This is the third of the dilemmas considered here. To allow childbirth, it is necessary to surgically open an infibulation. After delivery, women (and their husbands) ask for restoration of the infibulation (re-infibulation), which involves re-suturing. MSF opposes re-infibulation and works to ensure that it is not undertaken in its delivery facilities. Although MSF opposes this practice, […]
Latest articles
MSF Dilemma # 2: Sterile Equipment
This is the second of the dilemmas considered here. MSF teams have faced situations where a nurse who is part of the community, who understands the importance of sterile procedures, asks to use MSF’s sterile equipment to perform FGM. MSF is often the only source of sterile equipment in the area and the team has […]
MSF Dilemma # 1: HIV and Stigmatisation
This is the first of the dilemmas considered here: The stigma around HIV can be high. A diagnosis can lead to rejection by family and community, and in some instances, a person suspected to be HIV-positive may even be killed. Where MSF is not running a programme offering antiretroviral therapy or where referral is impossible, […]
New JME, New Threads
The editor’s choice paper in the latest JME is Sheather and Shah’s “Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Humanitarian Practice: Cases for reflection from Medecins Sans Frontières”. Because it’s the editors’ choice, you should be able to access it for free. The paper outlines four moral dilemmas, each presented with an ethicist’s response. Over the next day or […]
Conference: Synthetic Biology: A Better Future?
This workshop looks potentially interesting. Public Dialogue Wednesday 9 March Lindisfarne Centre, St Aidan’s College, Durham University 5pm Wednesday March 9th Programme 5.15 pm Introduction to the Meeting – Dr Patrick Steel (Durham University) 5.20 – 6.45 pm A series of short talks from experts in the field providing a personalised view of synthetic biology and its […]
Wow. Nebraska, Iowa and Georgia… just Wow.
I mentioned a few days ago the proposed law in South Dakota that would provide a defence of justifiable homicide for to those accused of killing abortion doctors. That proposal was shelved… but reports keep coming in of proposed laws, each of which is crazier than the last. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a […]
Assisted Suicide in Oregon: a Counterblast from the Antis
Ilora Finlay and Rob George* have a new paper in the JME that takes issue with Battin et al‘s 2007 paper, concerning who makes use of physician assisted suicide in Oregon and Holland. Battin’s claim had been that there was no evidence of heightened risk for the elderly, women, the uninsured (inapplicable in the Netherlands, where […]
Book Review: Pascal Bruckner, “Perpetual Euphoria”
Woodstock: Princeton UP, 2010; 244 + xii pp This has to be one of the most French books I’ve ever read. Pascal Bruckner has written a whole book taking aim at happiness – a kind of obtuseness that is, on the face of it, the preserve of a particular kind of Gallic writer – and “the […]
Wow. South Dakota… just Wow (part 2).
I think that this is worthy of its own entry, rather than just an update of the one ↓down there↓; South Dakota has shelved its lunatic proposed law on justifiable homicide. When even anti-abortion activists were against it, that was probably inevitable. On the other hand, it’s only been shelved. Things can come off the […]
Wow. South Dakota… just Wow.
I’m a bit bowled over by this. There’s a Bill currently before the South Dakota legislature that would, if passed, change the scope of justifiable homicide laws. FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to expand the definition of justifiable homicide to provide for the protection of certain unborn children. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF […]