It would appear that France is being forced to grapple with the idea of saviour siblings in a case that looks to be in essence a copy of the UK’s Hashmi case from 2002. That case concerned a couple who wanted to screen embryos to ensure compatibility in order that cord blood from the baby […]
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Public Debate: Organ Donation
Organ donation: the cost of not giving: A public debate Thursday 17 March 2011, 6.30-8.00 Watershed, Bristol, BS1 5TX This public event will bring together people involved in organ donation and transplantation to discuss the current situation in the UK. You will have a chance to hear about the complexity of transplant coordination, the harrowing […]
What’re your Qualifications?
“I’ve never read a more outrageous job advert,” says a colleague’s Facebook update, in reference to this from Georgetown University. Georgetown University is seeking outstanding candidates for the position of Director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center (CCB). The CCB Director will report directly to the Medical Center’s chief executive officer, the […]
Chris Mooney Interviews Arthur Caplan (.mp3)
There’s a podcast of an interview between Chris Mooney and Arthur Caplan available here; Caplan is talking about bioethics having “come of age”. He’s talking about the history of the US bioethics councils under Bush and Obama, and about how the focus of the President’s Council now is more policy-driven than being concerned by “deep” […]
Promoting Wise Behaviour, or Mandating it?
Following on from yesterday’s vaguely pro-paternalism post, my eye was drawn to this story, concerning a prisoner who has won the right (or, rather, had the right confirmed) to have high-energy foods sent to him while he’s in chokey. The beeb has a few crowd-pleasing splutters about the crime for which he was imprisoned, but […]
Legislating for Wisdom
The decision of legislators in Northern Ireland to vote in favour of a bill requiring cyclists to wear helmets has apparently been met warmly by medics. It would appear that some people have raised a worry that requiring such behaviour might lead to an overall drop in health, on the grounds that people will be […]
Spanish Medical Law Blog
José Fernándes has drawn my attention to this blog, Medicina y Derecho (Medicine and Law) which may be of interest to Spanish-speaking readers. My own grasp of the language is (alas) too poor to allow me to say anything about the blog’s interests, or what’s going on there; maybe someone could give a quick assessment in the […]
Scientific Publicity and the Dilemmas of Publication (part II)
Following on from the post ↓down there↓ about the publication of potentially dangerous results, and as if by magic, into my inbox comes a cfp from the journal Medicine Studies for a special edition about responsibility in biomedical practices. Details are below the fold. […]
Scientific Publicity and the Dilemmas of Publication
There’s a short interview with David Nichols in last week’s New Scientist in which he talks about his place in the history of the production of “legal highs”. The backstory is that he was doing work on MDMA (ecstasy) with half an eye on using it in the treatment of psychiatric and neurological conditions. […]
NHS Treatment and Failed Asylum-Seekers
A medical student from Newcastle writes: I am currently writing an ethics assignment relating to a paediatric placement I undertook earlier this academic year. During the placement I was involved in the care of 11-month old twins from Khartoum, Sudan, whose parents had brought them into hospital because they were suffering from recurrent generalised tonic-clonic […]