It’s Friday again! And here’s this week’s (slightly edited) version of the Yale Friday Newsletter. Enjoy.
Steve Latham notes that you can find the contents of the Newsletter on the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics website each week. Look under “Events and Opportunities.” The website also has calendars for the Animal Ethics group and Technology and Ethics group, under the tab labeled “Center Study Groups.” The Program for Biomedical Ethics at the Yale School of Medicine, has its events calendar online, too.
And click here for some articles of interest from Carol Pollard.
Events at Yale
Monday, October 29
Economic History Workshop
Time: 2:30 PM
Location: 28 Hillhouse, room 106
Speaker: Lionel Kesztenbaum, INED
Topic: Public Goods and Health Inequality; Lessons from Paris, 1880-1914
Tuesday, October 30
Biohaven Entrepreneurship Series
Time: 4 PM
Location: 300 Cedar St, Anlyan Auditorium
Speaker: Richard N. Foster, Yale School of Management
Topic: Transformational U.S. Healthcare Opportunities in the Decade Ahead
RSVP: biohaven@yale.edu
Schell Center Lecture
Time: 6:10 PM
Location: 127 Wall St, Rm. 122
Speaker: Fatima Hassan, Tom and Andi Bernstein Fellow, and South African Human Rights Lawyer
Topic: Law in the Struggle for Social Justice in South Africa
Wednesday, October 31
Biomedical Ethics Lecture
Time: 4:30 PM
Location: 230 South Frontage Rd, Cohen Auditorium
Speaker: Doug Diekema MD, MPH, Director of Education, Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, University of Washington
Topic: Adolescent Patients’ Refusal of Recommended Medical Therapy
Thursday, November 1
African Studies Brown Bag Lunch
Time: 12 PM
Location: 34 Hillhouse Ave, room 203
Speaker: Wanja Muguongo
Topic: Exporting Homophobia: Exploring the Role of the US Christian Right in Homophobic Policy and Legislation in Africa
Food & Agriculture Lecture
Time: 12 PM
Location: 170 Whitney Ave, auditorium
Speaker: Marydale DeBor, New Milford Hospital
Topic: Scaling Sustainability: Healthy Hospitals
Humanities in Medicine Lecture
Time: 5 PM
Location: 300 Cedar St, Anlyan Auditorium
Speaker: Lawrence Rizzolo, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery (Anatomy and Experimental Surgery), Yale School of Medicine
Topic: Hidden Texts: Reflections on Living and Dying from the Anatomy Lab”
Franke Program in Science and the Humanities’ Inaugural Lecture
Time: 5 PM
Location: 53 Wall St, Auditorium
Speaker: Steven Pinker, Psychology, Harvard University
Topic: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Conferences & Off-Campus Events
Forum on the Integration of Climate Science and Infectious Disease Research
Luce Auditorium; Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven, CT
Friday, November 2, 2012 – 8:30am – Saturday, November 3, 2012 – 5:00pm
The YCEI, recognizing the need for sound science in evaluating the potential impact of climate change upon infectious diseases of humans, will be hosting a forum on the subjects of climate and human disease on November 2nd, 2012. The forum is open to the public and the Yale community and will offer formal overview presentations. Presentations will address the impacts of temperature and hydrological changes on human health. Climate change effects on vector borne disease will be emphasized. Click here for more information.
Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest in Research Universities
Friday, November 2, 2012
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein Conference Rooms, 2nd Floor
8:30am-6:30pm (reception to follow)
This event will bring together a world-class line-up of speakers to address the institutional financial conflicts of interest faced by research universities. President Obama has called on these universities to collaborate with industry, investors, and agencies to bolster entrepreneurship, commercialize research results, and enhance economic development – and a number of universities have pledged to do so. Should this be a welcome development, or cause for concern? How will this new role for research universities influence their traditional mission to educate and promote reliable, unbiased knowledge? Click here for more information and to register.
Speakers include:
- David Korn, Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School
- Jonathan Cole, Columbia University
- William (Terry) Fisher, Harvard Law School
- Ezekiel Emanuel, University of Pennsylvania
- Derek Bok, Harvard University
- Jonathan Marks, Penn State
- Claude Canizares, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Hunter Rawlings, Association of American Universities
- Sally Rockey, National Institutes of Health
- Julie Taitsman, US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
- Charles Vest, National Academy of Engineering
- Lawrence Bacow, Tufts University
Co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard.
