Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons^™

Addressing Human Trafficking As A Public Health Issue, Frances Recknor, Erica Di Ruggiero, Elsabeth Jensen

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Human trafficking is increasingly recognized as a significant global public health issue. Human trafficking (HT) exists in all nations, including Canada, and is estimated to impact 25 million people globally. HT is a crime that is not always visible. It is associated with a myriad of deleterious health outcomes arising from adverse living and working conditions, and the physical, sexual, and/or psychological violence often accompanying it. Human trafficking also disproportionately affects people living under vulnerable circumstances, particularly those with intersecting vulnerabilities. Public health can advance health equity for trafficked persons and add value to existing anti-trafficking (AT) efforts. Among its …

Chronic Poetics: A Waiting Room Of One's Own, Madeleine Simmons

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This article explores chronic poetics, through my personal lens I take readers on a walk- through of poetry and the discussions surrounding chronic illnesses. I examine the current state of chronic illness and the nuances to its discussion. I analyze chronic illness in the context of disability studies, and touch on the tensions of categorizing chronic illness as a disability. As well as how to best navigate reading chronic poetics, as poets engage in new territories as they form a new language to describe their circumstances. While analyzing multiple poems from different authors, I explore why specifically the vessel of …

Is Detection Of Relapse By Surveillance Imaging Associated With Longer Survival In Patients With Rhabdomyosarcoma?, Stephanie Fetzko, Adriana Fonseca, Mary Frances Wedekind, Abha A Gupta, Bhuvana A Setty, Jeremy Schraw, Philip J Lupo, Robert P Guillerman, Anish A Butala, Heidi Russell, Lauren Nicholls, David Walterhouse, Douglas S Hawkins, Mehmet F Okcu

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: We investigated whether surveillance imaging had an impact on post-relapse survival in patients with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). We hypothesized that relapse detected by imaging (group IM) would be associated with longer survival compared with relapse detected with a clinical sign or symptom (group SS).

Materials and methods: We performed an observational multi-institutional study in 127 patients with relapsed RMS comparing overall survival (OS) after relapse using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses.

Results: Relapse was detected in 60 (47%) group IM and 67 (53%) SS patients. Median follow-up in survivors was 4 years (range 1.0 to 16.7 y). Four-year OS …

Outcomes Associated With Timing Of Neurologic Dysfunction Onset Relative To Pediatric Sepsis Recognition, Alicia M Alcamo, Scott L Weiss, Julie C Fitzgerald, Matthew P Kirschen, Laura L Loftis, Swee Fong Tang, Neal J Thomas, Vinay M Nadkarni, Sholeen T Nett

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objectives: To compare outcomes associated with timing-early versus late-of any neurologic dysfunction during pediatric sepsis.

Design: Secondary analysis of a cross-sectional point prevalence study.

Setting: A total of 128 PICUs in 26 countries.

Patients: Less than 18 years with severe sepsis on 5 separate days (2013-2014).

Interventions: None.

Measurements and main results: Patients were categorized as having either no neurologic dysfunction or neurologic dysfunction (i.e., present at or after sepsis recognition), which was defined as Glasgow Coma Scale score less than 5 and/or fixed dilated pupils. Our primary outcome was death or new moderate disability (i.e., Pediatric Overall [or Cerebral] …

Stepped Care Versus Standard Care For Children After Trauma: A Randomized Non-Inferiority Clinical Trial, Alison Salloum, Yuanyuan Lu, Henian Chen, Troy Quast, Judith A Cohen, Michael S Scheeringa, Kristen Salomon, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based therapist-led treatment for children after trauma. Parents often experience barriers to treatment engagement, including cost. Stepped care TF-CBT (SC-TF-CBT) was developed as an alternative delivery system. Step One is a parent-led therapist-assisted treatment. Step Two provides therapist-led TF-CBT for children who did not benefit from Step One and require more intensive treatment. This study compared SC-TF-CBT to standard TF-CBT in a community-based non-inferiority trial.

