The Continuing Debate on Stem Cell Research

Judge Rejects Stem-Cell Suit
Mark H. Anderson and Maya Jackson-Randall
Wall Street Journal
July 27, 2011

The appeals court also determined that the National Institutes of Health had reasonably concluded government funding for embryonic-stem-cell research isn't prohibited by a 1996 law that bars the use of federal money for research in which an embryo is destroyed.

Link: Podcast, Stem Cells: The Ethics Debate Begins Anew, Glenn McGee, PhD, August 27, 2010

Reforming Human Subject Research

Reforming the Regulations Governing Research with Human Subjects

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., and Jerry Menikoff, M.D., J.D.
New England Journal of Medicine
July 25, 2011

Since 1991, there has been almost no change to the Common Rule. Yet research with humans has substantially increased in volume, with more international and multisite studies, more health-services research, and more research with biospecimens.

Links:

Protecting Research Subjects with Diminished Capacity – Balancing Research Needs with Ethical Concerns, Center policy brief, Summer 2006

Assessing Social Issues of Research, Summer McGee, The Bioethics Channel, May 19, 2011

Center in the News

To deal with aging population, we need more effective planning
Sandra Silva
Kansas City Star
July 27, 2011

We must acknowledge that the unprecedented increase of older adults in our region will insist we address areas such as caregiving, health/technology, housing, mobility/transportation, social/civic engagement and work force development from a perspective that includes and serves all those who work, live and participate in commerce.

Dr. Richard Payne on Bioethics
Up to Date
KCUR Radio
July 26, 2011

Steve Kraske talks with Dr. Richard Payne of Duke University about how cultural narratives and diverse perspectives might need to be a more significant part of ethical decision-making. We'll explore the key bioethical issues facing minority communities, low-income patients and others who have not always had full access to the health care system.

Was it futile?

Jim deMaine, MD
Blog: End of Life – thoughts from an MD
July 24, 2011

After three weeks in the ICU, Mary's heart stopped and the nurses, much against their wishes, had to perform fruitless CPR. Mary thus died in a traumatic way, ribs broken from chest compressions, suffering the kind of technological imperative that's sarcastically referred to by the staff as "medical last rites."

For more and to comment click here.

Rationing Just Medical Care

Lawrence J. Schneiderman, MD
The American Journal of Bioethics
July 2011

U.S. politicians and policymakers have been preoccupied with how to pay for health care. Hardly any thought has been given to what should be paid for—as though health care is a commodity that needs no examination—or what health outcomes should receive priority in a just society

In the July 2011 edition of The American Journal of Bioethics Dr. Lawrence Schneiderman presents a rationing proposal, consistent with U.S. culture and traditions, that deals not with “health care,” the terminology used in the current debate, but with the more modest and limited topic of “medical care.”

Links:

· Table of Contents, The American Journal of Bioethics, July 2011
· Podcast, The Bioethics Channel, July 22

Giving Chronic Pain a Medical Platform of Its Own

Tara Parker Pope
New York Times
July 18, 2011

“Most people with chronic pain are still being treated as if pain is a symptom of an underlying problem,” said Melanie Thernstrom, a chronic pain sufferer from Vancouver, Wash., who wrote “The Pain Chronicles: Cures, Myths, Mysteries, Prayers, Diaries, Brain Scans, Healing and the Science of Suffering” and was a patient representative on the committee.

“If the doctor can’t figure out what the underlying problem is,” she went on, “then the pain is not treated, it’s dismissed and the patient falls down the rabbit hole.”

Links:

Pain is REAL: The Meaning of Pain and Suffering, Melanie Thernstrom, presentation during bioethics symposium April 26, 2011

What's Next? The IOM Report on Pain, Myra Christopher, The Bioethics Channel

Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research, Institute of Medicine

Bioethics: Ripe for Transformation

Richard Payne, MD
Standard bioethics is ripe for transformation. Richard Payne, MD of the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life explains why in this edition of the Bioethics Channel.

Dr. Payne will talk about this issue during the Flanigan Lecture July 26, 2011 in Kansas City, MO. For more information and to register click here.

Links:
Bioethics: Ripe for Transformation, Richard Payne, MD, Bioethics Channel
Flanigan Lecture information and registration

Preparing Today for Tomorrow's Aging America

Associated Press
July 11, 2011

America’s cities are beginning to grapple with a fact of life: People are getting old, fast, and they’re doing it in communities designed for the sprightly. To envision how this silver tsunami will challenge a youth-oriented society, just consider that seniors soon will outnumber schoolchildren in hip, fast-paced New York City.

Links:

AGING AMERICA: Communities take creative steps to prepare for silver tsunami of baby boomers, Associated Press, July 11, 2011

Developing Independent Senior Living, Kelley Hrabe and Jeremy Whitt, The Bioethics Channel

Surrogates and DNR Decisions

Laura Landro of the Wall Street Journal reports on a study conducted by researchers at Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute. Published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, it found that when a surrogate had to evaluate whether or not to sign a DNR, the decision process took significantly longer than when patients decided for themselves.

Links:

Delays are Frequent When Surrogates Make DNR Decisions, Laura Landro, Wall Street Journal
July 11, 2011

Case Study: Alice’s Frail Mother, Rosemary Flanigan

Case Study: The Ethics of Empacho

Your clinic is located in a largely Hispanic area of the community. You have often treated children whose illnesses have been called “empacho” by their parents.

What is the ethical dilemma you see in this case?

Read here and share your comments.

The Ethics of Translational Research

Lauren Aaronson, PhD
John Lantos, MD
Glenn McGee, PhD

It’s called Frontiers: The Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Based at the University of Kansas Medical Center its aim is to transform laboratory discoveries into treatments and cures.

We’ll talk about Frontiers – and the ethical component of the program – in this edition of the Bioethics Channel.

Link to podcast here.

RSVP Today for Flanigan Lecture

Bioethics and the Underserved: Culture, Values and Justice
Richard Payne, MD
Director – Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
Tuesday, July 26
Reception: 6 pm
Lecture: 7 pm
St. Joseph Medical Center
Alex George Auditorium
1000 Carondelet
Kansas City MO
For more information about this free lecture and to register click here.

June 2011 Top 10 Bioethics Channel

Here are the June 2011 Top 10 Bioethics Channel programs by download.

L2

The State of Global Bioethics, Glenn McGee
Working with a Chronic Disease, Sandy Silva
The Legacy of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Myra Christopher
The Ethics of Research for Pregnant and Fetal Patients, Laurence McCullough
Palliative Sedation: Not a Panacea, Alexander Kon, MD
The Race Between Ethics and Science, Glenn McGee
Honor and Respect in Healthcare, Rabbi Richard Address
Religion and Medicine: Compatible?, John Lantos, MD and Farr Curlin, MD
Assessing Social Issues of Research, Summer McGee
Religion. Healthcare Policy. Do the Twain Meet?, Rosemary Flanigan