Fordham University HIV Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute
Summer Training and Mentored Research Program for Early Career HIV Prevention and Drug Use Investigators
JULY 7 – 17, 2013
Fordham University Center for Ethics Education, New York City Funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Call for Applications
The Fordham University HIV Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute (RETI) offers ethics training and financial support for a mentored research project that will contribute to evidenced-based research ethics practices. The broad aims of the RETI are to: (1) provide fellows with the knowledge and skills to identify, address, and study key ethical issues in HIV prevention research in drug using and other at-risk populations; and (2) create and maintain an ongoing information and collaborative research network fostering grant proposals, research, publications, and pedagogical materials to sustain advancements in national and international HIV research ethics practices and policies involving drug using and other vulnerable groups.
RETI 2-Year Summer Program
RETI fellows are expected to make a 2-year commitment beginning with an intensive 10-day summer program conducted by our interdisciplinary faculty of experts in HIV research ethics and substance abuse. The summer institute offers lectures, discussions, skill-based exercises and mentoring for fellows to: (a) gain knowledge of ethical issues such as recruitment, confidentiality and informed consent in HIV research among drug using and other at-risk populations; (b) acquire skills to empirically examine research ethics challenges; and (c) develop a proposal for a mentored research project. The following summer, fellows will give formal presentations on their mentored research projects and receive intensive guidance in writing for publication, presentation and future funding. Fellows will receive support for travel, lodging, and meals for both summer institutes.
Mentored Research Project (MRP)
During the first summer institute, fellows receive mentoring and faculty and peer feedback on their proposed study. Fellows receive a small grant of up to $18,000 for the MRP upon project approval. Data collection is expected to be completed during year 1 and findings submitted for publication or as pilot data for an NIH grant in year two.
Eligibility
Applicants must have: (a) a doctoral, medical or equivalent degree in social, behavioral, medical, public health or related fields; (b) demonstrated scholarship in HIV prevention research; (c) 6 years or less post-doctoral experience; and (d) meet requirements to apply for NIH funding. Special attention will be given to those applicants whose proposed research ethics plan includes drug using populations.
Application Requirements
· An online application form, an official transcript from your last completed degree, and a current curriculum vitae.
· A 300-word description of your HIV research training and scholarship (i.e. publications, funding presentations), experience working with drug using or other vulnerable populations, and immediate and long-term research and career goals.
· A 150-word statement describing your interest and relevant training or experience in research ethics generally and HIV and/or drug use research ethics specifically.
· A 150-word preliminary description of the mentored HIV prevention research ethics study you would like to conduct, including a description of the proposed participant demographics (Current MRP abstracts are available at www.Fordham.edu/EthicsInstitute)
· 2 letters of recommendation, including 1 from a senior member of your current institution indicating the institution?s endorsement of your 2 year participation in the project.
Deadlines
Applications must be received by MARCH 8, 2013. Applicants will be notified of award decisions by April 12, 2013.
For application and additional information please visit WWW.FORDHAM.EDU/ETHICSINSTITUTE
Calls for Papers & Nominations
2013 Global Health & Innovation Conference: Call For Social Enterprise Pitches
Unite For Sight’s Global Health & Innovation Conference, which will be held at Yale on April 13-14, 2013, is the world’s largest global health conference and social entrepreneurship conference. The Global Health & Innovation Conference annually convenes 2,200 leaders, changemakers, students, and professionals from all fields of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Register during October! The registration rate increases after October 31. Interested in presenting at the conference? Submit a social enterprise pitch for consideration. Social enterprise pitch abstracts are accepted on a rolling application basis.
Global Health Idea Incubator Workshop on November 9
Do you have an idea for a program, project, organization, or research study? Unite For Sight’s Program Manager will hold a 1/2-day workshop to help you develop and launch your idea. The workshop will focus on effective healthcare delivery and the importance of best practices in global health, successful strategies of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and mentoring and guidance on how to establish new initiatives. The workshop will be a small, intimate roundtable forum.
- Who: Students and professionals are eligible to apply. Successful applicants will have demonstrated an interest in global health.
