Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons^™

Aids Denialism, Erika Jenel Delos Santos, Roy Llana, Jocelyn Tan

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

AIDS denialism is a growing issue in many parts the world. Through scholarly journal articles, book resources and other research tactics, further understanding how HIV/AIDS denialism is unethical can be distinguished. Discovering that AIDS is most prominent in South Africa explains why denialism is as critical as it is. However, the unethical aspect of AIDS denialism is in effect particularly amongst families. When a South African inhabitant realizes they have AIDS, they feel outcasted by their families due to shame. They fear as though they will be disowned because they have flaws that are unacceptable. These family values are significant …

Vaccines Controversy, Jackelin Ruiz, Keith Wellman

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Our research was conducted on a Vaccine controversy which raised the question on ethics, morality, safety and effectiveness of vaccination on children. The case study we focused on was about a study done by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and twelve other Colleagues, which was published in a well know journal The Lancet. The study has recently been retracted because an investigation found that he failed to mention that his research of the MMR vaccine was funded through solicitors seeking evidence to use against vaccine manufactures (Deer, Brian). To conclude our research we compared the current vaccination rates with the rates …

Organs Watch: Possibilities And Perils For Public Anthropology, Roberto Abadie

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Recent technological advances in biomedicine have introduced new therapeutic possibilities but have also contributed to the emergence of a global market for human bodies and body parts. For example, artificial modes of human reproduction created a market for eggs, semen, and surrogate wombs. In addition, organ transfer generated a demand for kidneys and half livers. The whole body has become a valuable commodity as professional research subjects venture into the economy of Phase I Clinical Trials, testing drug safety for pharmaceutical companies. In the process, the trade has become a deeply unequal one in which poor, vulnerable, and easily exploited …

Bioethics And Biosecurity Education In China: Rise Of A Scientific Superpower., Barr S. Michael, Joy Yueyue Zhang

Book Chapters

This chapter explores ethics, education and the life sciences in China. It is based on work conducted by the authors in two separate but complimentary projects. Barr’s observations derive from interviews and discussions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with life scientists and policymakers in infectious-disease hospitals, university-research labs, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Ministry of Health. Zhang’s study focused on China’s governance of stem-cell research and involved interviews with scientists, ethicists and policymakers at more than 25 sites across China. Below, we set the context by describing the role of science in China’s quest to become a leading …

Prevention Of Mother-To-Child Transmission (Pmtct) Of Hiv In The Sub-Saharan Africa Region With A Focus On Uganda, Emily K. Franks

Senior Honors Theses

With the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the past thirty years, people of all ages, infants to elderly alike, all over the world, suffer from its adverse effects. Even an unborn baby in-utero can contract this virulent infection by means of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) (Sweeney, 2005). Infants and children diseased in this way comprise 90% of the estimated 800,000 new cases of HIV in children seen each year, but the region hit hardest, however, is Sub-Saharan Africa, with the country of Uganda historically having the highest incident rate for a time (Stringer, E.M., et al. 2008). Therefore, the purpose …

Public Health Ethics: Establishing “Durable Solutions” Within The Global Polio Eradication Initiative In Nigeria, Tiffany T. Mason

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Discussions on public health ethics often appeal to the same codes of conduct established in the field of bioethics. Principles of bioethics contribute to the morality of the study of public health—proposing an optimal code of conduct in the medical care and human research aspects of the field. For example, public health researchers are aware of their obligations to consider informed consent, confidentiality, and the equal distribution of risks and benefits in the implementation of their studies and interventions. However, public health practice extends far beyond medical care and human research. Thus, it is inappropriate to assume that codes established …

Ethical Considerations Of Genetic Presymptomatic Testing For Huntington's Disease, Alberto Coustasse, Alicia Pekar, Andrew Sikula Sr., Sue Lurie

Management Faculty Research

The aim of this literature review was to determine if there is adequate ethical justification for presymptomatic genetic testing on potential Huntington's disease patients. Huntington's disease is a neurological genetic disorder characterized by midlife onset which consists of cognitive, physical, and emotional deterioration. Although genetic testing has traditionally been guided by the principle of autonomy, severe psychological consequences such as depression, anxiety, survival guilt, and suicide have complicated the ethical issue of providing a presymptomatic yet definitive diagnosis for an incurable disease. An analysis of available articles yielded inconclusive findings, namely due to insufficient evidence, self-selection bias of test participants, …

