Bioethics in the News

The Center for Bioethics and HumanDignity compiled this list of recent news articles:

U.S. abortions fall 5 pct, biggest drop in a decade
 U.S.abortions fell 5 percent during the recession and its aftermath in the biggestone-year decrease in at least a decade.  (Wall Street Journal)

Real-time genetics could squash“superbug” outbreaks before they spread
 Genetic sequencesof drug-resistant bacteria have helped scientists better understand how thesedastardly infections evolve —and elude treatment. But these superbugs are stillclaiming lives of many who acquire them in hospitals, clinics, and nursinghomes. And recent outbreaks of these hard-to-treat infections can spread easilyin healthcare settings. (Scientific American)

Women’s health in juvenile detention:How a system designed for boys is failing girls
 Sexual assault, pregnancy, and other unique needs are oftenoverlooked by a cursory and underfunded system. Poor physical health alsoincreases girls’ risk of recidivism. (The Atlantic)

Youth more aware of AIDS, but toomany still don’t know their HIV status
 As World AIDS Dayapproaches tomorrow, public health experts are turning the focus on teens andyoung adults who make up a remarkably high proportion of HIV infections in theU.S. (Time)

Mind-controlled artificial limbsfusing man and machine coming next year 
A postdoctoralstudent has developed a technique for implanting thought-controlled roboticarms and their electrodes directly to the bones and nerves of amputees, a movewhich he is calling “the future of artificial limbs.” The first volunteers willreceive their new limbs early in 2013. (Wired)

Medical tourism is a massiveopportunity for emerging nations like Thailand
 Interestingly, a more recent trend of emerging, and evenfrontier, nations developing medical tourism industries has sprouted. Unlikelyspots such as Thailand are getting in on the game. (Forbes)

Prescribe morning after pills inadvance, say pediatricians
 The American Academy ofPediatrics (AAP) on Monday called on the nation’s pediatricians to counsel allof their adolescent patients about emergency contraception and make advanceprescriptions for it available to girls under 17.  (Chicago Tribune)

Gattaca alert? Or should we welcomethe new age of eugenics? 
Dramatic developments ingenetics, including the ability to tinker with our inheritance, has thrust theissue of eugenics back into the headlines.  (Forbes)

Organ transplant pioneer talks aboutrisks and rewards
 Sir Roy Calne is a pioneer of organtransplants,— the surgeon who in the 1950s found ways to stop the human immunesystem from rejecting implanted hearts, livers, and kidneys. In 1968 heperformed Europe’s first liver transplant, and in 1987 the world’s firsttransplant of a liver, heart and lung. (New York Times)

Nanotechnology: Carrying Drugs
 Traditional chemotherapies can be toxic but nano-sizedcarriers can keep them out of healthy tissue and take old drugs to new places.(Nature)

Scientists see promise indeep-learning programs 
Using an artificialintelligence technique inspired by theories about how the brain recognizespatterns, technology companies are reporting startling gains in fields asdiverse as computer vision, speech recognition and the identification ofpromising new molecules for designing drugs. (New York Times)

“Irrational” factors may drive end oflife access to radiation

Access to radiation treatments toease cancer symptoms in the last days of life may be driven by costs and othernon-medical considerations, a new U.S. study concludes. (Reuters)