blue brain hovers over bright blue circle.

Is OI the New AI? Questions Surrounding “Brainoware”

Adithi Iyer Leave a comment

By Adithi Iyer

The idea of artificial intelligence is just seeping into our collective consciousness, but as we watch new developments in the space, the true “new kid on the block” may be a new type of infused human-technology intelligence — one derived from a blob of cells no larger than a grain of rice. These new units of computational prowess are brain organoids, grown in-lab and capable of producing very basic, but real-time, neurological activity. Brain organoids are a specific, and arguably the most interesting, subset of organoid models that are just beginning to enter legal debates.

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Sorry, You Probably Cannot Get MDMA Through Telehealth

Vincent Joralemon Leave a comment

By Vincent Joralemon

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent acceptance of an MDMA-assisted therapy New Drug Application has experts buzzing over expanded access to the infamous substance commonly known as “ecstasy” or “molly.” 

Yet, once approved, FDA will put limits on the approved drug. If past psychedelics are any indication, this means that MDMA will probably need to be provided in a clinic under certain protocols. This means patients will need to wait for other MDMA products to complete clinical trials before we’ll see at-home, private use of the drug.

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rendering of luminous DNA with gene being removed with forceps.

Designer Babies? The Ethical and Regulatory Implications of Polygenic Embryo Screening

Hannah Rahim Leave a comment

By Hannah Rahim

New technologies are increasing the accessibility of polygenic embryo screening, which can assess the likelihood of an embryo developing polygenic diseases (e.g., diabetes, schizophrenia) or provide insight into certain polygenic traits (e.g., height, intelligence). This procedure has many complex clinical, social, and ethical implications, but is currently unregulated in the U.S.

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American Debt Collection Lawsuits: State Laws Vary Widely and Most Still Offer Little Protection to Consumers

Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research Leave a comment

By DeAnna Baumle and Katie Moran-McCabe

Americans are deeply in debt. In the fourth quarter of 2023, total household debt increased by $212 billion to reach $17.5 trillion, according to a report by the Center for Microeconomic Data.

Debt is linked to lower life expectancy, higher mortality, depression, high blood pressure, and forgone medical care. Debt and resulting bad credit scores can impact a person’s ability to secure housing, employment, and medical care. And it has a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, contributing to the perpetuation of intergenerational and structural inequity.

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Thank Ketamine for the Telehealth Extension

Vincent Joralemon Leave a comment

By Vincent Joralemon

In my last post, I discussed the rise of psychedelic lobbying — how companies with vested economic interests in psychedelics have applied pressure to shape regulations that favor their business models.

One such initiative — the ketamine therapy industry’s push to extend the COVID-era telemedicine flexibilities for prescriptions of controlled substances — highlights how sophisticated these campaigns can be, and how their impact stretches beyond the psychedelic industry.

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Outlive by Peter Attia: A Book Review

Bobby Stroup Leave a comment

By Bobby Stroup

If you want to read a book about how to guarantee a 100-year lifespan, Peter Atta’s Outlive is going to disappoint you. But if you want to learn about Medicine 3.0, the four horsemen diseases, and how you might increase your healthspan, then you should get a copy of the book today. 

Outlive is not a book on public health policy so much as it is an exploration of personal health policy. Even so, the text — existing somewhere between the genres of autobiography and medical journal anthology — offers insights relevant to any health care aficionado. Read More

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Psychedelic Lobbying and Regulatory Capture

Vincent Joralemon Leave a comment

By Vincent Joralemon

Psychedelic companies and advocacy groups are spending substantial resources to influence regulatory policy, shaping what the blossoming field will ultimately cohere into.

Although regulations are designed to protect the public interest, the rulemaking process is often dominated by lobbying from those with special interests in the fields meant to be regulated. When that leads to undue influence, the result is known as “regulatory capture.”

Yet, not all lobbying campaigns are necessarily problematic — the goal instead should be for regulators to leverage industry insights while maintaining independence in their ultimate decision-making.

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Bioethics, Psychedelic Therapy Abuse, and the Risk of Ethics Washing

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Tehseen Noorani and Neşe Devenot

Introduction

The academic discipline of bioethics is becoming a prominent arena for the discussion of ethics abuses in psychedelic therapy. With this being a relatively new topic of research for bioethics, it may be opportune to consider blind spots in the discipline’s own gaze and operations, which can otherwise hinder effective engagement with the issues at hand. We write in the wake of an extensive search by Gather Well Psychedelics, a psychedelic therapy training organization, to contract professional bioethicists to conduct an ethics audit of their organization. We ask, what challenges arise for bioethicists offering professional services when taking on commissions to work for organizations such as Gather Well that are emerging out of the psychedelic underground?

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