Variables In Health Care Policy Making: Resolving A Quandary, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Contemporary debate in health care resource management is tied to a central moral issue: how to achieve the optimum level of reasonable or appropriate treatment based on the medical condition of each patient. Failure to tackle and resolve this issue in a confident and forthright manner ensures that the present approach to health care decision-making will continue in a state of indecisiveness if not, indeed, lethargy. Undergirding this moral issue is the foundational economic dilemma of controlling costs while limiting access to health care resources. Crafting a just solution to an equitable distribution of finite health care resources is, indeed, …

To The Bitter End: Disparities In End-Of-Life Care, Alberto Coustasse, Theresa Quiroz, Sue G. Lurie

Management Faculty Research

Although technological advancements have provided the means to sustain life and provide care regardless of whether the treatment is appropriate and compassionate given the condition of the patient, bioethical, legal, and moral concerns related to disparities in care still arise in the United States. These concerns call into question the necessity to continue life-sustaining or palliative care treatments when patients and/or families are faced with end-of-life decisions. This study will focus on various historical, clinical cultural, and ethical issues that have placed this dilemma into a controversial public spectrum, by using case studies retrieved from referenced literature, which illustrate disparities …

Book Review: Social Justice: The Moral Foundations Of Public Health And Health Policy, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay is a review of Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy by Madison Powers & Ruth Faden (2006).

In this pathbreaking book, senior bioethicists Powers and Faden confront foundational issues about health and justice. How much inequality in health can a just society tolerate? In a world filled with inequalities in health and well-being, which inequalities matter most and are the most morally urgent to address? In order to answer these questions, Powers and Faden develop a unique theory of social justice that, while developed for the specific contexts of public health and health …

Update - March 2005, Loma Linda University Center For Christian Bioethics

Update

In this issue:

-- Review and Critique of Statements on Abuse and Family Violence
-- Seventh-day Adventist Statements on Women's Issues
-- Response to "A Statement on Women's Issues"
-- Seventh-day Adventist Statements on Abuse, A Statement on Abuse and Family Violence
-- Seventh-day Adventist Statements on Abuse, A Statement on Family Violence
-- Seventh-day Adventist Statements on Abuse, Statements on Child Sexual Abuse
-- Editorial

Physician Incentives: Managed Care And Ethics, Douglas A. Mains, Alberto Coustasse, Kristine Lykens

Management Faculty Research

The authors review the principle features of the managed care system in an effort to understand the ethical assumptions inherent in managed care. The interrelationships among physician incentives, responsibilities of patients and the physician-patient relationship are examined in light of the ethical concerns identified in the managed care system. The managed care system creates ethical tensions for those who influence the allocation of scare resources. Managed care's administrative controls have increasingly changed the doctor-patient relationship to the businessperson-consumer relationship. Managed care goals of quality and access demand that physicians be both patient advocate and organizational advocate, even though these roles …

Distributive Justice And Health Care, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The challenge of contemporary health care distribution is to structure a framework for normative decision making whereby the goal of distributive justice is achieved equitably for as many citizens as possible. Establishing fair procedures for the distribution of health care resources is a crucial goal for contemporary society to set and, hopefully, to achieve. It is only by and through deliberate debate within a democracy that assumptions, for example, about aging, the value of life for the aged and intergenerational responsibilities of assisting them in their care can be set, tested or - as the case may be - rejected. …

Trends. The Privileged Status Of The Physical In Health Ideology: The Security Consequences Of Aids, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the importance of recognizing both physical and psychological factors of the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) pandemic on security.

