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Medical Ethics

Beyond Guantanamo: Torture Thrives in Connecticut

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 11.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Geneva Conventions, Medical Ethics, Law, Rape, Arthur Caplan, Physicians, Crime, American Medical Associaton, Prisoners, Civil Rights, William Coleman, Guantanamo, Connecticut, Edward Blanchette, World Medical Association, Human Rights, Health, Doctors, Prisons, Medicine, Bioethics, Torture, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

In the case of Coleman v. Lantz, Connecticut has argued for the right to force feed a hunger-striking inmate in an excruciatingly painful manner.

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Health "Insurance": A Criminal Enterprise

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 11.02.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Law, Politics, Human Rights, Crime, Harry Truman, Health Care Reform, Henry Waxman, Health Insurance, Bioethics, Health Care, Medicine, Barack Obama, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

I have little doubt that the day will soon arrive when the CEOs of health "insurers" are dragged before Congress to face the same sort of interrogation to which the Waxman Hearings subjected Big Tobacco in the 1990s.

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The Scientists' Bark

G.A. Bradshaw | Posted 10.15.2009 | Green

Read More: Medical Ethics, Neuroscience, Nature, Animal Rights, Charles Darwin, Frans De Waal, Evolution, Chimpanzees, Mammals, Animals, Bioethics, Culture, Green News
G.A. Bradshaw

The author of Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity examines new findings from primatology and neurobiology.

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"Mercy Killing": When Love & Law Conflict

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 09.25.2009 | Politics

Read More: Murder, Medical Ethics, Jim Fish, Politics, Montana, Right to Die, Crime, Assisted Suicide, Jack Kevorkian, Washington, Oregon, Paul Weinstein, Euthanasia, Bioethics, Health Care, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

The blame in two murder cases rests squarely with a society that forces devoted husbands and wives to choose between the welfare of their spouses and the letter of the law.

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Anticipating the Incapacitated Justice

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 09.22.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Supreme Court, Law, US Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justices, Senior Citizens, Living Wills, Constitution, Bioethics, Death, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

While it is a disturbing truth that our nation will someday likely confront the tragedy of an incapacitated Supreme Court justice, it is not at all clear which justice that will be.

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Upper East Side Ethics

Sheila Shayon | Posted 09.01.2009 | Living

Read More: Medical Ethics, Pediatricians, Albert Schweitzer, Childhood Vaccinations, Health Care Reform, Moral Responsibility, Health Insurance, Health Care, Business Ethics, Living News
Sheila Shayon

And then it dawned on me -- laser sharp -- our whole system is vulnerable. In my own little corner of the world, I had stumbled over another truth at the root of our collective, unbridled greed.

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The Ultimate Prescription: Make Us Decide How We Want To Die

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 08.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Senior Citizens, Assisted Suicide, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Medicare, Bioethics, Health Care, Barack Obama, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

While all Americans should have a right to decide how they want their lives to end, it does not follow that they should be able to avoid confronting such a choice.

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Next: Assisted Suicide for Healthy People

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 08.16.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Law, Politics, Switzerland, Human Rights, Assisted Suicide, Health, Bioethics, Health Care, Medicine, Privacy, Canada, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

If Betty Coumbias had only six months left to live and expressed a desire to die, most assisted-suicide advocates would support her cause. Why should she have any less control over her life because she is in good health?

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Motherhood: Is It Ever Too Late?

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 08.15.2009 | Living

Read More: Medical Ethics, Women's Rights, Women, Late Motherhood, Women's Issues, Personal Health, Motherhood, Parenting, Ivf, Women's Health, Health, Women and Politics, Living, Bioethics, Medicine, Health Care, Living News
Jacob M. Appel

Births to women in their late fifties and early sixties are no longer international news. Whether they are empowering or irresponsible has been a matter of ongoing debate.

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A "Supreme Court" for Bioethics?

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 08.09.2009 | Politics

Read More: Stem Cell Research, Medical Ethics, Abortion, Supreme Court, Politics, Philosophy, Health, Ethics, Obama Administration, Technology, Euthanasia, Sperm, Bioethics, Health Care, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

The recent decision by President Obama to disband his predecessor's Council on Bioethics raises important questions regarding the role of professional bioethicists in contemporary society.

