Bioethics

Codes and regulations were designed to protect human subjects in medical research. Despite laws, unethical experimentation continues on four vulnerable populations.

Dec 6, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

In 2005, the Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study was canceled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for reasons having little to do with ethics.

Dec 5, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

The Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study was intended to test pesticide exposure levels in children. Instead, it raised concerns about unethical research.

Dec 5, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

In 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a controversial research study designed to test pesticide exposure levels in children.

Dec 5, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Placebos have a valid role in medical research, but their use is restricted to specific circumstances that researchers sometimes ignore, as in a Uganda clinical trial.

Dec 3, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

HIV/AIDS foster children require proper medical treatment. Sometimes, however, the line is blurred between therapeutic research and research conducted for other reasons.

Nov 30, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Medical research on human subjects often has been unrestrained by codes or regulations. One vulnerable population affected by unethical research is foster children.

Nov 30, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

The use of placebos in clinical trials is accepted medical practice. But what happens when placebos only are used in studies within developing countries?

Nov 22, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Over time, the focus of health technology assessment (HTA) has shifted away from ethical issues to clinical and economic concerns. An international survey examines why.

Nov 17, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Health technology assessment (HTA) is a valuable policy tool in developed countries. In developing regions such as Latin America, HTA has been harder to implement.

Nov 15, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Health technology assessment developed in the 1970s in response to rising health care expenditures and concerns about inefficient health care systems.

Nov 15, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

The Hippocratic Oath was intended to set forth an informal code of behavior for physicians. Today, however, it is rarely used or followed in its entirety.

Nov 8, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Hippocrates has been called the 'Father of Medicine.' He wrote extensively on medical science and is said to be responsible for the Oath that bears his name.

Nov 7, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Human beings occupy a planet filled with complex challenges and difficult issues. Bioethics was developed to help people cope with advances in medicine and technology.

Oct 25, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

As a physician, Henry K. Beecher understood all too well the problems associated with clinical research. In 1966, he published some guiding principles for researchers.

Oct 23, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

The National Research Act (1974) set forth ethical principles for research on human subjects. Three additional initiatives followed to put those principles into practice.

Oct 21, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Medical research and informed consent have been shrouded in four myths. According to a 1966 article by Henry K. Beecher, the reality was quite different.

Oct 19, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Although formed as a non-profit organization in 1949, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) has played an important role in bioethics.

Oct 16, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Despite ethical questions raised by the Nuremberg Code and other guidelines, human experimentation abuses continued. In 1974, public policy focused on clinical research.

Oct 10, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Informed consent was designed to protect humans from unauthorized experimentation. Over time, the principle was formalized into a process that met other requirements.

Oct 4, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Although informed consent is designed to protect individuals from unauthorized experimentation, the principle is a modern phenomenon that is not universally accepted.

Oct 3, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Progress in medical research depends on human experimentation. Even though laws are in place to regulate clinical trials, compliance is voluntary.

Sep 29, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Experimentation on humans is today regulated by law, but in 1874 there were few safeguards in place to protect Mary Rafferty from Dr. Roberts Bartholow.

Sep 7, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

Although medicine had been practiced in the United States for hundreds of years, the first Code of Medical Ethics for physicians was not written until 1847.

Sep 6, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett

In order to develop a vaccine for yellow fever, Walter Reed decided that human experimentation was necessary, although the ethics of that decision are still in doubt.

Aug 25, 2009 - Jeffrey Willett