An Analysis Of The Changing Forces Behind Health Insurance Coverage Of Homebirth, Christina Anne Gasbarro

Dissertations and Theses

The expansion of managed care, which is premised on containing costs while maintaining market share, represents a radical transformation of the U.S. health care system. A central question for medical sociologists is to determine how the changes brought by managed care influence health insurance and health care options. In evaluating the impacts of managed care, obstetrics is a particularly important site of study. Part of this agenda involves gathering baseline data on a specific transformation in obstetrics practice new to the managed care scene: the emergence of health insurance coverage for the option of home birth. The research project detailed …

A Peculiar Logic Of Pro-Abortion Advocacy, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies a weakness in pro-abortion advocacy and how this weakness can be resolved to support said advocacy.

Update - July 1995, Loma Linda University Center For Christian Bioethics

Update

In this issue:

-- Gender Discrimination in the Medical Community

[ Responses to the American Medical Association of the Use of Anencephalic Neonates as Organ Donors ]
-- Maintain the "Dead Donor Rule"
-- Stairway to Hell
-- Let Parents Choose
-- Revisiting the Issues

Ethnic Minorities And Mental Health: Ethical Concerns In Counseling Immigrants And Culturally-Diverse Groups, Gemima M. Remy

Trotter Review

Between 1980 and 1990 nearly 9 million foreign-born individuals migrated to the United States. In 1993, the Immigration and Naturalization Service recorded the entry of over 900,000 immigrants and refugees. This figure is believed to be higher given the estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million people who enter this country illegally each year. Currently, ethnic minority groups make up one-fourth of the United States population. It is estimated that by the year 2000, one-third of the U.S. population will be comprised of ethnic minorities. As the population of the United States becomes increasingly diverse, considerable attention is being directed to a …

Patients As Subjects For Research: Ethical Dilemmas For The Primary Care Clinician-Investigator, Susan F. Slatkoff, Peter Curtis, Ann L. Coker

CRVAW Faculty Journal Articles

Background: Past studies suggested an association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). In 1987, University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals Family Practice Center clinicians were approached for a control population to study this association. Methods: One hundred fives patients attending the UNC Hospitals Neoplasia Clinic with biopsy-proven CIN 2 or 3 and 268 control patients attending the UNC Family Practice Center for a routine Papanicolaou smear were enrolled in this case-control study. Case and control patients consented to having an additional cervical specimen taken and to being interviewed. The cervical specimens were classified by the Southern blot …

Update - March 1993, Loma Linda University Center For Christian Bioethics

Update

In this issue:

-- Loma Linda offers Masters of Arts in Biomedical and Clinical Ethics and assists Claremont with Theological degree

[ Depo-Provera: Contraceptive Dream or Nightmare? ]
-- A Gynecologist's Perspective
-- Some Catholic Moral Reflections

-- Doctor of Philosophy at Claremont

Awareness Of And Rights Related To The Patient Self-Determination Act Of 1990 By Selected Post-Adolescent College Students, Toni M. Vargas

Community & Environmental Health Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Patient Self-Determination Act was effective in providing information to young adults and will young adults not only have an accurate understanding of their health care rights but sufficient opportunity to exercise those rights. From a sample of convenience, 83 college students were randomly selected to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 71 questions devised to reflect various aspects of the Patient Self-Determination Act. Five additional questions were asked to determine a generalized profile of the students. Data analysis of the responses identified 5 significant legal misunderstandings and 5 significant medical …

Genetic Discrimination: The Use Of Genetically Based Diagnostic And Prognostic Tests By Employers And Insurers, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper analyzes the law, ethics and public policy concerning "genetic discrimination," defined as the denial of rights, privileges or opportunities on the basis of information obtained from genetically based diagnostic and prognostic tests. The Human Genome Initiative will enhance the ability to gather and organize information that may predict a person's future potential and disabilities. Enormous human benefits may ensue from understanding the etiology and pathophysiology of genetic disorders, including disease prevention through genetic counseling, and treatment of the disorders through genetic manipulation. This information will help clinicians understand and eventually treat many of the more than 4,000 diseases …

Ethical Principles For The Conduct Of Human Subject Research: Population-Based Research And Ethics, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper provides a halting first step in organizing a set of ethical guidelines for the conduct of population-based research, surveillance and practice. These principles are not distinct from, but an expansion of, traditional ethics. Research ethics, which matured significantly from the Nuremberg Code through to the Helsinki IV and the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) guidelines, nourished the individual human spirit. Ethical principles should have a similarly profound impact in the development of science and the protection of human populations in the 1990s and beyond.