Method: A total of 183 children (aged 4-12 years) experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and their caregivers were randomly assigned to SC-TF-CBT or standard TF-CBT within 6 community …

Circulating Trophoblast Numbers As A Potential Marker For Pregnancy Complications, Brielle Crovetti, Mohamad Ali Maktabi, Hadi Erfani, Tachjaree Panchalee, Qun Wang, Liesbeth Vossaert, Ignatia Van Den Veyver

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: To explore the potential of circulating trophoblasts (TBs) as a non-invasive tool to assess placental health and predict obstetric complications.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed maternal characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of 369 women who enrolled in our original cell-based NIPT (cbNIPT) study. The number of circulating TBs recovered from the maternal blood samples was recorded and expressed as fetal cell concentration (FCC). We evaluated if FCC can be used to predict pregnancy outcomes such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), fetal growth restriction, placental abruption, preterm labor, and pregnancy loss.

Results: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to find …

Sexual Health Assessment Is Vital To Whole Health Models Of Care, Alex Uzdavines, Drew A Helmer, Juliette F Spelman, Kristin M Mattocks, Amanda M Johnson, John F Chardos, Kristine E Lynch, Michael R Kauth

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Sexual health is the state of well-being regarding sexuality. Sexual health is highly valued and associated with overall health. Overall health and well-being are more than the absence of disease or dysfunction. Health care systems adopting whole health models of care need to incorporate a holistic assessment of sexual health. This includes assessing patients' sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). If health systems, including but not limited to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), incorporate sexual health into whole health they could enhance preventive care, promote healthy sexual functioning, and optimize overall health and well-being. Assessing sexual health can give providers …

Integrated Dna Copy Number And Expression Profiling Identifies Igf1r As A Prognostic Biomarker In Pediatric Osteosarcoma, Aaron M Taylor, Jiayi M Sun, Alexander Yu, Horatiu Voicu, Jianhe Shen, Donald A Barkauskas, Timothy J Triche, Julie M Gastier-Foster, Tsz-Kwong Man, Ching C Lau

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Osteosarcoma is a primary malignant bone tumor arising from bone-forming mesenchymal cells in children and adolescents. Despite efforts to understand the biology of the disease and identify novel therapeutics, the survival of osteosarcoma patients remains dismal. We have concurrently profiled the copy number and gene expression of 226 osteosarcoma samples as part of the Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures (SPECS) initiative. Our results demonstrate the heterogeneous landscape of osteosarcoma in younger populations by showing the presence of genome-wide copy number abnormalities occurring both recurrently among samples and in a high frequency. Insulin growth factor receptor 1 (IGF1R) is a …

Therapeutic Targeting Of Macrophage Plasticity Remodels The Tumor-Immune Microenvironment, Hee-Jin Jang, Hyun-Sung Lee, Wendong Yu, Maheshwari Ramineni, Cynthia Y Truong, Daniela Ramos, Taylor Splawn, Jong Min Choi, Sung Yun Jung, Ju-Seog Lee, Daniel Y Wang, Joel M Sederstrom, Massimo Pietropaolo, Farrah Kheradmand, Christopher I Amos, Thomas M Wheeler, R Taylor Ripley, Bryan M Burt

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Although the majority of patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) are eligible to receive immune checkpoint blockade, approximately 80% of these tumors are resistant to this therapeutic approach. Insights at the single-cell level into mechanisms that drive LUAD tumorigenesis and the relationship of LUAD histologic heterogeneity to response to immune checkpoint blockade could help identify biomarkers and potential combinational approaches to improve immunotherapy efficacy. Here we used a genetically engineered mouse model that replicates the development of human LUAD through a spectrum of pre-invasive to invasive adenocarcinoma histologic subtypes. A systems onco-immunology approach of integrating the analytical power and unique, …

An Updated Assessment Of 43,110 Patients Enrolled In The Childhood Cancer Research Network: A Children’S Oncology Group Report, Austin L Brown, Pagna Sok, Michael E Scheurer, Karen R Rabin, Erin L Marcotte, Douglas S Hawkins, Logan G Spector, Philip J Lupo

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: The Childhood Cancer Research Network (CCRN) was established by the Children's Oncology Group (COG) as a resource for epidemiologic studies of childhood cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the representativeness of CCRN and identify factors associated with enrollment.

