Bioethics

  • Read more: California Surrogacy Bill Reacts to Lawyer Bad Acts

    California Surrogacy Bill Reacts to Lawyer Bad Acts

    [posted on behalf of Judy Daar] Mishaps in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) breed public outcries and legislative hand-wringing.  It is no wonder a 2011 San Diego-based ART debacle dubbed “an international baby-selling ring” caught the attention of the California legislature.  In a state where elected officials practically swear fealty to the mantra, “there ought to be…

  • Read more: Is the Self Defense Exception Consistent with the Belief that a Fetus is a Person?

    Is the Self Defense Exception Consistent with the Belief that a Fetus is a Person?

    By Yoni Schenker In Glenn Cohen’s first post on this blog, he questioned whether Mitt Romney’s position on abortion was coherent with respect to the rape and incest exception, but did not question the self-defense exception itself.  He addressed the self-defense exception briefly: “Through the well-known doctrine of self-defense, the criminal law has long recognized…

  • Read more: Sunder on Patents and Access to Drugs

    Sunder on Patents and Access to Drugs

    By Frank Pasquale Last week, the blog Concurring Opinions featured a symposium on Madhavi Sunder’s new book, From Goods to a Good Life: Intellectual Property and Global Justice. A chapter relevant to health law scholars is available online, here.  The chapter focuses on access to drugs in less developed countries (LDCs), and makes the following…

  • Read more: New Books on Markets for Organs

    New Books on Markets for Organs

    By The Petrie-Flom Center Over at Market Design, Al Roth has drawn our attention to two new books addressing organ markets: A Market in Organs  (in Kidney Transplantation: Challenging the Future)Miran Epstein    and   Matching Organs with Donors: Legality and Kinship in Transplants (Contemporary Ethnography) Marie-Andree Jacob  

  • Read more: Greenpeace Out to Sea on GM Rice Issue

    Greenpeace Out to Sea on GM Rice Issue

    [posted on behalf of Art Caplan] Greenpeace, perhaps best known for its battles at sea to protect whales and the oceans, has gotten itself involved in a huge controversy over genetically modified food. The group is charging that unsuspecting children were put at risk in a “dangerous” study of genetically engineered rice in rural China. It’s a…

  • Read more: Al Roth on Paying for Leftover Human Tissue Used in Research

    Al Roth on Paying for Leftover Human Tissue Used in Research

    Al Roth has linked to an ongoing debate as to whether paying for leftover human tissue used in research should be repugnant, forbidden, allowed, or mandated. Check it out here.  Which side do you fall on?    

  • Read more: Art Caplan in The Lancet: Death by Refusal to be Turned

    Art Caplan in The Lancet: Death by Refusal to be Turned

    By Arthur Caplan Our blogger Art Caplan has a fascinating new piece in The Lancet today about an elderly patient who refused to be turned in his hospital bed and died from the ensuing bed sores/infection.  Art’s conclusions emphasize both patient autonomy and preserving the ability of health care professionals to provide care in humane…

  • Read more: Upcoming Event – What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, 9/19/12

    Upcoming Event – What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, 9/19/12

    The Petrie-Flom Center will be co-sponsoring this lecture by Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, on his recent book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets published earlier this year. A question and answer period with Prof. Sandel and a small reception will immediately…

  • Read more: Written on The Body: Reflections on Reactions to Funding Sex Re-Assignment for Prisoners

    Written on The Body: Reflections on Reactions to Funding Sex Re-Assignment for Prisoners

    By I. Glenn Cohen Last week, as I mentioned before, Judge Wolf (D. Mass) ruled that Michelle Kosilek, who was born as a man but has received hormone treatments and lives as a woman in an all-male prison, was entitled to the sex re-assignment surgery that the Department of Corrections’ doctor ordered as the treatment…

  • Read more: Art Caplan on sex in nursing homes

    Art Caplan on sex in nursing homes

    [on behalf of Art Caplan] Art Caplan has an interesting new podcast on autonomy, the elderly, and sex.  He argues that clinicians ought to be promoting – or at least discussing – sex among nursing home residents, and how to make appropriate accommodations.  Take a listen (free sign-in required).