blog.bioethics.net
a Nature Top 50 science blog from The American Journal of Bioethics
Entries from blog.bioethics.net tagged with 'politics'
Yes, Today. Snowe, Tomorrow?
According to the WSJ Health Blog, Senator Olympia Snowe of Washington State is making no promises as to whether she will continue to back the Senate Finance bill for health care reform. Why does this matter? For any one who has been even following this train wreck / folly of... (read the rest)
Yes, Today. Snowe, Tomorrow?
According to the WSJ Health Blog, Senator Olympia Snowe of Washington State is making no promises as to whether she will continue to back the Senate Finance bill for health care reform. Why does this matter? For any one who has been even following this train wreck / folly of... (read the rest)
Common Ground on Abortion? Not Likely.
President Obama isn't really asking for much. Really it's quite simple: both sides of the issue, conservatives and liberals, must give up a little bit to reach a "common ground" on a perennial issue to lay this "culture war" on abortion aside. Then both sides will have achieved a little... (read the rest)
Are the Democrats About to Pull A Fast One? And Is That Really A Bad Thing?
Health care reform may be in the Democrats' grasp--thanks to a little known, at least to the average American, process called "budget reconciliation" that could allow healthcare reform to be passed through the Senate with the Democrats 58 votes because the Republicans won't be able to filibuster it. According to... (read the rest)
Powers' Chicken and The Egg Problem
Madison Powers' eloquent essay from CQPolitics.com last Friday analyzes Obama's two-fold problem passing healthcare reform. What Powers calls "decoupling" the two key arguments about cost containment and expanding access to healthcare, I call his "chicken and the egg problem". You say potato, I say potato. Fundamentally we agree: if you... (read the rest)
Harvard Prof to Lead Effort to Get Doctors to Use Computers
With no small task on his hands, the Obama admininistration has tapped Harvard professor David Blumenthal to be the national coordinator for health IT, says the Boston Globe. Blumenthal will be responsible for watching over the $20 billion dollars in the economic stimulus package allocated for health information technology and... (read the rest)
Robertson Wants Stem Cells with Longhorns and Lonestars
On Wednesday in the Houston Chronicle, John Robertson argues for changes to the law in the Republic of Texas that would allow for embryonic stem cell research. He makes two major claims--first, that the Obama policy represents an emerging national consensus in favor of embryonic stem cell research and that... (read the rest)
One Bioethics Council Dies, As Another Carries On
What will become of government bioethics? At this point, it's anyone's guess. Last Thursday, in Washington, the President's Council on Bioethics convened the some of the world's experts in government bioethics councils to discuss the past, present and future of bioethics councils including the head of the UK's Nuffield Council,... (read the rest)
President Obama Takes Food Ethics Seriously
In his Saturday morning radio address, President Obama took on the issue of food safety as a moral responsibility for our nation. The lack of food safety and a "demoralized" Food and Drug Administration was characterized as a "threat to public health" by the President, according to the Wall Street... (read the rest)
Krauthammer: President Obama's "Science Fiction"
Charles Krauthammer, writing an op-ed in today's Washington Post, talks about his opinion about the Obama' stem cell policy and his perspective having served on the President's Council on Bioethics. My favorite rant against Obama's decision is here: "Obama's address was morally unserious in the extreme. It was populated, as... (read the rest)
Caplan Weighs In On Obama Stem Cell Policy
Arthur Caplan writes today in his MSNBC column that the US government finally has a "coherent stem cell policy." To watch a video of President Obama's announcement about lifting the stem cell research ban, click here. .msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width:... (read the rest)
Can You Hear Van Halen Playing In The Background?
A new report issued by the Center for Genetics and Society has been released titled, "Responsible Federal Oversight of New Human Biotechnologies: Opportunities for the New Administration". The document, found here is a policy brief that clearly outlines the ways in which the new Obama administration can RIGHT NOW lift... (read the rest)
Fertility Fix from Adult Stem Cells?
