By Patrick O’Leary Looking back over last month’s health-related news, two articles published on The Atlantic’s website stand out to illustrate a tension that has received a great deal of focus in Medicare reform circles, and that seems to be a political sticking point for many otherwise promising cost-reduction strategies. In his September 10th article The…
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 Michele Goodwin In recent months, women’s reproduction has been in the spotlight. A few weeks ago, the Republican Party adopted an anti-abortion platform calling for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion and making no exception for victims in cases of incest, rape, or to save the woman’s life. Ironically, some of the very same party…
By I. Glenn Cohen Over at Concurring Opinions, Dave Hoffman (via TMZ), writes: Tagg Romney (son of Mitt) and his wife Jen entered into a surrogacy contract which contained a clause purporting to require the surrogate to abort on demand given a particular set of contingencies: We’ve learned Tagg and his wife Jen, along with the…
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…
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…
[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).
By Erin Talati In the intensive care unit, almost every decision can be made into life or death. For some children whose parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses the need for a blood transfusion becomes quite literally a life or death decision. As clinicians, we struggle with maintaining a relationship with the family, while advocating for what…
