On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be a global pandemic (WHO 2020). Pandemic scenarios had been last war-gamed based on Obama-era preparedness in a version of the United States armed with the scientific and public health expertise to respond in concert with the WHO. What no one could predict, however, was a future United States where the independence of its CDC would become compromised (see: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/opinion ..read more

In progress ..read more

2019 marked a number of 50th anniversaries in the field of bioethics. Two of the biggest bioethics anniversaries included the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ On Death and Dying, which laid the groundwork for all end of life discussions and care delivered today (see: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UYRGE3RPJPEKCDNHSIET/full?target=10.1080/15265161.2019.1674410) Another major 50th anniversary was the founding of The Hastings Center (see: https://www.thehastingscenter.org/who-we-are/), which was the first bioethics think tank that began to publish and a ..read more

This month, the most restrictive abortion ban in American history, known as the Human Life Protection Act, was passed in Alabama, which has led to a tsunami of similar laws throughout the South and mid-west (see:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/us/abortion-laws-2019.html?module=inline. Missouri also passed a controversial bill this month that bans abortion beyond 8 weeks (see: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/us/missouri-abortion-law.html). The Alabama law makes it a crime for doctors to perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy unless a woman’s lif ..read more

A “Special Article”, recently published in THYROID, tells the story of what happens when unsubstantiated clinical practice guidelines for thyroid cancer are promoted as optimal care.  When the most recent revised thyroid nodule and thyroid cancer clinical practice guidelines were published by the ATA in 2015 (see: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/thy.2015.0020), the document remained at odds with the scientific consensus over the state of knowledge and previous standards of care. These guidelines made several sweeping recommendations without sufficient scientific or ethical ..read more

The biggest bioethics story of the year, topping off the 200thanniversary of the publication of Frankenstein (see: https://frankenstein2018.com) was the announcement by Dr. He Jiankui on November 25ththat he had just created the world’s first genetically modified babies using the gene editing tool known as CRISPR cas9.  He announced this at the 2ndinternational gene summit (see: http://www.nationalacademies.org/gene-editing/2nd_summit/index.htm); the story officially broke in MIT Technology Review (see: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612458/exclusive-chinese-scientists-are-creating-cr ..read more

This month started out with a remarkable advance directive on display: John McCain’s funeral, which he meticulously planned and choreographed. Bioethicists frequently recommend that patients and their families fill out advance directives to guide end of life care. But an important part of death and dying is the closure that comes with marking a death: burial and ritual. How typical is it for those at the end of life to plan their funerals? Well, funeral directives are becoming more common, and there are different state laws surrounding how much control you have over your funeral in every state ..read more

This month, everyone has started talking about the “declaration” of Helsinki — surprising remarks made on July 16, 2018 by President Trump at his recent historic summit in Helsinki. But before this month, the only professionals who talked frequently about the Declaration of Helsinki, were those involved in biomedical research. That’s because the Declaration of Helsinki refers to the World Medical Association’s ethics guidelines for medical research with human subjects, originally published in 1964 (See: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medica ..read more

The biggest bioethics story this month, and likely the Summer of 2018, involves the physical and emotional trauma being inflicted on children at the U.S. border as a result of a Trump Administration policy of child separations at the border. This was a new policy in which the children of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S. border were being removed from their parent(s), and sent to U.S.-created internment sites that are run by HHS, while the parent is held in custody awaiting either deportation or an immigration hearing. Although these child internment sites have been described in reports as ..read more

Another ban was issued this month surrounding transgender individuals serving in the military, based on a February report signed by James Mattis. (See: https://news.usni.org/2018/03/23/pentagon-report-recommendations-transgender-troops-serving-military.) Those diagnosed with gender dysphoria will apparently be subject to the ban. (See: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/03/23/new-trump-transgender-military-policy-bars-those-gender-dysphoria.html.) The ban will apply to “persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — including individuals who the policies state m ..read more