According to LA Times' Booster Shots, IPS cells have been coaxed into becoming germ cells that could allow infertile couples to conceive from healthy sperm and egg cells. Of course, this experiment is a long way from being safely or effectively performed in humans and like with most stem cell... (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)
Will President Obama Listen to Conservative Bioethicists?
Robert P. George, former member of the President's Council on Bioethics appointed by former President George Bush, has raised precisely this question in an online essay entitled, "A Diverse Bioethics Council?". The article published at Public Discourse, recounts his experience serving on the Kass Council. However, his account, as reported... (read the rest)
Dr. Gupta Goes to Washington?
Reported by Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post yesterday, Obama administration officials have announced that Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN and CBS news fame has been offered the job of Surgeon General of the United States. Is Dr. Gupta going to leave behind the teleprompters and exotic locations for... (read the rest)
Caplan Discusses Bioethics and the Obama Presidency on NPR
Yesterday, Arthur Caplan discussed on NPR's Fresh Air the array of bioethical issues that the Obama presidency is going to grapple with in the coming years. As the article states, In an article last month for MSNBC.com, Caplan writes that it is crucial for politicians and pundits alike to pay... (read the rest)
Caplan on Change Coming for Stem Cells
Arthur Caplan is conjecturing that the battle over stem cells may be coming to an end with the coming Obama administration, on MSNBC.com. Full-text of the column appears below: Obama election signals change in stem cell fight Battles over embryonic research and abortion may be coming to an end 'Change'... (read the rest)
The Brothers Emanuel
So, this isn't news (it originally aired June 16th this year)--but who wouldn't want to watch Ezekiel Emanuel, Chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the NIH, duke it out with his two brothers, Rahm--soon to be Chief-of-Staff for the Obama administration--and Ari, on whom the... (read the rest)
Michigan to Let Loose on Stem Cells?
Although polling in the weeks before Election Day 2008 did not look promising and there was fierce opposition to Michigan's Proposal 2 to loosen the state's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, I can report that at 1:09 AM on November 5th the stem cell research ballot initiative was leading... (read the rest)
Love Pharma, Get a Free TV Spot
The pharmaceutical industry is saying a big "THANK YOU" to its favorite politicians by promoting them in television ads, says the Wall Street Journal Health Blog . Thanks to the watchdogs at the Center for Public Integrity, we now know that more than $13 million has been spent to praise... (read the rest)
Autism Becomes an Electoral Issue
I agree with the comment of Orac on Respectful Insolence that it was remarkable in the last Presidential debate how discussions of autism treatment and research became mainline issues in the campaign. Oddly, Sarah Palin was credited (by McCain) with this sudden realization that autism (a disease that now effects... (read the rest)
I Love Joe the Plumber
If any one watched the third and final Presidential Debate last night, they learned absolutely nothing new about the future of the American healthcare system. Except of course that there's a guy named Joe the Plumber whom both of the candidates were making love to or pandering to....it's hard to... (read the rest)
What's Lurking in Your Freezer?
It seems as though almost weekly we have another food quality scare--and this time it comes from the friendliest of foods. The thing that everyone says, "Oh yeah, this tastes just like it..." You guessed it: it's chicken. The Department of Agriculture reported this week that there have been 32... (read the rest)
Michigan Stem Cell Battle
Now here's something you don't see every day: in Michigan, the opponents to Proposition 2, a bill about embryonic stem cell research, argue in a television spot that such a bill is "too costly to Michigan taxpayers", says the AP. Well, it turns out that Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science... (read the rest)
Food Ethics--21st Century Style
Food ethics is becoming more complex than it used to be. With the recent crisis in China over baby formula, the slow food movement, the debates over locally grown food, organic food, cloned cattle, trans fats, the obesity crisis and more--food ethics is no longer limited to Leon Kass' The... (read the rest)
Maybe Sarah Palin Could Talk about Healthcare...
