By I. Glenn Cohen I am writing this post from a terrific conference on Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest In Research Universities, hosted at Harvard Law by the Petrie-Flom Center and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. One set of fascinating questions that has been raised is when the university should reign in the ability of…
By Arthur Caplan Weighing in on Question 2, Massachusetts’ ballot initiative on physician-assisted suicide, Art Caplan says we should vote “yes”: Mass. should legalize physician-assisted suicide Of the numerous ballot initiatives that will be decided at the state level on Tuesday, none is more hotly contested than the Massachusetts bill to decide whether to legalize physician-assisted…
By Nadia N. Sawicki Litigation challenging the PPACA contraception mandate continues, and last week’s decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in O’Brien v. HHS brings the total number of decisions on the merits to two (three cases – Nebraska v. Sebelius, Wheaton College v. Sebelius, and Belmont Abbey v.…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch Our friends over at the New England Journal of Medicine just alerted us to a new perspectives piece addressing the impact of cutting family planning funds in Texas (the piece was also picked up by Politico). The authors interviewed 56 leaders of organizations throughout the state that provided reproductive health services using…
By Nadia N. Sawicki In 2010, Illinois issued an administrative rule requiring that pharmacies dispense all lawfully prescribed drugs, including emergency contraception, or face sanctions. Last week, an Illinois appellate court in Morr-Fitz v. Quinn held that Illinois’ Conscience Act prohibits enforcement of the rule as applied to the plaintiffs, pharmacy owners with ethical convictions…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch Related to the conversations we’ve been having lately on conscience, I wanted to point you to a relatively new book on the topic by Mark Wicclair: Conscientious Objection in Health Care: An Ethical Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 2011. From Amazon: “Historically associated with military service, conscientious objection has become a significant phenomenon…
By Erin Talati In my last post, I puzzled over the boundaries of the state’s right to step in to protect the interests of children over the religious wishes of their parents, prompted by the question of whether it would be appropriate to prophylactically transfuse the child of a Jehovah’s Witness in order to minimize…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch Over at The Hastings Center’s Bioethics Forum blog, there’s an interesting post from Rosana Triviño addressing the difference between conscientious refusal and civil disobedience, in relation to Spain’s new law limiting care for undocumented immigrants. This links nicely to some conversation we’ve been having here at Bill of Health as to whether…
By Holly Fernandez Lynch Great new Perspectives piece by Lisa Harris out in NEJM on the need to recognize that conscience can compel action, not only refusals to provide certain types of care (including abortion). Elizabeth Sepper makes a similar argument in her forthcoming article in the Virginia Law Review. First, let me just say that…