- When: Friday, November 9 (1:00-5:00pm)
- Where: Unite For Sight headquarters in downtown New Haven (across the street from Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center)
- How to apply: Submit a resume and a short essay (suggested length of 300-500 words) that describes your interest in the workshop and past involvement in global health (if any). Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis, and the first qualified applicants are accepted. Complete workshop details and application instructions online at https://www.uniteforsight.org/global-health-university/global-health-workshop
Open Society Foundation
The Open Society Foundation has two open research positions on the collection and use of disability and ethnicity data in Europe. Applications are open until October 31, and the project begins in November.
In the News
End of Life
Easing Death. The Economist. 20 October 2012.
Assisted suicide is already permitted in seven countries and states and is now being debated in New Zealand, Quebec, Australia and Britain. It is to be hoped that the current wave of liberalisation will continue, for those who suffer at the end of their lives have been too long denied the right to an easeful death. Continue reading…
Genetics
Rochman, Bonnie. Will My Son Develop Cancer? The Promise (and Pitfalls) of Sequencing Children’s Genomes. Time. 22 October 2012.
Can you imagine wanting to know whether your newborn baby will fall victim to Alzheimer’s disease decades down the road? What about cancer or diabetes? Emma Warin can. In August she gave birth to a healthy 8-lb., 3-oz. boy. She agreed to participate in an unprecedented study in which researchers will map out every speck of DNA in her son’s genome, potentially revealing mutations that could cause health problems now and far into the future. Continue reading…
Stein, Rob. Geneticists Breach Ethical Taboo By Changing Genes Across Generations. NPR. 24 October 2012.
Geneticists reported Wednesday that they had crossed a threshold long considered off-limits: They have made changes in human DNA that can be passed down from one generation to the next. Continue reading…
Health Care
Need Surgery? You Might Have to Get Healthier First. Wall Street Journal.. 22 October 2012.
After learning that he needed surgery to remove a golf-ball size tumor in his lung, 67-year-old Doug Rice expected to go under the knife right away. But his doctor told him he’d have to make an important change first: Quit smoking for 2½ weeks to reduce the chance of dangerous complications. Continue reading…
Grady, Denise. New Laws Add a Divisive Component to Breast Screening. New York Times. 24 October, 2012.
In a move that has irked medical groups and delighted patient advocates, states have begun passing laws requiring clinics that perform mammograms to tell patients whether they have something that many women have never even heard of: dense breast tissue. Continue reading…
Law and Bioethics
Zernike, Kate. Court’s Split Decision Provides Little Clarity on Surrogacy. New York Times. 24 October 2012.
Unable to conceive, the New Jersey couple did what an increasing number of 21st-century parents have done: they got an egg from an anonymous donor, and made an agreement with another woman to carry the child for them. Continue reading…
Medical Ethics
Caplan, Art. Many needlessly getting steroid injections for back pain, bioethicist says. 18 October 2012.
The quest for relief from pain has now resulted in the deaths of 19 people and a total of 247 confirmed infections of fungal meningitis from tainted steroid injections. Thousands more who got the injections, made by the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts, are worried that they too may wind up sick or dead. The horrific outbreak has resulted in the outrage about a lack of oversight of the compounding pharmacy. But, this tragedy has another aspect that is not getting sufficient attention. Why are so many Americans getting spinal injections? Continue reading…
Mental Health
Wang, Shirley. The Long Battle to Rethink Mental Illness. The Wall Street Journal. 22 October 2012.
Holed up in windowless hotel conference rooms near Washington, D.C., scientists have been busy rewriting the bible of American mental illness. It is the first revision of the nearly 1,000-page tome in 15 years, and one of the top priorities of the insular conclave is to rethink some children’s disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. The fear is that too many treatable children are slipping between the cracks, either because of misdiagnosis or—more controversially—because they suffer from a disease that hasn’t even been defined yet. Continue reading…
Public Health
Colman Chadam, California Boy, Ordered To Transfer Schools For Carrying Cystic Fibrosis Gene. Huffington Post. 18 October 2012.