Method: The number of US childhood patients with cancer diagnosed < 20 years of age enrolled in CCRN (2008-2015) was compared to expected counts, calculated from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results incidence rates and US Census population estimates. Observed-to-expected ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated across sex, race, diagnosis age, calendar year, and cancer diagnosis groups. Multivariable linear regression models were generated to evaluate the association between open COG phase 3 therapeutic trials and CCRN enrollment rates.

Result: The 43,110 cases enrolled in CCRN represented 36% of the expected childhood cancers diagnosed from 2008 to 2015 (N = 120,118). CCRN enrollment ratios [95% CI] were highest among males (0.38 [95% CI, 0.37-0.38]), non-Hispanics (0.35 [95% CI, 0.35-0.36]), and those diagnosed from 1 to 4 years …

Actionable Tumor Alterations And Treatment Protocol Enrollment Of Pediatric And Young Adult Patients With Refractory Cancers In The National Cancer Institute-Children's Oncology Group Pediatric Match Trial, D Williams Parsons, Katherine A Janeway, David R Patton, Cynthia L Winter, Brent Coffey, P Mickey Williams, Sinchita Roy-Chowdhuri, Gregory J Tsongalis, Mark Routbort, Nilsa C Ramirez, Lauren Saguilig, Jin Piao, Todd A Alonzo, Stacey L Berg, Elizabeth Fox, Douglas S Hawkins, Jeffrey S Abrams, Margaret Mooney, Naoko Takebe, James V Tricoli, Nita L Seibel, Nci-Cog Pediatric Match Team

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: The National Cancer Institute-Children's Oncology Group Pediatric MATCH trial aimed to facilitate evaluation of molecular-targeted therapies in biomarker-selected cohorts of childhood and young adult patients with cancer by screening tumors for actionable alterations.

Patients and methods: Tumors from patients age 1-21 years with refractory solid tumors, lymphomas, or histiocytic disorders were subjected to cancer gene panel sequencing and limited immunohistochemistry to identify actionable alterations for assignment to phase II treatment arms. The rates of treatment arm assignment and enrollment were compared between clinical and demographic groups.

Results: Testing was completed for 94.7% of tumors submitted. Actionable alterations were detected …

Phase Ii Study Of Selumetinib In Children And Young Adults With Tumors Harboring Activating Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway Genetic Alterations: Arm E Of The Nci-Cog Pediatric Match Trial, Olive S Eckstein, Carl E Allen, P Mickey Williams, Sinchita Roy-Chowdhuri, David R Patton, Brent Coffey, Joel M Reid, Jin Piao, Lauren Saguilig, Todd A Alonzo, Stacey L Berg, Nilsa C Ramirez, Alok Jaju, Joyce Mhlanga, Elizabeth Fox, Douglas S Hawkins, Margaret M Mooney, Naoko Takebe, James V Tricoli, Katherine A Janeway, Nita L Seibel, D Williams Parsons

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: The NCI-COG Pediatric MATCH trial assigns patients age 1-21 years with relapsed or refractory solid tumors, lymphomas, and histiocytic disorders to phase II studies of molecularly targeted therapies on the basis of detection of predefined genetic alterations. Patients with tumors harboring mutations or fusions driving activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway were treated with the MEK inhibitor selumetinib.

Methods: Patients received selumetinib twice daily for 28-day cycles until disease progression or intolerable toxicity. The primary end point was objective response rate; secondary end points included progression-free survival and tolerability of selumetinib.