As Ezekiel Emanuel laments in his NYT commentary, the national debate over health care has all but disappeared in the 2008 presidential election. Amidst all the talk about Sarah Palin, a floundering economy and Wall Street bailouts, and whether to pull out of Iraq, debates over the feasibility and desirability... (read the rest)
Fat-burning Waffles
Who would have thought that one of the major ingredients in your breakfast cereal would be, of all things, fish oil? Adding key nutrients to everyday or less-than-nutritious foods would appear to be the next wave in food production, says the NYT. These "nutraceuticals" may radically change how we think... (read the rest)
Similar on Science: Obama and McCain
Finally, both presidential candidates have answered questions about the hot science policy issues from the Science Debate 2008. As the NYT reports. As far as bioethics topics are concerned the two don't differ all that much in regard: they both support embryonic stem cell research, think genetic advances present opportunities... (read the rest)
Palin and Her Salmon
Jon Rowley of Gourmet Magazine is telling us that salmon in our restaurants may have tapeworms lurking inside. Frozen salmon is okay, but raw salmon (sorry tartare lovers!) is right out. Especially, according to Rowley, if you are dining on wild Alaskan salmon where Diphyllobothrium latum (the tapeworm in question)... (read the rest)
Harry and Louise Do A Flip-Flop on Health Care Reform
Harry and Louise, foils of the Clinton healthcare reform efforts of 1993-1994, are back on the air again but this time in the service of healthcare reform, says Red Orbit. Organizations as different in philosophies as the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the American Hospital Association (AHA),... (read the rest)
The Real Price of the Obesity Epidemic
According to a new article published by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found today on bioethics.net, most of all adults will be overweight or obese by the year 2030, to the tune of over $900B in healthcare costs.... (read the rest)
When the Price at the Pump Begins to Effect Quality Health Care, We Know We Have a Real Problem...
As today's Washington Post article reports on bioethics.net, the recent surge in gas prices is making the cost of providing home health care for those individuals who require services in the home even greater. While some companies are sensitive to this burden and are handing out gas cards to... (read the rest)
Here's GINA
By Ricki Lewis The human genetics community is eagerly awaiting imminent passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act in the Senate. The law, in the works since 1995, prohibits health insurance companies and employers from using private genetic information in coverage and hiring decisions; from requiring genetic screens or tests;... (read the rest)
The UK's debate over, well, almost everything
The UK has been involved in a rather intense political discussion about making changes to the country's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority bill. Stem cells, chimeras, cloning and more all fall under this law. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced this week that there would be a "free" vote on the... (read the rest)
We're now officially living in the bizarro world
First, Eliot Spitzer, supposed paragon of public morality, gets nabbed for hiring prostitutes. And now this: Jack Kevorkian plans to run for Congress. Yep. He plans to run in the same district outside Detroit where he was convicted of second-degree murder. He's out on parole (as long as he doesn't... (read the rest)
The mirror world
Here in the US it's pretty much a given that you will be required to foot at least some of the bill for your health care. To some people this arrangement isn't just a matter of scare resources, it's actually a feature of the system because it bring market pressure... (read the rest)
What President Bush said about stem cells in the State of the Union
Here's the section (whole speech transcript), which also includes mentions of cloning and intellectual property: On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. In November, we witnessed a landmark achievement when... (read the rest)
Flashback: where the presidential candidates stand on cloning
Back in November when news of cloned monkey embryos surfaced, we surveyed the leading presidential candidates' stands on cloning human embryos to produce stem cells for potential therapies. The issue was roughly split between Republicans and Democrats -- the Republicans generally against, the Democrats generally supportive. But the candidates have... (read the rest)
The health care price tag
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released figures this week about health care spending in the United States for 2006 (pdf). The total amount: $2.1 trillion. That's 16 percent of GDP. Or a little more than $7,000 per person. A few details and thoughts: + If you're concerned about... (read the rest)
Speed reading the December 13 Democratic debate
The Democrats running for the presidential nomination got together in Iowa Thursday for their last debate before the caucuses. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. Topics included health care spending, biomedical research and torture. The breakdown is... (read the rest)
Speed reading the December 12 Republican debate
The Republicans running for the presidential nomination got together in Iowa Wednesday for another debate. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. The breakdown is after the jump.... (read the rest)
Bush and iPS cells: another "Mission Accomplished"?
