blog.bioethics.net
a Nature Top 50 science blog from The American Journal of Bioethics
Entries from blog.bioethics.net tagged with 'law'
Botched Prenatal Test = Botched Knee Surgery? I Don't Think So.
But if you as Susan Wolf, professor at the University of Minnesota, she would tell you that suing for one screwed up procedure is no different than suing for another. Except for one small detail: when you screw up a prenatal test, the outcome can be that you have a... (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)
Don't Look Now....But Do.
Today, I am ashamed to say that I was born a Hoosier. The state of Indiana, as well as Texas, Nebraska, and 8 other states are attempting to pass laws that would require ultrasounds prior to performing abortions, says USA Today. Not for the good or health of the mother... (read the rest)
And You Thought Electric Chairs Were Cruel and Inhuman
Oxford University's Practical Bioethics Blog informs us that the tools of eugenics are alive and well in Europe--but for an entirely new reason all together. Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, is lobbying for the use of involuntary chemical castration for sex offenders in Poland. Arguing that the rights of victims... (read the rest)
Getting Off Easy
According to a study published in the journal Pain Medicine as reported in the NYT, approximately 0.1 percent of pain physicians ever face punishment or sanction for prescribing narcotics. To boot, just 3% of these actually specialized in pain control. What to conclude from this? According to Myra Christopher, president... (read the rest)
Doctors and the death penalty
What role, if any, should doctors have in executions? That's the focus of an editorial in this week's NEJM by Gregory D. Curfman, Stephen Morrissey and Jeffrey M. Drazen that looks ahead to a decision in the Supreme Court case Baze v. Rees. They contend that lethal injection has led... (read the rest)
An update on the lethal injection question
Just 15 minutes before a man in Mississippi was set to be executed last night, the Supreme Court issued a stay. Court watchers say that this latest action is a "nearly indisputable indication" that the court will block all executions involving lethal injection until it hears Baze v. Rees in... (read the rest)
Frozen embryos get some colorful representation in court
Via Art Caplan and BioEdge comes this item by Wired's Kristen Philipkoski about a lawyer who has filed suit on behalf of a frozen embryo. Martin Palmer is suing California Institute of Regenerative Medicine chairman Robert Klein on the argument that the use of embryos for embryonic stem cell research... (read the rest)
Is lethal injection cruel and unusual punishment?
The Supreme Court issued a stay of execution yesterday for a man on death row in Virginia. Analysts are calling the court's action a de-facto moratorium on lethal injection, which is the method of execution used in all but one of the states with the death penalty. The stay of... (read the rest)
"You can't punish an ailment"
The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader is running a package of stories this week about one woman's experience working her way through drug court, a program aimed at keeping addicts out of jail by providing counseling, frequent testing and structure. From one of the articles: It's a recognition that to address drug... (read the rest)
New report: UK needs better guidelines for its forensic DNA database
The report is from the Nuffield Council and it calls for a number of changes to the way law enforcement agencies in the UK handle genetic information. (Britain is said to have the largest forensic DNA database in the world.) Among the report's (one page pdf summary) recommendations: + The... (read the rest)
UK approves human-animal embryos
After what it calls "a series of detailed deliberative sessions", Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority gave the go ahead Wednesday for the creation of embryos that would contain both human and animal cells. Such research is banned in Canada and President Bush has called for it to be forbidden... (read the rest)
Setback for terminally ill patients seeking experimental drugs
By Alicia Ouellette The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs suffered a major (and perhaps fatal) setback in its battle to establish for terminally ill patients a constitutional right of access to experimental drugs. In an 8-2 ruling, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of... (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)
The language of "wrongful birth"
A jury awarded $23.5 million today to a Florida couple in what's been touted as a "wrongful birth" case. Amara and Daniel Estrada filed suit after a geneticist at the University of South Florida failed to diagnose Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome in their first son and assured the couple there was no... (read the rest)
feed these results
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries from blog.bioethics.net tagged 'law'. [What is this?]