Results: Twenty patients (median age: 14 …

Assessing Smoking Status And Risk Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection: A Machine Learning Approach Among Veterans, Alice B S Nono Djotsa, Drew A Helmer, Catherine Park, Kristine E Lynch, Amir Sharafkhaneh, Aanand D Naik, Javad Razjouyan, Christopher I Amos

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

The role of smoking in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is unclear. We used a retrospective cohort design to study data from veterans' Electronic Medical Record to assess the impact of smoking on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Veterans tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus from 02/01/2020 to 02/28/2021 were classified as: Never Smokers (NS), Former Smokers (FS), and Current Smokers (CS). We report the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for potential confounders obtained from a cascade machine learning algorithm. We found a 19.6% positivity rate among 1,176,306 veterans tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The positivity proportion among NS (22.0%) was higher compared …

The Role Of An Inpatient Hospice And Palliative Clinical Pharmacist In The Interdisciplinary Team, Jetavia Jones Moody, Ivy O Poon, Ursula K Braun

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Palliative care is a specialized health care service for individuals with serious illness at any stage and can be provided in any setting. Current national consensus developed by palliative care experts recommends the inclusion of pharmacists in an interdisciplinary team (IDT) to provide quality palliative care. However, national registry data report that less than 10% of inpatient palliative teams in the U.S. have a clinical pharmacist. Clinical pharmacists have an impactful role in palliative patients' quality of life by optimizing symptom management, deprescribing, and providing education to the palliative care team as well as patients and their families. In this …

A Novel, De Novo Intronic Variant In Pogz Causes White-Sutton Syndrome, Ashanta Merriweather, David R Murdock, Jill A Rosenfeld, Hongzheng Dai, Shamika Ketkar, Lisa Emrick, Sarah Nicholas, Richard A Lewis, Undiagnosed Diseases Network, Carlos A Bacino, Daryl A Scott, Brendan Lee, Vernon Reid Sutton, Lorraine Potocki, Lindsay C Burrage

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

White-Sutton syndrome (WHSUS), which is caused by heterozygous pathogenic variants in POGZ, is characterized by a spectrum of intellectual disabilities and global developmental delay with or without features of autism spectrum disorder. Additional features may include hypotonia, behavioral abnormalities, ophthalmic abnormalities, hearing loss, sleep apnea, microcephaly, dysmorphic facial features, and rarely, congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). We present a 6-year-old female with features of WHSUS, including CDH, but with nondiagnostic clinical trio exome sequencing. Exome sequencing reanalysis revealed a heterozygous, de novo, intronic variant in POGZ (NM_015100.3:c.2546-20T>A). RNA sequencing revealed that this intronic variant leads to skipping of exon 18. …

Provider Perceptions Of Telehealth And In-Person Exposure And Response Prevention For Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Andrew D Wiese, Kendall N Drummond, Madeleine N Fuselier, Jessica C Sheu, Gary Liu, Andrew G Guzick, Wayne K Goodman, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Until recently, psychotherapies, including exposure and response prevention (ERP) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), have primarily been delivered in-person. The COVID-19 pandemic required OCD providers delivering ERP to quickly transition to telehealth services. While evidence supports telehealth ERP delivery, limited research has examined OCD provider perceptions about patient characteristics that are most appropriate for this modality, as well as provider abilities to identify and address factors interfering with effective telehealth ERP. In the present study, OCD therapists (N = 113) rated the feasibility of delivering telehealth ERP relative to in-person for different (1) patient age-groups, (2) levels of OCD severity, and …

A Validation Framework For Somatic Copy Number Detection In Targeted Sequencing Panels, Raghu Chandramohan, Jacquelyn Reuther, Ilavarasi Gandhi, Horatiu Voicu, Karla R Alvarez, Sharon E Plon, Dolores H Lopez-Terrada, Kevin E Fisher, D Williams Parsons, Angshumoy Roy

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) in tumors are clinically significant diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers. SCNA detection from targeted next-generation sequencing panels is increasingly common in clinical practice; however, detailed descriptions of optimization and validation of SCNA pipelines for small targeted panels are limited. This study describes the validation and implementation of a tumor-only SCNA pipeline using CNVkit, augmented with custom modules and optimized for clinical implementation by testing reference materials and clinical tumor samples with different classes of copy number variation (CNV; amplification, single copy loss, and biallelic loss). Using wet-bench and in silico methods, various parameters impacting CNV …

Breast Cancer Diagnosis And Treatment During The Covid-19 Pandemic In A Nationwide, Insured Population, Jennifer L Caswell-Jin, Maryam N Shafaee, Lan Xiao, Mina Liu, Esther M John, Melissa L Bondy, Allison W Kurian

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic led to reduced cancer screenings and delayed cancer surgeries. We used insurance claims data to understand how breast cancer incidence and treatment after diagnosis changed nationwide over the course of the pandemic.