Assisted Noncoital Reproduction: A Comparative Analysis, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

This article, written in the last ten years of the 20th century, presents an historical metric of geopolitical, socio-legal, ethical, medical, and religious responses to noncoital reproduction in Australia, Britain, Germany, and the United States — as well as the various efforts of the United Nations — to protect reproductive freedoms as human rights. From this analysis will come an understanding of how these responses shape normative values, principles, regulatory policies and laws which in turn seek — at various levels — to monitor and even control scientific inquiry, advance social justice and safeguard procreative liberties for women. The U.S. …

The Aids Epidemic: A Prism Distorting Social And Legal Principles, Alec Gray

New England Journal of Public Policy

The AIDS epidemic is affecting American society in far-reaching and unexpected ways. It touches our institutions, our value systems, and our private lives. Social issues seem to change and become distorted by the epidemic 's prismlike effect. This article examines some of the major public health issues raised by the epidemic, ranging from testing to contact tracing and quarantine. It argues that while the civil rights of individuals may have to be sacrificed to stem the spread of the disease, those rights should not be abandoned unless a clear benefit to the public health would result.

Issues of discrimination in …

Hiv Antibody Screening: An Ethical Framework For Evaluating Proposed Programs, Ronald Bayer, Carol Levine, Susan M. Wolf

New England Journal of Public Policy

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) poses a compelling ethical challenge to medicine, science, public health, the legal system, and our political democracy. This report focuses on one aspect of that challenge: the use of blood tests to identify individuals who have been infected with the retrovirus human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In this article, we follow the terminology recently proposed by the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses; that is, we use the term human immunodeficiency virus. This replaces the more cumbersome dual terminology of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus (HTLV-III/LAV).

The issue is urgent: the tests are …

Ethical Issues In Aids Research, Michael A. Grodin, Paula V. Kaminow, Raphael Sassower

New England Journal of Public Policy

There is a need for carefully controlled and scientifically rigorous research studies of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The morbidity and mortality associated with AIDS patients and the public health concerns for control of this epidemic have distorted the usual process of research. The Institutional Review Board at Boston City Hospital is suggested as an appropriate mechanism for clarifying the distinctions between research and innovative therapies and for assuring the protection of this vulnerable population of research subjects. This article addresses ethical concerns relating to the time frame of research, drug and antibody testing, vaccine trials, and questions of justice …

Health Care Expenditures In Maine 1978 : A Funds Flow Analysis, Bruce Armstrong

Maine Collection

Health Care Expenditures in Maine 1978 : A Funds Flow Analysis

by Bruce Armstrong, Research Consultant

Maine Department of Human Services, Bureau of Health Planning and Development, Division of Data and Research, Augusta, Maine (August 1981).

Contents: Preface / Highlights / List of Tables and Figures / Introduction / Definitions / Health Expenditures / Sources of Funds / Type of Expenditure / Comparison of Maine and U.S. Per Capita Expenditures

Trends In Health Care Expenditures, Maine 1974-1978, Bruce Armstrong

Maine Collection

Trends in Health Care Expenditures, Maine 1974-1978

by Bruce Armstrong, Research Consultant

Maine Department of Human Services, Bureau of Health Planning and Development, Division of Data and Research, Augusta, Maine (August 1981).

Contents: Preface / Highlights / List of Tables and Figures / Yearly Tables / Trend Illustrations and Tabular Descriptions

Informed Consent And Medical Experimentation, George H. Martin Jr.

IUSTITIA

Certain biomedical technologies already or almost already with us "threaten to reduce the meaning of man and to degrade the human spirit in the very process of becoming technologically feasible, long before the final stage of deployment and widespread use has been reached." It is this threat that has prompted me to consider certain medical and legal problems associated broadly with the human experimentation process. I shall be examining the concept of "informed consent" to both experimental medical therapy and nontherapeutic scientific experimentation as a means of protecting man from the potential ravages of a zealous application of scientific advances …