By James Fossett The White House, Charles Krauthammer, Wesley J. Smith and other Bush Administration apologists have been working hard the last few days to spin the announcement of the development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC’s) as a scientific silver bullet that wouldn’t have happened without the Bush Administration’s... (read the rest)
Speed reading the December 4 Democratic debate
The Democrats running for the presidential nomination got together in Iowa Tuesday for another debate (this time it was on the radio). We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. Our usual list of topics didn't get much attention... (read the rest)
Thomson takes on the conversation surrounding induced pluripotent stem cells
James Thomson and AAAS head Alan Leshner have a very direct op-ed in the Washington Post today about all the discussion surrounding induced pluripotent stem cells. It seems they're not too happy with what they've been hearing. Here's a clip: A new way to trick skin cells into acting like... (read the rest)
Following up: robot marriage, political (neuro)science and stem cell politics
Here are a few updates and extensions to earlier posts on blog.bioethics.net: And you thought gay marriage was controversial Back in October we posted an item about one researcher's speculation that human-robot marriage was at most 50 years away. Of course, this prompts the question that also sounds like a... (read the rest)
Speed reading the November 28 Republican debate
The Republicans running for the presidential nomination got together in St. Petersburg, FL Wednesday for another debate. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. Topics included spending on health care, torture, the death penalty, and charging doctors or... (read the rest)
Stem cell searches trending upward again
Back in July we noticed that Google searches for the term "stem cells" were just about at their lowest level over the past 3.5 years. As you can see from the most recent chart above, it looks like that trend has turned around. That's not really surprising given all... (read the rest)
Induced pluripotent stem cells: one week later
A little more follow up to all the news from last week: + While most of the popular coverage of stem cells focuses on using them as a therapies or replacement tissues, it's looking like, at least right now, the most promising application of iPS cells will be for modeling... (read the rest)
Politics and cell reprogramming
The political world is starting to weigh in on induced pluripotent stem cells. + The AP reports that some in the Republican party are calling the news the end of the discussion on the ethics and funding of embryonic stem cell research. + Among the GOP presidential candidates, it seems... (read the rest)
Speed reading the November 15 Democratic debate
The Democrats running for the presidential nomination got together in Las Vegas Wednesday for another debate. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. Topics included universal health care, Medicare funding, torture and birth control. The breakdown is after... (read the rest)
Where the leading presidential candidates stand on cloning
Now that cloned monkey embryos have been created, the issue of creating cloned human embryos for the purposes of research and potential therapies moves back to the forefront. As a representative of the National Catholic Bioethics Center recently told the New York Times, "I certainly think that this represents a... (read the rest)
Breaking down what really happened in NJ
By James Fossett Now that the dust has settled a bit and some of the pundits have weighed in, it might be interesting to figure out why the New Jersey stem cell bond proposal got beat. Polls up until the week before the vote were showing strong, but not overwhelming,... (read the rest)
Swing voters in the scanner
Maybe you saw that piece in the New York Times this past weekend about using fMRI to gain insight into the minds of swing voters. (Mitt Romney stimulates amygdalas!) And maybe, after reading that piece, you were thinking, "Really?" Well, you're not alone. Over at Adam Kolber's great Neuroethics and... (read the rest)
Stem cell federalism flunks in NJ? Not.
