The Lab & Your views on Research Ethics

Comments on the interactive "The Lab"?  Was it harder than you thought?  Did it bring some potential ethical issues to your attention that you hadn't previously considered?

What are your concerns, if any, about research ethics?  Think about our visits to the Museum of London, the Science Museum, the Old Operating Theater, Wellcome Collection, etc.

On Being a Responsible Scientist

We talked about standing down on publishing "dangerous" research in one of the Responsible Conduct cases.  Here's an update on the Bird-Flu Research moratorium:
http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/34119/title/Bird-Flu-Research-to-Resume/

Another (an op-ed) from 27Jan13
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/the-bird-flu-experiments.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130127


Comments on these cases from the small textbook:
1) p. 14 "Discovering an Error" case
2) p. 18 "Is it Plagiarism"

Immortal Life - first section "Life"

General comments, questions, observations about this first section of Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?

Overall impression of Health Care Elsewhere Research

Now that our spreadsheet is mostly complete, what do you think?  What surprised you?  What are you curious to know more about?

Death & Dying: Frontline video on end of life

Answer 5 or so of the following

• How & where do you want to die?
• How do most people in America die?
• How is death removed from us?
• What is a good death?  
• How could death transform our living?
• What’s the relation of technology to issues in medical ethics?
• What support is necessary for someone to die at home? 
• How would you determine what is “appropriate care”?
• Describe suffering (to you).
• What constitutes quality of life for you?
• What does it mean to “dehumanize death”?
• What does it mean to say that “death is natural”?
• What should get the attention—the illness or the person.  Explain.
• What is hospice? Is pain good?  What is the value of pain? Of pain control?
• Hospice lets the patient be in control.  Is that different from standard medical treatment?  How?  Should it be different?
• What is physician-assisted suicide (PSA)? Should it be legal? Is it legal? Where? Under what conditions? What are the arguments against PSA?
• What is the job/duty/calling of a physician? Does PSA fit in there? Other health professionals?
• Do people have a right to die? (Note that if so there is some kind of corresponding obligation on the part of others).
• Do you have an obligation to care for a family member who is dying? At what cost to yourself?
• What impact do financial pressures have on caring for someone who can't care for himself?
• What is the Americans with Disabilities Act? What is the Family Leave Act? How are these relevant to the debate about PSA?
• Isn't control over the way one dies and important exercise of autonomy? What arguments are there against allowing the free exercise of autonomy?

Death & Dying: Diving Bell & the Butterfly film

What do you think about this film?  Does it change your view(s) about disability?  About end of life choices?  About living a meaningful life?

Case 26 "Neonatal Care & the Problem of Uncertainty"

Discussion of your reaction to the case generally and some of the questions.

Case 5 "Liberty and the Elderly Pt."

Case 2 "Pt.'s Request for Possible Useless Tx"

General comments and discussion about the questions at the end of the case.

Case 11 Conflict Between Pt. & Wife

Comment general & answer the case's questions.

Genetics

5Dec12 Essay on personalized medicine
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33364/title/Genomic-Inequality/

Thomas More & British History

Thomas More's Utopia
http://theopenutopia.org/about/

Field Trips (links & info)

This is mostly just information, not necessarily a place to blog, unless you've got questions or suggestions.

I'm trying to get us tickets to this play, but it is very popular.  http://theeffectplay.com/

Cambridge University
Christmas Eve service:  http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons.html
check your local NPR stations for the broadcast on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Our guide referenced Alan Turing:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/turing.aspx

London Science Museum
* Genetics and history of medicine

Natural History Museum


Florence Nightingale Museum


Old Operating Theater

Death, Dying, Euthanasia

NYTimes: Aiding the Doctor Who Feels Cancer's Toll
   Doctors who care for the terminally ill may find themselves sharing their patients' pain and facing burnout from the stresses of their jobs.   http://nyti.ms/TflH9F

Health Care Elsewhere

3Dec12 Hospitals Too Full in the UK
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20556094#

U.S. Health Care

6Dec 12 NYTimes Health Care Services' Gaps to be Filled by Interest Groups
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/health/interest-groups-push-to-fill-margins-of-health-coverage.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121206&_r=0

3Dec12 NYTimes: Leery of a Merger, a Hospital in Brooklyn Plans to Declare Bankruptcy
   Interfaith Medical Center, serving Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, has been in and out of financial trouble for decades.  http://nyti.ms/TD17AK

2Dec12 60 Minutes on Financial Pressures in Health Care
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50136261n

 NYTimes on Financial Incentives for Doctors
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/business/a-hospital-war-reflects-a-tightening-bind-for-doctors-nationwide.html?ref=health

Cambridge University: Research

See & read about research at Cambridge related to Biomedical Ethics:

Grave Robbing & Increased Scientific Knowledge of Anatomy
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-body-snatchers-corpse-and-effect/
(relates also to our visit to the Museum of London & the Doctors, Dissections & Resurrection Men exhibit)

Genetics, Assisted Reproduction, Personal Identity
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/who-do-you-think-you-are/