'Clinical ethics' Category
The Nazi Medical Research Data: Use It or Lose It? (12)
In today’s podcast, we talk about one of the most egregious abuses of ethics in modern history: the horrible medical experiments carried out by Nazi physicians during WWII. Should we make use of the data that the Nazi doctors obtained, even though it was often gathered by taking the lives of Jewish prisoners in death [...]
Cash for Kidneys?
In a move that is likely to stir debate, medical and public policy groups are suggesting some fundamental changes in the way we regard organ transplantation. Consider the case at a New York medical center where a woman and her brother were both operated on at the same time. One of the woman’s kidneys was [...]
Making Moral Decisions in Medicine
Our guest blogger this week is Matt Tabbut, a second-year med student (and Cedarville alumnus) at Chicago’s Rosalind Franklin University. At this stage of my medical education, I have begun to look at some practical ethics case studies. There are a few beacons, or waypoints, that I use to help guide me in making decisions. [...]
Dr. Death is on the Loose
On June 1st, Jack Kevorkian was released from prison, after serving eight years of a longer sentence for second-dgree murder. A participant in at least 130 assisted suicides during the 1990s, he is still unrepentant. Constrained by conditions of his parole, he can speak publicly about laws to allow doctors to assist in suicide, but [...]
Aborting the Less-Than-Perfect
During early fetal development, sometimes the esophagus fails to develop normally, a condition known as esophageal atresia. This happens once in about 3500 pregnancies, and doctors can frequently diagnose this condition by ultrasound prior to birth. Except that sometimes the doctors are wrong. In a teaching hospital in Florence, Italy, a woman had an abortion [...]
Viable Thinking About Life
Back in 1973, Justice Blackmun in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision said that states could not prohibit abortion until after “viability.” This is the moment when the unborn child could possibly survive outside of the womb. According to Blackmun, “Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, [...]
Centering on Bioethics (5)
Our February Podcast features an excerpt from a radio interview about the new Center for Bioethics at Cedarville University. We also examine three news stories with bioethical implications: a new, ethically neutral source for ‘embryonic’ stem cells, a controversial medical treatment for a handicapped child, and a happy ending for a Katrina baby that was [...]
Of Babies and Body Parts
This holiday season is all about new life. But in a cruel parody of the Christmas story, grisly news has emerged from the Ukraine. According to the BBC News Service, it appears that healthy newborn babies have been slaughtered as a source of stem cells. Video evidence from actual autopsies reveals dismembered infants, and raises [...]
Abandoning the Prime Directive?
In his Epidemics, the great healer Hippocrates gave this advice: ‘As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to help, or at least to do no harm.’ The Roman physician Galen said it more compactly, as ‘primum non nocere,’ meaning, ‘first of all, do no harm.’ Since the era of Hippocrates, the keystone [...]
Desperate Donors
Anyone who doubts that there are terrible human rights abuses in the world should consider the latest news on “transplant tourism.†This is the practice where rich Americans go overseas to a less developed country to purchase an organ for transplant. Perhaps you have kidney failure, and don’t wish to endure the long wait for [...]