Methods: Using the Optum Research Database from January 2017 to March 2021, including approximately 19 million US adults with commercial health insurance, we identified new breast cancer diagnoses and first treatment after diagnosis. We compared breast cancer incidence and proportion of newly diagnosed patients receiving pre-operative systemic therapy pre-COVID, in the first 2 months of the COVID pandemic and in …

Yes, The Mda Stands For Something, Michael G. Maihofer Dds

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

In the President's address, Dr. Maihofer responds to concerns about the MDA's relevance, outlining four key points that emphasize its commitment to ethical dentistry, continuous education, advocacy, and adapting to changing professional needs. He highlights the MDA's role in opposing dental therapy, advocating for tax repeals, and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Maihofer encourages member participation, emphasizing the collective strength of the MDA community. The address expresses gratitude to various contributors, including predecessor Dr. Steve Meraw, President-elect Dr. Vince Benivegna, the Board of Trustees, MDA staff, volunteers, and his wife, Denise.

Undergraduate Holocaust Education And Biomedical Ethics: What's The Connection?, Tatiana Thompson

Psychology Department Student Scholarship

This poster represents the research results of two studies used to examine Holocaust education in undergraduate colleges and universities.

The Ethics Of Masking During A Pandemic, Mason Bennett

Philosophy Undergraduate Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has been disastrous, approaching a million deaths in the United States alone, and has demonstrated the world’s lack of preparation for a severe airborne virus. Countermeasures to infection are important to implement in order to lessen loss of life, but also must be justified and shown to be ethical. A countermeasure which is especially viable is wearing masks because of their high efficacy in preventing disease transmission compared to their relatively low restriction of liberty; studies have shown that mask wearing effectively impairs the spread of airborne pathogens and creates little physical or social harm. I argue …

Transplantability In Burdened Populations: A Regional Analysis Of The Robotic-Assisted Kidney Transplant Impact On Access Given Socioeconomic And Demographic Factors, Earnest James Davis Jr.

Dissertations

Introduction/Background

The social contract of health (SCOH) in America that governs healthcare interactions has listed toward provider organizations and away from the patient. End stage renal disease treatment provides an explicatory case to examine an unbalanced SCOH. The study evaluates whether the robot-assisted kidney transplantation (RAKT) technique allows for patients with higher body mass indices and of burdened socioeconomic and sociodemographic status improved access to transplant compared to traditional open kidney transplant (OKT).

Methods

The study set combined extant data for patients transplanted at Chicago from two data sets. Investigators used independent t-tests, chi-squared tests, survival analysis, analysis of frequencies, …

Islamic Bioethics: National Regulations And Guidelines Of Human Stem Cell Research In The Muslim World, Azza Mahmoud

International Studies (MA) Theses

The utilization of human stem cells emerged recently in the Muslim world as one of the essential valuable areas of medicine for their vital role in developing regenerative medicine and treating chronic and incurable diseases. Existing studies indicate that most human stem cell researchers rely on varying schools of thought in Islamic law or on an individual base to define legitimate practices. From a policy perspective, the different Islamic religious decrees do not constitute a unified legal framework to promote essential international collaborations. The existing literature exhibits a limitation in comprehensive studies on human stem cell research (HSCR) in the …

Before It Is Over: A Family’S Experience With End-Of-Life Care During Covid-Related Restrictive Visitation Policies, Andjela H. Kaur

Patient Experience Journal

It is not uncommon in the American medical community that a personal narrative sparks a conversation about a controversial topic. In 1988 the Journal of American Medical Association published a narrative by a medical doctor which provoked a debate on euthanasia within the readership of the journal and the greater public. The testimony that I am presenting aims to invite a public dialogue on the harmful effects of restrictive visitation policies brought on by the COVID -19 pandemic. The story of my family’s experience during the end-of-life care for my mother, a COVID patient, illustrates how urgent is the need …

