In recent years, there has been controversy about the use of medications like Ritalin and amphetamines by people without a medical diagnosis to warrant their use to boost performance in school and on tests. Some feel that this is cheating, giving students with access to these medications an unfair advantage over those who do not.ContinueContinue reading “Should we be trying to make ourselves smarter though cognitive enhancement?”
Tag Archives: autonomy
Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing – mostly harmless
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing, genetic tests available to the general public that do not require the involvement of a health care practitioner, have been on the market for nearly a decade now, but there is still a great deal of controversy surrounding this type of testing and what regulation is needed. In 2013 the FDAContinueContinue reading “Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing – mostly harmless”
A call for increased use of seasonal influenza vaccine in healthcare workers
As we are now in the midst of influenza season and there have been an impressive number of patients with influenza on our pulmonary service, I thought I would take a minute to discuss mandatory influenza vaccine for health care workers. According to the Immunization Action Coalition, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American AcademyContinueContinue reading “A call for increased use of seasonal influenza vaccine in healthcare workers”
Public health needs to outweigh autonomy when it comes to vaccination
In the decade before 1963 when a vaccine became available, nearly all children got measles by the time they were 15 years of age. It is estimated 3 to 4 million people in the United States were infected each year. Also each year an estimated 400 to 500 people died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 4,000ContinueContinue reading “Public health needs to outweigh autonomy when it comes to vaccination”
Ethics and Policy 