Colman Chadam, an 11-year-old California boy, has been ordered to transfer from his current school to another one miles away because of his genetic makeup. Now, his parents are taking the issue to court. Continue reading…
Reproduction
Stein, Rob. Freezing Eggs To Make Babies Later Moves Toward Mainstream. NPR. 19 October 2012.
Doctors who specialize in treating infertility are making a big change in their position on a controversial practice. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has concluded that freezing women’s eggs to treat infertility should no longer be considered “experimental.” The group plans to officially announce the change on Monday. Continue reading…
Quenqua, Douglas. Clinic Raffles Could Make You a Winner, and Maybe a Mother. New York Times. 20 October 2012.
“That’s right, one lucky woman will win the ultimate chance at starting or building her family,” said a contest announcement issued in April by Long Island I.V.F., a clinic in Melville that offers in vitro fertilization to women who are having difficulty conceiving. Continue reading…
Research Ethics
Neergaard, Lauran. Bioethics panel urges more gene privacy protection. Seattle Times. 10 October 2012.
It sounds like a scene from a TV show: Someone sends a discarded coffee cup to a laboratory where the unwitting drinker’s DNA is decoded, predicting what diseases lurk in his or her future. A presidential commission found that’s legally possible in about half the states – and says new protections to ensure the privacy of people’s genetic information are critical if the nation is to realize the enormous medical potential of gene-mapping. Continue reading…
In the Journals
Abdullah S. Alamri, Yassar. Gift-giving in the medical student-patient relationship. Journal of Medical Ethics. May 2012.
There is paucity in the published literature that provides any ethical guidance guiding gift-giving within the student–patient relationship. This is perhaps because the dynamics of the medical student–patient relationship have not yet been explored as extensively as the doctor–patient relationship. More importantly, however, gift-giving in the doctor–patient relationship has traditionally been from the patient to the doctor and not vice versa. This article examines the literature published in this vicinity reflecting on an encounter with a patient. Continue reading…
Baumrucker, Steven J. Surrogates with Conflicting Interests: Who Makes the Decision? American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. August 2012.
This article discusses the conflicting interests related with surrogacy with a case illustration. JH is a 93-year-old male who was admitted with a massive intracerebral bleed. The patient’s son was at one time the patient’s power of attorney (POA). At present, the POA demands a feeding tube and continued aggressive treatment. The POA claims that the son is acting out of expedience and for his inheritance; the son states the POA is acting out of self-interest as he is being paid by JH as long as JH lives. The hospitalist feels further aggressive treatment would be futile and that no significant quality of life can be salvaged. The case is further analyzed on legal, ethical and health personnel’s perspectives. Continue reading…
Brody, Howard. The Placebo Phenomenon: Implications for the Ethics of Shared Decision-making. Journal of General Internal Medicine. June 2012.
Recent research into the placebo effect has implications for the ethics of shared decision-making (SDM). The older biomedical model views SDM as affecting which therapy is chosen, but not the nature or likelihood of any health outcomes produced by the therapy. Research indicates, however, that both the content and manner in which information is shared with the patient, and the patient’s experience of being involved in the decision, can directly alter therapeutic outcomes via placebo responses. An ethical tension is thereby created between SDM aimed strictly and solely at conveying accurate information, and “outcome engineering” in which SDM is adapted toward therapeutic goals. Several practical strategies mitigate this tension and promote respect for autonomous decision-making while still utilizing the therapeutic potential of SDM. Continue reading…
Goldman, Edward B. Arguments Against Sterilization of Developmentally Disabled Minors. Journal of Child Neurology. May 2011.
The general rule about minor children is that parents, or legal guardians, need to consent to medically necessary procedures for the child’s healthcare. In this discussion, we examine the most common reasons for which parents request sterilization for developmentally impaired girls, and posit that sterilization is usually not acceptable for a variety of medical, legal, and ethical reasons. We propose a rule: sterilization of a developmentally disabled minor ought not to be allowed. Limited exceptions for clear medical necessity to benefit the child might, however, be considered. General rules enforcing fundamental rights like procreation allow society to protect those citizens who cannot speak for themselves. A basic rule is to only allow sterilization when a competent patient has made an informed choice. The rights of minors and the creation of a just society that cares equally for all of its citizens are best served with a general rule avoiding sterilization of minors. Less restrictive alternatives such as contraception must always be considered and used. Continue reading…
