blog.bioethics.net
a Nature Top 50 science blog from The American Journal of Bioethics
Entries from blog.bioethics.net tagged with 'children'
"Academic Doping" is Just Plain Dumb (as Something to Fear)
The first media story I read about Dr. Vincent Cakic's Journal of Medical Ethics paper about the ethical concerns about academic doping I was able to shrug off as just one more enhancement story. But after reading the 5th or 6th this week about Dr. Cakic's mind-boggling take on "academic... (read the rest)
How Free Riding Can Get Your Child a Free Ride To the Emergency Room
These days parents are often more afraid of the immunizations that their children are asked to take than of the diseases they are intended to prevent. These parents believe that their children will be protected from diseases like pertussis, measles or the mumps because of something called "herd immunity"--put simply,... (read the rest)
Caplan: Court has the Right to Insist on Chemo
Art Caplan writes in his MSNBC column today that the courts have the right to intervene in a case where a highly curable cancer is being prevented by the refusal by parent and child to undergo treatment--regardless of the reason. Daniel's age and developmental disabilities prevent him from giving informed... (read the rest)
Chemo Teen and Mom on the Run--How It Could Have Been Prevented
By now, almost everyone in America has probably heard the story of Daniel Hauser and his fight to refuse chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's lymphoma. The most recent wrinkle is that when it appeared that Daniel would be forced to get chemo, he and his mother skipped town, apparently now on... (read the rest)
7% of Pediatric Hospitals Lacking DCD Policies. Call In the Clinical Ethicists! Wait. We Already Did.
Recent surveys have found that 7% of pediatric hospitals lack a policy regarding the criteria for donating organs after cardiac death, says a recent study published in JAMA, according to Medpage Today. What is perhaps more troubling, according to this research, is among the 93% of hospitals that have policies,... (read the rest)
When Donor Sperm Goes Bad...
A federal court has ruled that a sperm bank can be held responsible for a poor genetic outcome as a result of conceiving a child with donor sperm, reports the WSJ Health Blog. In this case, the mother, Donna Donovan, of a 13-year-old girl with Fragile X syndrome, Brittany Donovan,... (read the rest)
To Bank or Not to Bank? For Cord Blood, The Answer is No.
Much ado has been made over private cord blood banking when a baby is born for its potential someday to maybe save a child's life. New research suggests, however, that the likelihood of that eventuality coming to pass is incredibly small. According to WaPo the study published last month in... (read the rest)
Some Women ARE Born to Be Skinny....
It turns out that for some women it is just in their genes. At least according to the research done by one group of British researchers who are claiming that anorexia nervosa is actually genetic. In today's Daily Mail, it has been reported that neurological development in the womb is... (read the rest)
Don't Put Your Baby on a Diet
One of the most frustrating aspects of reviewing research studies that at the end of them, when the data is reported--either in journals or the media--one has to wonder, "What is a person supposed to do with this data?" Here is one more study where this is obviously true: as... (read the rest)
Baby Einstein? Well, Maybe Not So Much.
We already knew that too much television watching was not good for the health of adults and teens and even young children, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle. Plus, it turns many of our brains into gelatin--how else could millions of Americans watch American Idol and The Bachelor? But how... (read the rest)
I Think Glenn McGee Predicted This Would Happen....
Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that a Los Angeles fertility clinic is offering parents the capacity to choose the traits of their child to allow them to make, um, "The Perfect Baby." The WSJ article, titled "A Baby, Please. Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic", describes precisely what McGee... (read the rest)
Turn Off That TV or You are Going to Be Depressed.
It turns out that the amount of television that your teenager watches during his or her youth may be a determinant of whether they develop depression later in life, a recent study has found. According a report in the Los Angeles Times, researchers from Pitt and Harvard found that for... (read the rest)
High Fructose Corn Syrup Isn't JUST Sugar After All....
Well, it turns out that the anti-high fructose corn syrup crusaders had something to fear all along. Not just rotting teeth or hyperactivity, but evidently mercury in their children's Frosted Flakes and Fruit Gushers, too. As discussed in today's Huffington Post, this news isn't a recent discovery: FDA has known... (read the rest)
And Baby H Makes Eight!
One California mother received the surprise of her life on Monday. As if seven bouncing bundles of joy weren't going to be enough for a new mom to handle at feeding and diaper changing time, but lo and behold, it was announced yesterday morning at the Kaiser Permanente hospital that... (read the rest)
The Promise of SCHIP
Ronald Bayer and Amy Fairchild published a commentary on the impending expansion of the SCHIP program on the Huffington Post. While the column is the standard public health ethics and history fare, it is an interesting read for those of you interested in children's health policy, politics, and the ethics... (read the rest)
Who Is Subject Number 2143? Oh, He's Just My Son.