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Celebrity "Roadkill": A Black Box Warning for Physicians

Gary Cohan | Posted 07.31.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Medical Ethics, Michael Jackson, Dangerous Controlled Substance, Drug Addiction, Roadkill, Physicians, Celebrity Culture, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Doctor Shopping, Beverly Hills, Self-Esteem, Justice Department, Prescription Painkillers, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Just Say No, Fame, Opiates, Drug Enforcement Administration, Deepak Chopra, Drug Abuse, Heath Ledger, Narcotics, Pain Medications, Hippocratic Oath, Celebrities, Hollywood, Black Box Warning, Entertainment News
Gary Cohan

How can a vulnerable physician resist the temptation to "bend the rules" for these "tabloid elites?"

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The Coming Ethical Crisis: Oxygen Rationing

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 07.28.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Pandemic Preparedness, Natural Disasters, Health Care Rationing, Triage, Swine Flu Pandemic, Swine Flu, Health Care Reform, Euthanasia, Bioethics, Health Care, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

One of the questions that will face our society when a future pandemic proves more deadly is how our public health authorities ought to allocate ventilators.

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Regulating Abortion May Be OK But Not To Avoid Sex-Selection

Marianne Mollmann | Posted 07.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Abortion, Sex-Selection, Sex Selective Abortion, Sex-Selective-Abortion, Politics News
Marianne Mollmann

The solution to the prevalence of sex-selective abortion is to remove the motivation (emotional or real) behind the procedure by advancing women's human rights and their economic and social equality.

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Concerned About Coerced Abortions? Try Saying No to Cesarean Surgery

Lynn M. Paltrow | Posted 05.25.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Birth, Abortion, Women, Coercion, Pregnant, Cesarean Section, Woman, Pregnancy, Legislation, Reproductive, Cesarean-Section, Health, Cesarean, Hospitals, Missouri, Episiotomy, Medical Costs, Medicine, Vbac, Politics News
Lynn M. Paltrow

The rise in cesarean surgery rates has not been accompanied by overall improvements in maternal or child health and creates risks to pregnant women and babies that do not exist with vaginal births.

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Should We Really Fear Reproductive Human Cloning?

Jacob M. Appel | Posted 05.06.2009 | Politics

Read More: Medical Ethics, Stem Cell Research, Politics, Organ Transplant, Obama Stem Cell Research, Reproductive Rights, Raelians, Embryonic Stem Cells, Bioethics, Cloning, Stem Cell Cloning, Politics News
Jacob M. Appel

The president has not explained precisely why he opposes reproductive cloning. Is his opposition solely based upon the health risks of cloning techniques, or on moral grounds?

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Hey Mr. Bioethicist, Scientists are Not Amoral

Michael Eisen | Posted 04.09.2009 | Politics

Read More: Morality, Stem Cell Research, Bioethics, Stem Cells, Medical Ethics, Science Scientists, Sceince Ethics, Ethics, Politics News
Michael Eisen

This conflation of science and scientists is offensive and ignorant. In my experience, no one has thought about the moral side of scientific issues more deeply than scientists.

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Medical School Ethics At Issue

New York Times | DUFF WILSON | Posted 04.03.2009 | Business

Read More: Medical Ethics, Doctors, Pharmaceutical Industry, Medical School Ethics, Medical School, Pharmaceuticals, Doctors Ethics, Business News

UPDATE: Senator Charles E. Grassley on Tuesday asked the drug maker Pfizer to provide details of its payments to at least 149 faculty members at Harva...

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Octuplet Mom Reinforced Single Mother Stigma

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Posted 03.10.2009 | Living

Read More: Medical Ethics, Kaiser, Nadya Suleman, Fertility Drugs, Pregancy, Multibirths, Octuplets, Living News
Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Whatever happens, Suleman was right that single mothers do unfairly get beat up on for creating societal ills. Unfortunately she insured that the beating will continue.

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Courting Controversy: Cosmetic Limb Lengthening Surgery

Dr. Rock Positano | Posted 03.28.2008 | Living

Read More: The Full Life, Cosmetic Limb Lengthening, Medical Ethics, How to Grow, Limb Lengthening, Living News
Dr. Rock Positano

Medical miracles are sometimes stark but painful. Case in point: limb lengthening procedures advanced at a leading New York Hospital. Akash Shulka, a ...

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