One of the major concerns with human egg donation is that there is no federal or systematic oversight. The UK has the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) that regulates the use of gametes and embryos for fertility treatment and research. In contrast, the US is the “Wild West” when it comes to reproductive medicine as we lack any real regulation in this field (there are soft policy guidelines from various medical and scientific organizations but these don’t have teeth). 

Without any oversight, many concerns are raised about the screening of donors. For example, women can donate at multiple centers without any of the other centers knowing. There are no good studies on the effects of donating eggs numerous times, but many believe it could be detrimental to women’s health. Another problem with women donating to multiple centers is that if their eggs are to be used for research purposes, it could lead to less diversity in the research sample. If their eggs are being used for reproductive purposes, then there is a greater chance of creating many half-siblings. 

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

Earlier today, my “in” box began to fill with info from everyone I’ve ever met letting me know that the Supreme Court had ruled on the Myriad case about patenting the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. I also received a dozen pitches from PR people offering me all manner of instant interviews with lawyers, doctors, bioethicists, and health care analysts.

No one offered me an interview with a geneticist – a person who knows something about DNA. So being such a person myself, I decided to take a look at the decision. And I found errors – starting right smack in the opening paragraph.

“Scientists can extract DNA from cells to isolate specific segments for study. They can also synthetically create exons-only strands of nucleotides known as composite DNA (cDNA). cDNA contains only the exons that occur in DNA, omitting the intervening exons.”

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

In a recent CNN article, it was reported that American women are requesting double mastectomies at vastly increased rates – up 150% among women with early stage breast cancer according to one 2007 study. With Angelina Jolie’s New York Times Op Ed piece hitting newsstands on May 14, 2013 the spotlight that has shown on breast cancer and its ancillary campaigns shines bright once again. There can be no doubt that breast cancer awareness, research, and treatment have become recognized beneficiaries of phenomenally successful fundraising campaigns. Yet, if we peel away the pink stickers, pins and flags, do we find empowerment of women or pressure to take action out of fear? To that end, what are the obligations of providers when faced with patients who demand mastectomies where there is no disease and no elevated risk?

In general, a patient’s demand for removing healthy body parts is considered ethically problematic. Is an orthopedic surgeon obligated to amputate a foot because it may someday be broken? This type of request would be declined on the grounds that the risks of surgery and ensuing debility are not worth the benefit of an unconfirmed and unlikely harm. Does our discomfort lessen if it is the amputation of a foot belonging to a diabetic patient out of fear it may someday loose circulation, become infected or gangrenous, and need amputation down the road anyway? The potential for complications related to diabetes may be genuine, but far from certain. Surveillance, lifestyle choices, and early intervention can mitigate the need for such a surgery and would be considered the standard of care for a concerned patient. For patients with BRCA mutations, prophylactic surgery and chemoprevention are added to the list of options. 

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

I have commented previously on the stupidity with which some members of congress approach science. I never seem to have any trouble finding new material on this subject. The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology seems to be an especially rich source of such material.  You would think that the members of congress from Oklahoma and Texas would be pretty busy these days. With a huge fertilizer explosion in Texas and the direct hit of a massive EF5 tornado in More, Oklahoma the need for humanitarian aid and rebuilding would be enough to keep Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas) quite busy, as well they should be. But these guys are nonetheless able to find plenty of time to mess with the operations of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Senator Coburn initiated this latest episode earlier this year by successfully attaching language to the 2013 appropriation for the National Science Foundation that prohibits funding for any political science research unless the director of the NSF certifies that it relates to national security or economic development. Representative Smith, the chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology has now initiated an attempt to apply these principles to the entire portfolio of NSF funding in all disciplines. The current guidelines to reviewers of grant applications for funding by NSF to address the “intellectual merit” of the research proposal as well as its broader impact on society and the scientific community.

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

In her Sunday, June 2, 2013, New York Times article titled “The 2.7 Trillion Medical Bill”, reporter Elizabeth Rosenthal reminds us once again that with the U.S. healthcare “system,” traditional economic market forces are a myth. In example after example, from angiogram to colonoscopy to hip replacement surgery to Lipitor to everyday radiology studies, she shows how U.S. costs are three-to-four times higher than charges in other countries, and how no one can really explain why. For this reason alone, why do some continue to insist on saying that American healthcare is sustained by free market forces as if it were another “business”?

Victor R. Fuchs – in his 1986 text The Health Economy – recalled that a typical market includes: (1) many well-informed buyers and sellers, with no large group of either able to influence price; (2) buyers and sellers acting independently; and (3) free entry of new buyers and sellers. The American healthcare market departs remarkably from these competitive conditions, often as a consequence of openly debated public policy. In America, it is very difficult for patients, consumers, “to vote with their feet” as Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman oft wrote.

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

One week ago, the state of Vermont passed legislation allowing Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) in its ‘Patient Choice at End of Life’ Bill. This Bill will protect physicians from criminal liability for prescribing a medication that will hasten a patient’s death, under certain conditions and given certain safeguards. The legislative regime is relatively clear, and its comprehensible provisions can be applauded. Still some ambiguity exists overall about the distinction between PAS and euthanasia, as evidenced by the following headline: ‘Vermont Assisted Suicide Bill: Vermont Gives Euthanasia the Green Light’. The legislation itself does not necessarily do a service to clarify these terms, in its reference to active euthanasia. In this blog post, I seek to clarify some of the legislative regime in Vermont and clarify some terminology around PAS and euthanasia. 

Vermont is the third State that has legally permitted PAS, and is the first one to do so by law directly. Oregon and Washington legalized PAS respectively in 1994 (confirmed in 2006) and 2008 after referenda. Montana allowed PAS by a court judgment in 2009, but no Bill has been enacted yet. Vermont’s Bill was crafted with the Oregon legislation in mind. Its current safeguards revolve around record keeping by the physician, its requirements that a patient needs to suffer a terminal illness and have less than six months to live, as well its requirements for a the written statement of a patient (next to two oral ones), and a concurring opinion from a second physician. These safeguards were a compromise to facilitate and speed up the process of the Bill. In 2016 these safeguards will be replaced, and PAS will be governed by professional practice standards, like in other areas of medicine (Provision 5292).    

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

For Part I of this blog, I will highlight a new discovery where scientists have now been able to create cloned stem cells and I will review two ethical debates that were central to earlier discourse surrounding stem cell research: (1) the moral status of human embryos and (2) the potential physical and social harms to women as egg providers.

So finally research cloning (a.k.a. therapeutic cloning) has been achieved! The technique is called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and now has been used to derive human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) (Tachibana et al., Cell 2013). Performing SCNT using human oocytes is an astonishing accomplishment and has significant ethical and clinical implications.

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.

In their 2012 article "Preserving the Right to Future Children: An ethical Case Analysis" the authors apply a principalist approach to the ethical analysis of a mother’s decision to allow her 2 year old daughter, Daisy, to undergo OTC to preserve her fertility following stem cell transplant to treat her severe Sickle Cell disease.

While this approach gives one clear parameters to make ethical decisions by identifying issues of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice, it does not adequately provide for the contextual issues surrounding such an emotionally charged decision and thus may miss crucial points.  A narrative ethics approach would better identify the contextual issues and create an environment for those issues to be factored into the decision. 

The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our website.