A report on recent pilot studies describes the development of a “second skin” composed of commonly used chemicals that can be “worn” over a person’s existing skin. While this innovative product has the potential to treat (but not cure) a variety of problematic skin conditions, the headline on the New York Times article on the Read more
Bioethics
In a recent post in this space, I wrote about the iCOMPARE research study that is comparing the effects of increasing medical residents’ consecutive duty hours with observing the currently prescribed limits on their shifts. According to the study protocol, the primary hypothesis of the research addresses the safety of patients: that mortality under the Read more
Commercial airline pilots are subject to strict rules about the number of consecutive hours they may be on duty, as well as the number of hours that must elapse between their sessions actively piloting planes. The reason, obviously, is to ensure the safety of airline passengers, because the physiological and psychological effects of sleep deprivation Read more
A recent opinion piece by Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist often referred to as a “public intellectual,” called on bioethicists to “get out of the way” and allow biomedical research to proceed without the red tape and interference that allegedly slow the path to medical breakthroughs. The trigger for Pinker’s attack on bioethics appears to Read more
Editors’ Note: In a March 2015 report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted a dramatic increase in heroin use and heroin-overdose deaths; the number of deaths from heroin overdose nearly tripled from 2010 to 2013, with deaths since 2000 highest among those ages 25 to 44. Many people believe that the societal shame Read more
Medically assisted reproduction—also known as Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)—is practiced throughout the world. The Reproductive Bioethics Committee at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine has had an ethics advisory committee for ART since 1987 when it first introduced an egg donation program. As a member of that committee since its inception, I have become acquainted with a wide Read more
