Contracts for Pain Meds?

Maine doctors requiring random drug tests before writing prescriptions for pain pills

Lindsay Tice

Sun Journal

November 18, 2012

In an effort to combat Maine’s high rate of prescription drug addiction, doctors are asking patients to sign a controlled-substances agreement that, in part, allows the doctor to ask for a blood or urine sample at any time to ensure patients are taking their pills, rather than selling them, and are taking those pills only.

Link: Pain Contracts – Unintended Consequences, Richard Payne, MD, The Bioethics Channel, April 29, 2010

An Ethical Blindness

President's Bioethics Commission Posts Study Guide Related to its Historical Investigation of the 1940s U.S. Public Health Service STD Experiments in Guatemala

November 15, 2012

The Commission’s findings and ethical assessment of those events, documented in its report “Ethically Impossible” STD Research in Guatemala 1946 to 1948 (released September 2011), illustrate how the quest for scientific knowledge without regard to relevant ethical standards can blind researchers to the humanity of the people they enlist into research.

Link to Podcast: The Moral Culpability of Guatemala, Summer McGee, PhD, The Bioethics Channel, September 19, 2011

The "Slow Code" Debate

Half-hearted medical care for hopeless cases

Robert Cribb

Toronto Star

November 25, 2012

Dr. John Lantos, director of the Children’s Mercy Bioethics Center in Kansas City and co-author of a journal article titled “Should the ‘slow code’ be resuscitated?” says the clandestine practice is happening far more than medical professionals openly concede.

“People say, ‘We’d never do a slow code. But they also say they stop resuscitation after three or five minutes. “I think it’s appropriate to do that. I just think it’s politically incorrect to admit the real rationale. They’re stopping because CPR is futile and inhumane.”

Link to Podcast: Resuscitate the Slow Code? John Lantos, MD, The Bioethics Channel, November 9, 2012

New Kidney Allocation - Ethical?

New Kidney Allocation Proposal Is Ethically Unacceptable

LAINIE ROSS

US News & World Report

November 12, 2012

The designers claim their model will get it right about 75 percent of the time. Knowingly designing a model with a 25 percent error rate, when it determines who has greatest access to the best kidneys, is not morally justifiable.

Second, it is unjust because it singles out diabetes as the only health condition that reduces an individual's chance of being ranked in the top 20 percent of candidates.

Link: Removing Kidneys Before Death, Terry Rosell, PhD, The Bioethics Channel, July 5, 2012

A Voice of Pain -- Maggie Buckley

The Institute of Medicine reports more than 100 millionAmericans suffer from chronic pain at a cost of up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity.

In this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube we introduce a voice of pain - Maggie Buckley. The interview took place September 2012 in Kansas City, MO.

Late End of Life Talk Equal Aggressive Treatment?

Later End-of-Life Discussions May Mean More Aggressive Treatment

Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter

US News and World Report

November 13, 2012

The findings show the importance of talking about a patient's wishes as soon as possible, said study author Dr. Jennifer Mack, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "By having these discussions earlier, patients can understand what's ahead and make decisions about what's good for them."

Link: Having "The Talk" - National Healthcare Decisions Day, Ann Allegre, MD, Sandy Silva, and Gina Johnson.

Employee Enhancements: Ethical?

British academics say technological enhancements to employees raise ethical questions

Associated Press

November 07, 2012

Performance-boosting drugs, powered prostheses and wearable computers are coming to an office near you — but experts warned in a new report Wednesday that too little thought has been given to the implications of a superhuman workplace.

Academics from Britain’s leading institutions say attention needs to be focused on the consequences of technology which may one day allow — or compel — humans to work better, longer and harder.

So why not record a doctor visit?

Pros and cons of letting patients record doctor visits

Ethics Forum

American Medical News

November 5, 2012

Why not take advantage of existing technology by recording the patient-physician encounter? Wouldn’t recording the visit actually improve good communication?

Recording the visit raises several legal and ethical issues. Legally, the parties to the conversation should consent to the recording. The minimum standard set by federal law requires that at least one party to the conversation consent to the taping. Many states set a higher standard, requiring that all parties to the conversation consent to being recorded.

The ethical implications are more far-reaching.

Bioethics and Elections 2012

John Carney, President/CEO 

Center for Practical Bioethics

November 9, 2012

Elections 2012 are over and now it's time to analyze what's next for bioethics. 

John Carney, president and CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics, talks about it in this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube.

DNA Experiment - Promise and Ethical Risks

DNA experiment yields great promise and high ethical risks

Nick Budnick – Religion News Service

Washington Post

October 25, 2012

Future generations could be stripped of mutations like hereditary blindness or maternal diabetes, after a breakthrough study at Oregon Health & Science University.

But the new technique is also one short step from genetic design of future generations, said Marcy Darnovksy of the California-based Center for Genetics and Society.

A Voice of Pain - Seth Haney

The Institute of Medicine reports more than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain at a cost of up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity.

In this edition of The Bioethics Channel with Lorell LaBoube we introduce a voice of pain, Seth Haney. The interview took place September 2012 in Kansas City, MO.

Continuing Confusion Over Advance Directives

Clearing up confusion on advance directives

Alicia Gallegos

American Medical News

October 29, 2012

Data correlate with a May study in The Journal of Emergency Medicine, which found that 78% of physicians misinterpreted living wills as DNRs. 

The nationwide TRIAD III study analyzed 768 responses from medical residents and faculty at training institutions in 34 states. Among respondents, 74% of family physicians, 77% of internists and 80% of emergency physicians misinterpreted living wills as DNRs.

Links:

• Making Your Health Wishes Known
• Adding an Agent to "The Talk", Helen Emmott, Sandy Silva, The Bioethics Channel, March 22, 2012