by James Fossett One of the noteworthy things about American federalism is that one defeat is seldom decisive. What loses in one state can easily win in others where political conditions are more propitious, and the fate of any particular enterprise doesn’t rise or fall on centralized national decisions. So... (read the rest)
Speed reading the October 30 Democratic debate
The Democrats running for the presidential nomination got together in Philadelphia Tuesday for another debate. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. Topics included universal health care, drawing talented people to the health care field, cancer research... (read the rest)
Speed reading the October 21 Republican debate
The Republicans running for the presidential nomination got together in Orlando, Florida Sunday for another debate. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here at our little intersection of the web. There were no mentions of stem cells, cloning, chimeras or biomedical research. The breakdown --... (read the rest)
Beyond Abortion: Evolving Stem Cell Politics
By James Fossett We’ve written before that political cleavages around embryonic stem cell issues and other public bioethical issues are increasingly different from conventional party alignments and even “red state/blue state” divisions around abortion and other “values” issues. Republicans are increasingly divided into pro- and anti-stem cell groups, and traditional... (read the rest)
NIH director publicly opposes Bush position on embryonic stem cell research
Via Art Caplan comes this item from Mary Ann Akers' WaPo blog "The Sleuth" in which she highlights Elias Zerhouni's statements of support for embryonic stem cell research in a recent NIH magazine. Here's a clip from the issue of NIH Medline Plus (pdf): (emphasis added) Klose: How difficult is... (read the rest)
Weekend reading
The Scientist: The Future of Public Engagement (free access) The dominant assumption is that ignorance is at the root of conflict over science. According to this traditional "popular science" model, the media should be used to educate the public about the technical details of the issue in dispute. Once citizens... (read the rest)
Speed reading the October 9 Republican debate
The Republicans running for the presidential nomination got together in Dearborn, Michigan yesterday to debate topics related to the economy. We've pulled highlights from the transcript that might be of interest here on the blog. (We'll try to do this for future debates.) For yesterday's debate, that meant comments from... (read the rest)
Science and the next president
This month in Seed Chris Mooney calls for the next president of the United States to be a sort of scientific researcher-in-chief: As a prerequisite, the next president must grasp how science flows into a democracy at all levels. Whoever wins the election—man or woman, Democrat or Republican—will face profound... (read the rest)
Casting doubt on mandated health care
Over at Businessweek, Glen Whitman criticizes the "health insurance like auto insurance" plans that many candidates (Hillary Clinton among them) are touting: As anyone who has ever driven above 55 mph knows, mandating something is not the same as making it happen. Some people will not comply: 47 states require... (read the rest)
Talking about the consequences of chronic disease
The Milken Institute released a report this week totaling the cost of preventable chronic disease in the US. The report's tally for 2003 was $1.3 trillion.* And when you float a number like that, people tend to notice. "Healthy living could save U.S. $1 trillion, study finds" is how the... (read the rest)
Universal health care watch
Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan (CNN) It's a version of the "health insurance like car insurance" approach that's been bubbling for the last few years and took some form in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney. The Clinton plan also aims to "end discrimination [by health insurance companies] based on... (read the rest)
The bullseye on Bush
It came out earlier this month that President Bush was treated a year ago for what looked like a case of Lyme disease*. This information only came to light recently as part of the president's annual physical -- and it was a bit of a footnote. The low-key manner... (read the rest)
2016
Over at The Stem Cell Blog, Christopher Thomas Scott files a report from the future. The headline: "Ailing George W. Bush to undergo stem cell therapy in London." It's well worth a read.... (read the rest)
Mitt's moment on stem cells
The 2008 US presidential election is still more than a year away and it's still way, way too early to predict what's going to happen (ask Howard Dean), but the general outlines of the situation are starting to come together. Mitt Romney won the Iowa Republican straw poll this past... (read the rest)
Stem cells fatigue?
The graph above depicts the trend in US Google searches for the phrase "stem cells" over the last 3.5 years. An annotated graph and a little discussion follow the jump.... (read the rest)
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