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Ethical Issues and Recs in Grateful Patient Fundraising and Philanthropy

January 28, 2019

Report: The authors, including our Jeremy Sugarman, Jeffrey Kahn, Megan Collins, and Joseph Carrese, convened a “Summit on the Ethics of Grateful Patient Fundraising,” with the goal of identifying primary ethical issues in GPFR and offering recommendations regarding how to manage them

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The Way We Eat Could Doom Us as a Species. Here’s a New Diet Designed to Save Us.

January 23, 2019

In some places, like rural sub-Saharan Africa, and rural South Asia, people don’t get enough animal products to get their growth cognitive needs,” said Jessica Fanzo, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

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New Diet Guidelines to Benefit People and the Planet: More Greens for All, Less Meat for Some

January 17, 2019

Written by 37 scientists from 16 countries. “It’s not a blanket approach, but when you look at the data there are certain individuals or populations that don’t need that much red meat for their own health,” said our Jessica Fanzo, “There’s a real inequity. Some people get too much. Some people get too little.”

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Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

December 18, 2018

“The decision to continue to withhold this vaccine from pregnant women is not justifiable,” says our Ruth Faden, “We must listen to the voices of pregnant women in the midst of an outbreak. If they’re saying, ‘Give me the choice, I want to decide,’ how can we not respond to that? How could you not give them that choice?”

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Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

Tuesday, December 18th, 2018

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According to a new report by medical experts, the problem is global. New vaccines are rarely designed with the specific needs of pregnant women in mind, leaving many women vulnerable to diseases which, a few months earlier, they might have been able to receive protection from. “The decisionto continue to withhold this vaccine from pregnant women is notjustifiable,” says Ruth Faden, a professor of biomedical ethics at Johns Hopkins University and one of the lead authors of the report. “We must listen to the voices of pregnant women in the midst of an outbreak. If they’re saying, ‘Give me the choice, I want to decide,’ how can we not respond to that? How could you not give them that choice?”

The report, penned by the Pregnancy Research Ethics for Vaccines, Epidemics, and New Technologies (PREVENT) Working Group, a team of experts specializing in disciplines including bioethics, maternal-fetal medicine, philosophy, and vaccine research, examines the urgent need to address the welfare of pregnant women in public health crises. It lays out 22 recommendations for policymakers in the United States and abroad, including directions to improve data collection so vaccines can be developed—and clinical trials conducted—with pregnant women in mind. In the event of an outbreak, the experts say, maternal and neonatal health experts should be closely consulted, and decisions should be informed by the perspective of affected women themselves—many pregnant women, Faden says, would likely opt into research to protect them and their babies, born or otherwise, from disease. And during an epidemic, the default should be to offer vaccines to pregnant women, not the reverse.

…continue reading ‘Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.’

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Mother Jones

The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The Health of a World on the Move

December 6, 2018

Providing evidence for cooperation and action on what is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. The Commission’s foundation is that migration and health are inextricably linked—and key to sustainable development. Commission members include our Leonard Rubenstein

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The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The Health of a World on the Move

Thursday, December 6th, 2018

Executive Summary

With one billion people on the move or having moved in 2018, migration is a global reality. International migration has increased to 258 million, and the numbers of refugees and people displaced by conflict, natural disasters, and climate change are at their highest levels: 22 and 40 million, respectively. Despite negative political narratives, migration is not overwhelming high-income countries—instead, it takes place mostly between low-income and middle-income countries and most people are migrating for work. By and large, migration is a positive and diverse experience. But migration has also become a political lightning rod.

The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health steps into this political debate to provide evidence for cooperation and action on what is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. The Commission’s foundation is that migration and health are inextricably linked—and key to sustainable development. It provides a framework of migration as a dynamic process, providing evidence of the multiple factors that could be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and systems along the migration journey—at origin, transit, destination, and return. It documents the devastating impacts of forced migration, especially on girls and women, but also the overall benefits to the health of individuals and populations that migration generates. It lays out a research agenda to better ensure the health of migrants. Using the lens of health the Commission shows that migration policies can be both ethical and feasible—calling for governments, international agencies, and professionals to promote health in global mobility.

…continue reading “The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The Health of a World on the Move”

image via Twitter: @TheLancet

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The Lancet

Gene Editing of Babies Could be Ethical, Experts Say

July 18, 2018

Is it right to hack the genes of an unborn child to reduce its risk of developing cancer or some other debilitating or fatal disease? British medical experts say it could be, if certain conditions are met

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In Some Countries, Following the Hippocratic Oath Is a Crime

June 22, 2018

“The allegiance of a health provider is really irrelevant if they’re providing health care,” our Leonard Rubenstein comments, “A doctor or a nurse is ethically supposed to provide care for everyone.”

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In Some Countries, Following the Hippocratic Oath Is a Crime

Friday, June 22nd, 2018

“It is a regression globally,” says Dainius Puras, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health, one of more than a dozen honorary officials with broad mandates to research some designated area of global concern. In the past, Puras and his predecessors have highlighted international problems that intersect with well-being like mental health, children’s health care, and reproductive health. Now in his fourth year in the role, Puras requested the report draw attention to the ways health care has been “criminalized,” either by the overly broad use of counter-terrorism laws or harassment by state officials. It’s a subject that has been relatively unexplored within the wider discussion of human rights.

Researchers from the University of Essex, Johns Hopkins University, and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition collaborated on the 30-page report, which analyzes the protections health care providers have in 16 countries, including places embroiled in civil war and those emerging from conflict. A team of consultants and analysts worked over the past year with UN agencies, human rights groups, and other stakeholders to review publicly available legal information and media reports to assess the legal and informal ways medical providers have been harassed.

“There are no laws we found that specifically target health care,” says Leonard Rubenstein, a co-author of the study who is a human rights lawyer and senior scientist with the Center for Public Health and Human Rights and a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. “But we found very few that specifically have exceptions for health care.”

…continue reading ‘In Some Countries, Following the Hippocratic Oath Is a Crime’

Image: via Flickr Some rights reserved by physiciansforhumanrights

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Mother Jones

New Report: Ethical Issues Related to the Creation of Synthetic Human Embryos

April 26, 2018

The Harvard Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight (the “ESCRO”) Committee, an ethics oversight committee charged with reviewing research protocols involving human embryos, human embryonic stem cells, and certain activities with non-embryonic human pluripotent stem cells, recently issued a report exploring the ethical issues related to the creation of synthetic human embryos

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Ethical Issues and Recs in Grateful Patient Fundraising and Philanthropy

Ethical Issues and Recs in Grateful Patient Fundraising and Philanthropy

The Way We Eat Could Doom Us as a Species. Here’s a New Diet Designed to Save Us.

The Way We Eat Could Doom Us as a Species. Here’s a New Diet Designed to Save Us.

New Diet Guidelines to Benefit People and the Planet: More Greens for All, Less Meat for Some

New Diet Guidelines to Benefit People and the Planet: More Greens for All, Less Meat for Some

Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The Health of a World on the Move

The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The Health of a World on the Move

Gene Editing of Babies Could be Ethical, Experts Say

Gene Editing of Babies Could be Ethical, Experts Say

In Some Countries, Following the Hippocratic Oath Is a Crime

In Some Countries, Following the Hippocratic Oath Is a Crime

New Report: Ethical Issues Related to the Creation of Synthetic Human Embryos

New Report: Ethical Issues Related to the Creation of Synthetic Human Embryos

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