What do researchers do in an era of scarce research funding and difficult to find research subjects? Enlist their own children, of course! At least according to a New York Times piece reprinted in the Dallas Morning News, researchers are capitalizing on the fact that their kids are a captive... (read the rest)
Quick, Easy Criticism of Conjoined Twins' Parents is Just That
Last week on Bioedge, Michael Cook brought to our attention a story from the UK involving Lisa and Mike Chamberlain, soon-to-be parents of conjoined twins, who have refused to consider terminating their pregnancy. The exact extent to which the twins are conjoined is still not known to their doctors, but... (read the rest)
Didn't You Just Know This Was True? Vicks May Be Bad For You
How many of you have the urge upon reading this headline "Vicks Might Make Kids Sicker" to immediately forward the article to your mother and say, "See I told you so all those years ago! I knew that nasty stuff was making me feel worse!!" Actually, those noxious fumes radiating... (read the rest)
H.S. Kids are Unethical. But Why?
As reported Sunday on MSNBC, high school kids break ethical boundaries frequently--including lying, cheating, and stealing. With 30% of students having stolen something from a store in the last year and 64% admitting to having cheated on a test, one has to wonder: why are our nation's youth okay with... (read the rest)
Track or Cross-Country? Genetic Tests Tell You How Your Kid Will Run
As of Monday, a Colorado-based company will begin offering a genetic test to help parents determine whether their child would be better suited to sprint or to run longer distances, says the NYT. Atlas Sports Genetics is offering this test for just $149 to parents who want to "match them... (read the rest)
"Odd" Baby Play = Autism?
A recent study published by the UC Davis MIND Institute has found that infants who repetitively play with toys by spinning them or rattling them or who look at objects out of the corners of their eyes at one year of age are more likely than those who don't to... (read the rest)
Parents Don't Sweat the Gene Stuff
According to US News and World Report, a recent study done by researchers from the University of Michigan reports that parents do not overreact to genetic test results for their children, and in fact, treat the data similar to family history. What do these findings suggest? Predictive genetic testing for... (read the rest)
Are You a Helicopter?
Do you hover? Ever felt entitled to question a coach, teacher, doctor or therapist? Think your child should never be corrected, is perfect, or is the second coming? Spend almost as much time at school as your child does? You may be a "helicopter parent", says University of Saint... (read the rest)
Art Caplan on children's medical care and prayer
In his latest column for MSNBC, Art takes on cases where parents don't seek medical care for their children because of religious objections: Ava Worthington is dead. She was only 15 months old when she died. The people responsible are her parents, who relied only on prayer as their child... (read the rest)
The cocaine vaccine
You might have seen the stories floating around recently about the development of vaccine that can blunt or eliminate the high from cocaine. Researchers at Baylor are now looking to get approval to start Phase III trials of the vaccine sometime during the next year. From a Houston Chronicle article:... (read the rest)
Developing a system around newborn screening
Via Jim Fossett comes this story from today's Wall Street Journal about some of the problems surrounding the screening of newborns for genetic disorders. The Journal cites a March of Dimes figure indicating that the number of children being screened for these conditions has more than doubled in the past... (read the rest)
A religious objection? Um, sure.
Via the ever vigilant Jim Fossett comes an AP story reporting that the number of children being exempted from vaccination requirements for religious reasons has doubled -- or even tripled -- during the last four years in many of the states that allow such exemptions. From the article: Sabrina Rahim... (read the rest)
Starchild Abraham Cherrix update
Via Art Caplan comes this story reporting that Cherrix, the teen whose desire to forgo chemo led to a lawsuit and new state legislation, is now in remission after receiving radiation therapy and alternative treatments. Previously... +Solomon's Choice - Art's column at MSNBC about the compromise that led to Cherrix... (read the rest)
New paper on homeschooled kids and vaccinations
Art Caplan and Donya Khalili -- a student at UPenn School of Law -- write in the latest issue of The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics about strengthening the systems set up to ensure homeschooled kids get their shots. Here's the abstract: To protect public health, states require that... (read the rest)
About zonking the kids with Benadryl...
It's frowned upon. The issue's been floating around the web after a mom and toddler were booted from a flight last month when the kid wouldn't stop chanting, "Bye bye, plane!" According to the mother (and ABC), her conversation with the flight attendant went like this: "She leaned over the... (read the rest)
When doctors and parents disagree
The Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children's has posted video of its recent conference "Navigating Conflicts When Parents and Providers Disagree About Medical Care." There are a bunch of interesting topics, including "Parental Requests for 'Futile' Treatment," and "Should Developmentally Delayed Children be Listed for Solid Organ... (read the rest)
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