This week's article (for 12/8 meeting)

We will be revisiting the issue of the direct to consumer retail DNA test this week, since many of you were not able to attend our discussion earlier in the semester. Please read the following article, from Time Magazine's Inventions of the Year 2008, for background information about this topic:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854493,00.html

This week's article

We will be discussing the article, "Awaking From a Coma: What Did the Doctors Miss?" about Rom Houben, a Belgian man who was assumed to be in a complete vegetative state for 23 years before doctors realized that his brain was fully functioning. The article appeared on Time online on November 28,2009. You can access the article here:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1943277,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

In addition, here is an article about this issue that was published on the New York Times News Blog:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/doubting-a-medical-miracle/?scp=1&sq=rom%20houben&st=cse

Some more bioethics news

Following the new mammogram recommendations, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued new guidelines for cervical cancer testing.

Read about it more here:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/health/20pap.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=cervival%20cancer%20recommendations&st=cse

more bioethics news

We discussed the issue of mammogram recommendations and preventive medicine at a committee meeting last year. This week, the US Preventive Services Task Force made a new recommendation that women should start receiving mammograms at age 50 and every other year, in place of the current recommendation that women should receive yearly mammograms starting at the age of 40. This recommendation has resulted in intense controversy about the role of doctors, the government and individuals in the practice of preventive medicine.



You can read more about it here:




http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/health/18mammogram.html



Please note that there are MANY, MANY articles currently being written about this issue. This article is meant to provide an brief overview of the topic, but if you are interested, we encourage you to read further!

Bioethics news

This article discusses the controversy and eventual conclusion of a case about baby RB, a 13 month old boy on life support with myasthenia gravis.




Please read the article below to learn more about this important bioethics issue.





http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/15/uk.baby.dies/

Follow-up to this week's meeting

In response to your questions at this week's meeting, here are some links which provide additional information about bone marrow and the donation process:



http://www.apamsa.org/programs/bone-marrow-drive/bone-marrow-donation-procedure



http://rarediseases.about.com/od/rarediseasesb/a/bmt05.htm



Here is an article which discusses the potential efficacy of postmortem bone marrow donation:

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/reprint/16/1/1020.pdf

This week's Bioethics Committee meeting article

This week, we will be discussing the article, " Patients Sue for Right to Buy Life-Saving Bone Marrow" which appeared in the Foxnews.com health section on November 8, 2009.
Please access the article through this link:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573030,00.html

As always, feel free to comment on the article!