Unfinished feticide: the ethical problems. (65/838)

Dr. Jansen's paper raises three main issues. The one with which he himself is most concerned is the question of which methods of abortion are ethically right, and whether methods which risk the birth of a damaged baby are wrong. But there are two others: first, how the (originally unintended) birth of a live but damaged child alters the moral situation, and secondly, whether the overcoming of sterility by inducing a multiple pregnancy in which some of the fetuses have to be killed in order for any of them to survive is at all morally acceptable.  (+info)

Response to Roger W. Hunt. (66/838)

A response to a critique by Roger W. Hunt of my views on the eventual likely need to use age as a standard for the allocation of expensive, high-technology, life-extending medical care for the elderly. The response encompasses three elements: 1. that while the elderly have a substantial claim to publicly-provided health care, it cannot be an unlimited claim; 2. that a health care system which provided a decent, coherent set of medical and social services for the elderly would be sufficient, even if some limits had to be set; and 3. allocation and rationing decisions should not be made by individual doctors at the bedside but by regional or national policy.  (+info)

Professional ethics: further comments.(67/838)

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Dilemmas, ethics and intent--a commentary.(68/838)

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Reply to J M Stanley: fiddling and clarity.(69/838)

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In vitro fertilisation: the major issues--a comment.(70/838)

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Clinical trials -- a brave new partnership: a response to Mrs. Thornton. (71/838)

In this commentary on the previous paper it is explained that screen-detected Duct Carcinoma In Situ is effectively a new disease of unknown natural history. It is therefore impossible that 'the doctor knows best' and it is therefore both in the patient and the public's best interests that such cases are submitted to the rigours of the randomised controlled trial. Inevitably this brings the ethical dilemma of how to explain to patients the uncertainty and how to involve them in a rational decision to take part in the randomised controlled trial. It is argued that as well as there being a collective benefit for future generations of women, that we should resolve this problem now, the individual woman is likely to benefit from being treated according to a strict protocol. Nevertheless the time of diagnosis is paradoxically not the best time for a patient to become aware of these matters and it is about time that the lay public and the opinion formers recognized their responsibility to become acquainted with the benefits and the needs of the randomised controlled trial in anticipation of the day when they themselves will be patients.  (+info)

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Torture and the Medical Profession. (72/838)

... The main topic of this publication is the involvement of professional medical doctors in the course of torture in, generally speaking, the following ways: 1. Medical scientific knowledge and experience is used in the design of the methods and techniques of torture, for example pharmacological torture; 2. Doctors teach the torturers/perpetrators regarding the practical application of these methods; 3. Doctors actively participate in carrying out torture and in executions in relation to the death penalty; 4. Doctors are present -- "passive" -- during the implementation of torture (in more than sixty per cent of cases) for example monitoring the clinical condition of the victim in order to prevent death; are present when the death sentence is carried out, and then write out death certificates. Many of these are later shown by forensic documentation to be false.... This supplement is based on an international symposium, Torture and the Medical Profession, which was held at the University of Tromso in June 1990....  (+info)