Talk about perfect timing. Just on the heels of Tuesday’s fantastic event at HLS on the Guatemala STD Inoculation studies (video to come soon), the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has released A Study Guide for “Ethically Impossible” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948. This is the Commission’s first foray into pedagogy,…
TODAY 12:30-2:00 Wasserstein Hall, Classroom 3019 Harvard Law School In the late 1940s, US and Guatemalan researchers conducted a host of experiments on vulnerable Guatemalan subjects, purposefully exposing them to, and infecting them with a number of STDs without their consent. The experiments were kept hidden for more than half a century, until they were discovered and…
Well, hopefully we’ll know the fate of the ACA by tonight. But even if President Obama wins, there will still be uncertainty about the fate of the contraceptives coverage mandate. A number of employers claim that the mandate violates their rights to religious freedom by requiring them to offer free coverage for medical products and…
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 12:30-2:00 Wasserstein Hall, Classroom 3019 Harvard Law School In the late 1940s, US and Guatemalan researchers conducted a host of experiments on vulnerable Guatemalan subjects, purposefully exposing them to and infecting them with a number of STDs without their consent. The experiments were kept hidden for more than half a century,…
Next Tuesday, those of us registered in Massachusetts will have the opportunity to vote on “Question 2” – prescribing medication to end life, otherwise known as physician-assisted suicide. As described by the state secretary, “This proposed law would allow a physician licensed in Massachusetts to prescribe medication, at a terminally ill patient’s request, to end…
Yesterday, President Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released its fifth report: Privacy and Progress in Whole Genome Sequencing. I haven’t had a chance to digest it yet, but for now, just wanted to call it to everyone’s attention. The gist seems to be privacy, privacy, privacy. Here are the major recommendations, straight from…
Ok, so we’ll have a NEJM-heavy day today! But you’ve got to check out one more thing, statements from the presidential candidates on the future of American health care. This was the topic of a hugely successful Petrie-Flom Center event earlier this week, which was – sadly – off the record. We heard from the candidates’…
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 public funding before cuts…
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 in health care. Mark…
What do you think? Is queer bioethics a new academic discipline? If so, is it one we can hope not to need at some point in the future as tolerance increases, etc.?
