the premier cancer centers in the world. Each Fellowship is uniquely tailored for the strengths and needs of each Fellow. Stipend, health care benefits, and some travel expenses are offered. Deadline for applications is February 1, 2005. For additional information, log on at: http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/clinicethics/ or contact The Clinical Ethics Service, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Unit 365, Houston, Texas, 77030-4009. Telephone: 713-792-8775. Fax: 713-745-0674. Email: vsalleyh@mdanderson.org.Labels: clinical ethics, fellowships
Updated: Howard Brody Offers an Apology
The Oct 5th Lansing, MI City Pulse offers a look into Howard Brody's changed thinking on the right to die. This is a great piece, written as only Brody can, that comes out of a previous column he had written on eugenics. Those reading about Schiavo and disability will be very interested. New: readers who found the Brody piece here let the MCW listserv crowd know about it, starting another rant-a-thon there; e.g., Wesley Smith praised Brody (albeit for sharing his own position).Labels: disability, eugenics, Howard Brody, right to die, Schiavo, Wesley Smith
Genentech Subpoena over Rituxan
Genentech has been asked to turn over marketing materials for its cancer drug Rituxan in an event that may signal increasing FDA crackdown of off label marketing. Regardless of the outcome in this particular case, off label drug use raises several interesting ethical issues. This is discussed in this piece in Red Herring. - David MagnusLabels: cancer drugs, FDA, Genentech, off-label use
CEER Grant Totals
In case you missed it (we did), The Chronicle ran a piece discussing the new NIHGR ELSI core grants, including disclosure of the total funding amounts. In case anybody from Case, Duke, Stanford, or UW is tuned in: guys, it is your turn to throw an ASBH party...Labels: grants
Women's Bioethics Project
The Seattle Times' piece on the Women's Bioethics Project notes that this new and fairly innovative organization is in pretty dire need of startup funding. Contact information is in the article.Labels: Kathryn Hinsch, Seattle Times, Women's Bioethics Project
StemClone Digest
Just brought to our attention, but unread as of yet: StemClone Digest is an online journal on that set of issues.Labels: cloning, online journal, stem cell research
France on hES: Here Come the Cells
CordesNews reports that France is set to import hES cells under its new "law on bioethics", passed in July of this year. "Supernumerary frozen human embryos conceived in vitro and without a parental project" may be used to derive cells, create lines and in experiments utilizining the derived cells.Labels: bioethics policy, France, hESC, laws
Virginia Tech: "A Number": A Play about Human Cloning
A new play by Caryl Churchill that "dramatizes our anxieties about our individuality and identity that are stirred up by the looming possibility of cloning" will be premiered at a VT conference about human cloning on 10/28.Labels: bioethics on broadway, conferences, human cloning, theater
Update: Salk & Stem Cells
We previously noted the Salk hES ethics symposium. They've put up video, including "teachable" talks from Wolpe and Zoloth; those are available here.Labels: California, hESC, Paul Root Wolpe, Proposition 71, Salk, state stem cell politics
New Jobs @ Princeton & Minnesota
The University Center for Human Values at Princeton invites applicants for a tenure-track assistant professorship. Applicants may represent any home discipline, with scholarship and teaching devoted explicitly and in significant measure to ethical and normative issues. Applicants may represent any home discipline, with scholarship and teaching devoted explicitly and in significant measure to ethical and normative issues. The Ph.D. and evidence of teaching excellence and scholarly promise are required. Applicants should send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, a short writing sample (one article or one dissertation chapter), and 3 letters of reference. For full consideration, applications are due by October 15, 2004, but will be considered until the position is filled. Send application materials to: Assistant Professorship Search Committee (please specify "Assistant Professorship") University Center for Human Values 304 Louis Marx Hall, Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Associate Director of Research and Education at the "Consortium and Joint Degree Program" of the Consortium on Law and Values at Minnesota.Labels: jobs
Pew Poll Out Today on Stem Cell Opinion
Pretty sophisticated polling data about changes in public opinion about politics and stem cells was released from Pew - this will figure in the next Presidential debate for sure. This from A.Caplan.Labels: Art Caplan, ethics of politics, hESC, stem cell research
Toronto Star Assisted Suicide Op-Ed
Our friends in Toronto let us know of a pretty provocative personal story: Rosie Dimanno writes of her personal struggle with assisted suicide.Labels: assisted suicide, narratives
