This week's article

This week, we will be discussing the ethical concerns about mandatory vaccination. Please read the following article:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202447652557&Court_Denies_Mothers_Bid_for_Religious_Exemption_to_Vaccinations

This week's article

At this week's meeting, we will be discussing the article that Dr. Prager recommended, "The Man on the Table Devised the Surgery" by Lawrence K. Altman, which appeared in the New York Times on December 25, 2006.


Please access the article through this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/25/health/25surgeon.html


Please note that we have RESCHEDULED our meeting this week. It will take place on Wednesday at 9pm. Please check your email for details about the location.

Bioethics news

This article discusses the controversy surrounding The Genetics and IVF Institute, an American infertility clinic, offering free human eggs to randomly chosen attendees at their informational lectures. While compensation for eggs is illegal in Europe and Canada, it is not prohibited in the United States. This article discusses the ethical implications of offering human eggs as a raffle prize, in addition to the practical concerns about differing egg donation policies in the US as compared to those in other countries.



You can read more about it here, " Free human egg prize sparks ethics debate" from the Associated Press, which appeared on CBCnews on March 17, 2010.


http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/17/infertility-egg-raffle-britain.html

Organ donation plan in Israel

This article discusses a new organ donation plan that will soon be launched in Israel. The plan is intended to increase organ donation by rewarding those who sign an organ donor card by moving their family up in line to receive an organ transplant, if they are waiting for one. This plan has been met with controversy as a result of religious beliefs concerning organ donation.


To learn more about the controversy, please read the following article, " From Israel, a radical way to boost organ donation" by Aron Heller, from the Associated Press Online, March 12, 2010.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hREKtl2ittF-I-yB3u5Q7VVX5IRgD9EE6QTG1

Follow-up to bone marrow donation discussion

Last semester, we discussed the controversy surrounding compensation for bone marrow donation. In October 2009, a lawsuit was brought against the state of California to permit bone marrow donors to receive compensation, which is currently prohibited by the National Organ Transplant Act. In February 2010, the government filed a motion to dismiss the case, which was followed by a hearing on March 15, 2010.



Please read the article, " Lawsuit urges payment for bone marrow donors" by Rita Rubin, which appeared on USA Today online on February 24, 2010.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-24-bonemarrow24_CV_N.htm

This week's article

This week, we will be discussing the article, "Transplant Tourism in China: A Tale of Two Transplants" from the American Journal of Bioethics, February 3, 2010.

Please access the article through the following link, and click on one of the "view article" options (HTML or PDF):

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a919064144~db=all

No Bioethics Committee meeting this week

The Bioethics Committee will not be meeting this week. Instead, we encourage you to attend the general AMSA event, "Brutally Honest" from 9-10PM on Tuesday 2/23. E-board members will be on hand to answer your pre-med related questions. Please check your email for details about the location. We'll see you there!

Follow-up to Rom Houben discussion

Last semester, we discussed the case of Rom Houben, a man who was thought to be in a complete vegetative state for 23 years prior to communicating with doctors via facilitated communication. This week, Houben's doctor released the results of facilitated communication tests which indicated that Houben was not actually communicating by this method. These results raise concerns about the use of facilitated communication, and on a braoder level, the use of new technologies in medical practice.



You can read about it here, " Belgian coma 'writer' Rom Houben can't communicate" from BBC online, February 20, 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526017.stm



Also, for more background information about facilitated communication, its usage by autistic children, and the surrounding controversy, please read the article, " 'Helping' Autistic People to Speak" from Time Magazine, May 10, 2006.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1192775,00.html

Brain Scan allows communication with vegetative patients?

This past week, the New England Journal of Medicine published the findings of a study which suggest that brain scan technology may allow communication with patients in vegetative states. The study monitored brain activity in vegetative patients using functional MRI imaging. When responding to a question, the subjects were told to imagine playing tennis, or walking in a familiar area, with each activity activating a different area of the brain and corresponding to either a "yes" or "no" response to the question.



You can read more about it here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020302887_2.html?hpid=topnews



Here is the original article which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine:

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0905370

This past week, the medical journal, The Lancet, published a full retraction of a 1998 article which suggested a link between MMR vaccines and autism in children. This 1998 article played a large role in the recent anti-vaccination movement.



Read more about it here:



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575041544115791952.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

This week's article

We will be discussing end of life issues at this week's meeting. Please read the following article, " Weighing Medical Costs of End of Life Care" which appeared in the New York Times on December 22, 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?_r=2

This week's article

We will be holding our first Bioethics Committee meeting on Tuesday, January 26 at 9PM. We will be discussing the article, "Should Surgeons Meet Patients Online?" which appeared in the New York Times on January 20, 2010.

Please access it through this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/fashion/21Skin.html?ref=health

Accountability for errors in treatment

This article discusses the implications of doctors and pharmaceutical companies accepting accountability for making errors in medical treatment and drug production. Please access the article through the link below. This article, " Is 'Sorry' the hardest word in health care?" appeared in the New York Times Business Section on January 9, 2010:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10stream.html?ref=us

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis

This article discusses the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to choose an embryo that possesses certain characteristics, such as a complementary immune system that will allow for successful bone marrow donation, organ donation or other life-saving clinical purposes. The use of "PGD" raises several ethical issues such as selecting against embryos with hereditary diseases and selecting for non-essential characteristics. You can read more about it in the article which appeared on USAtoday.com, "Embryo genetic screening controversial- and successful":


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2010-01-10-embryo-genetic-screening_N.htm

Brain-Computer interface technology

This article recently appeared on CNN.com. It discusses the growing use of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and the accompanying ethical issues.



You can read the article, "The future of brain-controlled devices" here:


http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/30/brain.controlled.computers/?imw=Y