Medical Legislation News and Research

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The legal and ethical issues associated with human embryonic stem cell research

"As my university gears up for human embryonic stem cell research," says Stanford law professor Henry Greely in an Essay for PLoS Medicine, "it finds that a host of ethical and legal questions still need to be answered."

1 Mar 2006

New U.S. law on food safety labels causes controversy

If a new bill on the labeling of food becomes law in the U.S. as many as 200 state food-safety laws may be negated.

1 Mar 2006

BrainLAB wins patent infringement case

On Friday, the U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado, dismissed the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Medtronic against BrainLAB in 1998.

27 Feb 2006

Waking up the inner sleeping beauty of companies

Studies in corporate responsibility (CR) have found that many large companies seem to fulfil the psychiatric criteria for psychopaths.

27 Feb 2006

BAT lobbied to kill off groundbreaking tobacco legislation in Uzbekistan

A paper in the British Medical Journal reveals for the first time how British American Tobacco actively undermined and eventually overturned groundbreaking legislation that would have served to protect the health of the Uzbek population.

24 Feb 2006

New York man gets anthrax from imported animal skins

New York city officials say a man has been hospitalized with an infection from anthrax.

23 Feb 2006

Fast food giant heading for court

International fast food giant McDonald's is currently facing at least three lawsuits in the United States.

20 Feb 2006

Boys are almost twice as likely as girls to burn themselves

Boys are almost twice as likely as girls to burn themselves and children under three face particular risks, according to research published in the February issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing.

17 Feb 2006

Loud music prolongs the effects of taking ecstasy

A study published in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience shows that the reduction in rats’ brain activity induced by 3,4 -Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) lasts long after administration of the drug - up to five days - if loud music is played to them simultaneously. The effects wear off within a day when no music is played.

16 Feb 2006

European electrosurgical devices - market analysis

Heightened awareness among both electrosurgical device companies and consumers about the potential spread of communicable diseases during surgery is encouraging the uptake of disposable electrosurgical devices.

16 Feb 2006

British woman loses Herceptin court battle

A mother of three in the UK suffering from the early-stage of an aggressive form of breast cancer, has lost her high court battle to force her health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin.

16 Feb 2006

Nigeria struggling to cope with bird flu and more scares in Europe

The lethal strain of H5N1 bird flu has now reached Nigeria and there is concern as officials there in their efforts to prevent any human infections are having difficulty convincing many poor people not to eat dead poultry.

14 Feb 2006

Babies fully breastfed for six months less likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses

Babies fully breastfed for six months are less likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses in their first two years than babies fully breastfed for only four months, according to research conducted by investigators at UC Davis Children's Hospital, the University of Rochester and the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Child Health Research.

7 Feb 2006

Children's asthma highlights need for the State Children's Health Insurance Program

Not surprisingly -- but definitely significantly -- children with asthma had fewer asthma-related attacks and medical visits after enrolling in the state children's health insurance program (SCHIP), according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study in Pediatrics this month.

7 Feb 2006

British GP helps terminally access Swiss euthanasia clinic

A doctor in the UK who helped terminally ill Britons to travel to a Swiss clinic to commit suicide is under investigation by Surrey Police.

29 Jan 2006

Booster seat use increased more by carrot than stick

Booster seats significantly reduce the chance of a four to eight year old child sustaining serious injury in a car crash, but many children do not use them. Programs that aim to increase use by educating people, giving away free booster seats, or combining the two do increase use.

25 Jan 2006

Norwegian doctor bigger cheat than first thought

The Norwegian doctor who has already admitted faking data for an article about oral cancer has now come clean about two other fake pieces of research.

24 Jan 2006

Asbestos reform critical in stopping fraudulent lawsuits

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) has encouraged Congress to pass S. 852, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (FAIR Act). The legislation establishes a trust fund to reimburse true victims of asbestos exposure while limiting the actions of trial lawyers.

23 Jan 2006

Clearer framework needed to deal with the use of personal health data

Overly strict interpretation of the data protection law is hampering epidemiological research (the study of the causes, distribution, and control of disease in populations), argue researchers in this week's British Medical Journal.

23 Jan 2006

FDA unpopular over label liability revamp

The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. has said that federally approved drug labels pre-empt state liability laws and are part of a revamp of the lengthy, hard-to-read instructions that come with medicines.

19 Jan 2006