bioethics – Ethics and Policy

Should we be trying to make ourselves smarter though cognitive enhancement?

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?”

Thank you for not smoking

Over the next few decades, we are likely to see major advances in our understanding of medicine and the technology of diagnosing and treating illness. We are learning more and more about the human genome and testing is becoming more readily available. Nanotechnology is likely going to revolutionize how we diagnose and treat disease. SyntheticContinueContinue reading “Thank you for not smoking”

Nanomedicine – a precautionary approach

Nanotechnology makes use of materials (natural and man-made) smaller than 100nanometers (nm). For scale, that includes materials and devices the size of individual atoms and molecules, and as small as the structural elements in cells. A human red blood cell is giant in comparison at 300mn. One sheet of newspaper is 100,000 nanometers thick! Nanomedicine,ContinueContinue reading “Nanomedicine – a precautionary approach”

We have the results of the prenatal genetic screening back…

Suppose you are expecting a baby and the obstetrician or genetic counselor tells you that they detected your future child possesses a gene which is associated with the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This neuromuscular disease with its severe progressive muscle weakness doesn’t usually begin to exhibit itself until after age 40. It’s earlyContinueContinue reading “We have the results of the prenatal genetic screening back…”

New and improved prenatal screening: do expecting parents understand what these tests mean?

“It’s your pregnancy. Demand the accuracy of the MaterniT21 PLUS test.” “No confusion. Just simple, clear results.” So reads Sequenom Laboratories’ website, speaking to prospective parents and health care providers. The MaterniT21 test is marketed as a noninvasive prenatal test (NIPT) screening for trisomies 21 (Down syndrome), 18 (Edwards syndrome) and 13 (Patu syndrome) byContinueContinue reading “New and improved prenatal screening: do expecting parents understand what these tests mean?”

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 of Aging

When we think about the human population of the earth in future and issues regarding population growth, its easy to jump right to birth rates. However, one also must consider the fact that mortality rates are changing as we learn more about treating and preventing disease. And, because of this, we are living longer. AccordingContinueContinue reading “Ethics of Aging”