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!