Public Goods From Private Data: An Effectiveness And Justification Dilemma For Digital Contact Tracing, Andrew Buzzell

The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique

Debate about the adoption of digital contact tracing (DCT) apps to control the spread of COVID-19 has focussed on risks to individual privacy. This emphasis reveals significant challenges to ethical deployment of DCT, but generates constraints which undermine justification to implement DCT. It would be a mistake to view this result solely as the successful operation of ethical foresight analysis, preventing deployment of potentially harmful technology. Privacy-centric analysis treats data as private property, frames the relationship between individuals and governments as adversarial, entrenches technology platforms as gatekeepers, and supports a conception of emergency public health authority as limited by individual …

The Ethics Of Medical Voluntourism: The Conceptualization And Management Of ‘Doing Harm’ Within The Business, Katelyn Dohler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although medical voluntourism programs are rapidly growing in popularity, deep ethical controversies overly the industry. In particular, understanding how the field of medical voluntourism follows a business model sheds insight on the sources of tension and conflicts of interest that can arise within organizations and the sector as a whole. However, understanding the roles of individual motivations and societal pressures in the development of these ethical controversies is relatively unexplored.

Through an inductive thematic analysis of data gathered from literature review and expert interviews, this project investigates these driving factors behind the rapidly growing business, how these driving factors contribute …

Evaluating The Validity Of Restrictions On Blood Donation Eligibility For Men Who Have Sex With Men (Msm) In The United States, France, And Switzerland, Swathi Gorantla

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For the first time in a decade, the number of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnoses is higher for heterosexual people compared to gay and bisexual men (Florêncio, 2022). Additionally, in the United States, the American Red Cross has declared a national blood crisis due to the nationwide shortage of donated blood. During this crisis, charged with the new information on HIV diagnosis rates, many advocates for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) community question why discriminatory policy surrounding gay and bisexual men donating still exist around the world. These policies are changing worldwide – several European countries have …

Microplastics, The Environment, And Reproductive Health: How Is The Accumulation Of Microplastics In Our Environment And Bodies Impacting Reproductive Health?, Katherine Hayward

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As global trends in both production and consumption of plastics continue to evolve, the bioaccumulation and biomagnification of microplastic particles in our everyday lives follow suit. This increasingly relevant problem has only recently been explored in the context of global health, and more specifically, reproductive health. Along with this steady increase in plastics and our exposure to them, researchers have separately observed adverse patterns in reproductive health. The chemicals involved throughout the microplastic life cycle may be playing a key role in these simultaneous patterns. With the aid of previous studies and publications on microplastics, exposure pathways, endocrine disruptors, and …

Sober Thoughts On Drunken Consent: Intoxication And Consent To Sexual Relations, Samuel Director

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Drunken sex is common. Despite how common drunken sex is, we think
very uncritically about it. In this paper, I want to examine whether drunk individuals
can consent to sex. Specifically, I answer this question: suppose that an individual,
D, who is drunk but can still engage in reasoning and communication, agrees to have
sex with a sober individual, S; is D’s consent to sex with S morally valid? I will argue
that, within a certain range of intoxication, an individual who is drunk can give valid
consent to have sex with an individual who is sober.

Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals And Breast Cancer: Disparities In Exposure And Importance Of Research Inclusivity, Ashlie Santaliz Casiano, Annah Lee, Dede Teteh, Zeynep Madak Erdogan, Lindsey Trevino

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are known contributors to breast cancer development. EDC exposures commonly occur through food packaging, cookware, fabrics, and personal care products as well as through the environment. Increasing evidence highlights disparities in EDC exposure across racial/ethnic groups, yet breast cancer research continues to lack the inclusion necessary to positively impact treatment response and overall survival in these socially disadvantaged populations. Additionally, the inequity in environmental exposures has yet to be remedied. Exposure to EDCs due to structural racism poses an unequivocal risk to marginalized communities. In this review, we summarize recent epidemiological and molecular studies on two lesser-studied …