July 16, 2002 Genetic Testing Raises Tough Ethical Questions FYI An Op Ed article in The New York Times, by Susan Love, MD, sheds light on the faulty assumptions that led to the discovery that hormone replacement therapy did not deliver on its promises. “There is a tendency, driven by…
Human Pesticide Experiments “Allowing human experiments, such as those conducted recently in the United Kingdom, to serve as the basis for registering pesticides, is ethically indefensible.” Ken Cook, President Environmental Working Group January 8, 2003 "Should the EPA Accept Human Pesticide Experiments?", testimony by Vera Hassner Sharav before the Committee…
Not-So-Public-Relations: Drug Industry & Bioethics – is it casuistry or sophistry? Fri, 19 Dec 2003 Carl Elliott is a clear eyed academic who teaches bioethics at the University of Minnesota . He is currently a visiting associate professor at School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton….
Medical Confidentiality of Research Subject in Jeopardy–Lawyers Subpoena Anthropologist Sun, 9 Mar 2003 Dr. Sheldon Zink, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics who was in the operating room when James Quinn had an artificial heart transplant, is fighting a legal battle to preserve a research subject’s…
Bayh-Dole Act: The Law of Unintended Consequences – Fortune Sun, 25 Sep 2005 The author of this Infomail is Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D. Revisiting the Bayh-Dole Act (1980): Spawned Big Biotech, Now Has Opposite Debilitating Effects Today’s specter of harmful and inordinately priced drugs pressed on legislators and the…
October 18, 2002. Pediatric Drug Tests_CNN / NYT Editorial Children are increasingly being exploited for profit by the biomedical industry. Between 1983 and 1997, children had been protected from medical experiments that are not in their best interest. But in 1997 Congress passed the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA), providing a…
Artificial Heart Implant Leads to Suit Over Consent Process Recipient’s Widow Says She and Her Husband Were Misinformed and Misled on Risks, Benefits By Debbie Goldberg Special to The Washington Post Saturday, November 30, 2002; Page A03 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54921-2002Nov29?language=printerwashingtonpost.com PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 25 — When James Quinn, a 51-year-old Vietnam veteran dying…
Minnesota initiative: Compulsory newborn congenital testing Mon, 24 Mar 2003 The Minnesota House Health and Human Services Policy Committee will vote tomorrow on a law requiring the screening of every newborn baby to ascertain who may have a congenital disorder. It is important to note that this “public health” initiative…
Junk Science Hits Front Page Headlines: Most Americans Will Be Mentally Ill at Some Point – NIMH / Harvard Study Says Tue, 7 Jun 2005 Americans may be astonished to learn that $20 million in taxpayers’ money was spent on a study whose unacknowledged purpose is to increase the use…
OHRP Found NHLBI Lung Experiments Violated Informed Consent Mon, 7 Jul 2003 On July 3 the federal Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) issued a stinging indictment of the research review and approval process at some of the nation’s most prestigious research institutions–including the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute…
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry Volume 7, Number 2, Summer 2005 pp. 111-124 Screening for Mental Illness: The Merger of Eugenics and the Drug Industry Vera Hassner Sharav, MLS New York, NY The implementation by the President’s New Freedom Commission (NFC) to screen the entire United States population – children…
Suffer the Little Children in the Research for Cures_USA Today Thu, 29 May 2003 USA Today focuses on safety issues affecting children who are being sought as human guinea pigs by the thousands. They are being recruited clinical trials to test new drugs– whose safety is unproven. “Was the death…
