Bioethics News and Research

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Top policy expert’s ties to giant drugmaker often go unstated

When Dr. Mark McClellan sat for an in-depth 30-minute question-and-answer session at an April health policy forum, the audience was filled with top researchers, advocates and Capitol Hill staffers eager to hear what insight the former head of the Food and Drug Administration would dispense.

29 Jun 2018

That ‘living will’ you signed? At the ER, it could be open to interpretation.

"Don't resuscitate this patient; he has a living will," the nurse told Dr. Monica Williams-Murphy, handing her a document.

14 Jun 2018

Bioethicist: 'Right to Try Act' will not benefit terminally-ill patients

Gregory Pence, Ph.D., professor and Chair of Philosophy, teaches bioethics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

26 May 2018

Nuffield Council on Bioethics outlines ethical issues arising from use of AI in healthcare

AI in healthcare is developing rapidly, with many applications currently in use or in development in the UK and worldwide.

15 May 2018

Briefing note examines ethical issues in whole genome sequencing of babies

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has today published a briefing note that examines the ethical issues raised by whole genome sequencing of babies.

28 Mar 2018

Women in medicine shout #Metoo about sexual harassment at work

Annette Katz didn't expect to be part of a major social movement. She didn't set out to take on a major health organization. But that all began to change when a co-worker saw her fighting back tears and joined Katz to report to her union what amounted to a criminal sexual offense at a Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2012 and 2013.

20 Mar 2018

Johns Hopkins doctors successfully transplant hepatitis C-infected kidneys into virus-free patients

In a small study, doctors at Johns Hopkins have successfully transplanted 10 hepatitis C-infected kidneys into patients without hepatitis C and prevented the patients from becoming infected by hepatitis C. The success of these transplants could mean more organs being available for the nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. currently waiting for a kidney transplant.

6 Mar 2018

University under fire for off-the-grid herpes vaccine experiments

Southern Illinois University's medical school has halted all herpes research, one of its most high-profile projects, amid growing controversy over a researcher's unauthorized methods offshore and in the U.S.

23 Jan 2018

Experts look for ways to end dietary deficiencies in essential micronutrients

One of the most ambitious programmes to provide lasting improvements in nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa begins today when a diverse multinational team of experts from agriculture to ethics start looking for ways to end dietary deficiencies in essential micronutrients.

3 Jan 2018

Unregulated herpes experiments expose ‘black hole’ of accountability

Recent revelations that a U.S. researcher injected Americans with his experimental herpes vaccine without routine safety oversight raised an uproar among scientists and ethicists.

21 Dec 2017

Experts call for rigorous clinical trials in use of experimental fetal therapy

Citing uncertainties about the risks and benefits of an experimental therapy for fetuses whose kidneys do not develop, bioethicists at Johns Hopkins and a team of medical experts are calling for rigorous clinical trials in the use of a potential treatment, known as amnioinfusion.

12 Dec 2017

University was tipped off to possible unauthorized trials of herpes vaccine

The university that employed a controversial herpes vaccine researcher has told the federal government it learned last summer of the possibility of his illegal experimentation on human subjects.

29 Nov 2017

Johnson & Johnson Innovation announces CertaDose as winner of latest QuickFire Challenge

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today announced developers at CertaDose, Inc. have won its latest QuickFire Challenge: Advancing the Safe Use of Healthcare Products. The challenge called for potentially game-changing, early stage, innovative ideas to help advance the safe use of healthcare products.

27 Nov 2017

Penn Medicine to conduct Northeast’s first clinical trial of uterine transplants

Penn Medicine will conduct the Northeast's first clinical trial of uterine transplants, to provide women with Uterine Factor Infertility (UFI) - an irreversible form of female infertility that affects as many as 5 percent of women worldwide and 50,000 women in the United States - with a new path to parenthood.

7 Nov 2017

Cleveland Clinic researchers win grants to study ethical issues involving brain surgery

The NIH BRAIN Initiative has awarded two Cleveland Clinic researchers grants to study ethical issues involving brain surgery, as part of the first neuroethics grants awarded by the initiative.

31 Oct 2017

Challenges and contributions of nurse bioethicists to diverse patient populations

Nurse bioethicists are a small but special subset of the nursing profession and bioethics community, focusing on the moral complexities that arise in clinical care, research, and health policy.

13 Oct 2017

Experts delineate many steps hospitals can take to mitigate ransomware attacks

Especially cruel hackers know that lives are on the line when they hold a hospital's computer systems hostage, as they did in the May 12 attack dubbed WannaCry, which locked down many overseas hospitals with the demand for a ransom.

19 Sep 2017

Offshore rush for herpes vaccine roils debate over U.S. safety rules

Defying U.S. safety protections for human trials, an American university and a group of wealthy libertarians, including a prominent Donald Trump supporter, are backing the offshore testing of an experimental herpes vaccine.

28 Aug 2017

Penn researchers receive two new post-doctoral training grants for genomic science

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have received two highly competitive post-doctoral Institutional Training Grants for genomic science from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

21 Aug 2017

Double-booked: When surgeons operate on two patients at once

The controversial practice has been standard in many teaching hospitals for decades, its safety and ethics largely unquestioned and its existence unknown to those most affected: people undergoing surgery.

12 Jul 2017