Chinese News Service: Brazilians Sell DNA Online
This piece is extraordinary: Chinese news agency reporters uncover the dimensions of the Brazilian government probe into online trading of Brazilian Indian DNA. This would appear to be an extraordinary extension of Internet technology in terms of commercialization of DNA outside the scope of the law. What Brazil will do to regulate or enforce existing regulations to restrict such commercialization is, of course, anybody's guess. Brazil supplies research subjects and organ sales to the world, with only limited attempts by the government to restrict such trade. Still, trade of this type in DNA samples goes far beyond what was alleged to be "colonialism" by organized scientific groups gathering samples from indigenous groups around the world. We're translating Brazilian newspapers who have reported on this probe.Labels: Brazil, commercializing DNA, conservation, patents
AP: Mad Cow-like Disease in Brain Surgery
A brain surgery patient at Emory University had a biopsy last month and was revealed to have contracted Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, a variant of the human spongiform encephalopathy. Emory has notified hundreds of surgical patients who were treated during the same period. It is unclear what role if any the surgery had in either the initial infection or in its spread, if any.MSNBC - Stem-cell research a pawn in election politics
Art Caplan's MSNBC.com editorial on stem cell research is easily the clearest defense of hES research during the election cycle, and has already caused a huge stir among Bush supporters and campaign staff.Labels: Art Caplan, Bush, hESC, politics, stem cell research
FT.com: ReNeuron hES Stroke Therapy "Ready for Trial"
Financial Times' David Firn reports that an honest-to-goodness hES clinical trial is ready to start for the improvement of sensory motor abilities lost in stroke.Labels: clinical trials, hESC, ReNeuron, stem cell therapy, stroke
Grow a GM Crop, Go to California Jail
Not everything in California is about stem cells these days. Breaking News Technology section of the Globe and Mail is reporting a new wave of statutes in California counties banning, well, everything about GM crops. The laws are up November 2nd and many have quite significant criminal penalties. This is a first in the U.S.Labels: banning GMOs, California, GMOs, laws
Around Bioethics ...
The Bioethics Discussion Blog today discussed physicians as patients. Not much going on at MCWBIOETHICS in the last three days. YAHOO!Bioethics is afire with discussion of what are alleged to be eugenic arguments at the reprogenetics conference this week in London.Labels: eugenics, physicians make horrible patients, reprogenetics
New INFOCUS Article Up
A new INFOCUS is now up at BIOETHICS.NET and it is pretty unusual for a bioethics journal. The piece, by Wong and colleagues, examines the way in which end-of-life decisions are measured. The analysis of the utility of "Q Methodology" for exploring influences on clinical decision making goes right at the issues in studies like SUPPORT, which attempt to make sense of how different kinds of "bioethics interventions" actually change decisions.Labels: bioethics interventions, clinical decision making, end of life, INFOCUS, Q Methodology
Denver Post on Bioethicist Marilyn Coors
Pete Coors is running for Senate in Colorado, and so once again his wife Marilyn is in the news as a career bioethicist. This profile is not a puff piece but nor is it especially in depth about Marilyn Coors' research. Coors discusses her role as scholar in relation to the role she would hold were Pete Coors elected.Labels: biography, Colorado, ethics of politics, Senate
Schiavo Lawyer Quits; Replaced by Right to Life Atty.
From Art Caplan:Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The attorney who has served as the lead counsel for the last three years for Terri Schiavo's parents stepped down this week. A new attorney who specializes in religious liberty cases will replace her as Bob and Mary Schindler focus on defending their daughter's right to live by saying starving her would violate her religious beliefs. On Tuesday, longtime Schindler attorney Pat Anderson vacated her position in favor of Florida lawyer David Gibbs, who is a member of the board of directors of the Christian Law Association. Anderson said the change has nothing to do with a change in legal tactics or division between her and the Schindler family. Anderson told LifeNews.com that the Schindler family believes Gibbs will be more than capable in representing him. "Bob [Schindler] has great confidence in David, and I wish him the best in the coming battles," Anderson said.
Labels: Art Caplan, lawsuits, religious liberties, Schiavo, Schindlers
Washington Post: DNA Damage from Smoking
Yet another story framed in terms of how behaviors can cause damage to the genetic makeup of cells was released by the AP, although only the WPost picked this one up.Labels: bad behavior, genes, Washington Post
