Health and Medicine are Focus of Variety of Ethics Stories
| 2008-09-22 20:59:22 | bear
Demonstrators rally against psychologists’ participation in interrogations; think tank warns that brain-boosting drugs may have to be subsidized by schools in order to ease education gap between rich and poor; high-profile disclosure of results of a DNA test spur debate
VARIOUS DATELINES
Moral obligations related to health care providers were featured in several news reports last week. Among the stories:
- About 200 demonstrators rallied outside the convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston last week, protesting the role of psychologists in military interrogations. Demonstrators blasted psychologists who participated in interrogations, claiming that assisting in interrogations is an ethics violation, reports USA Today. Some counter that questioning without the presence of a mental health professional could be more harmful for detainees.
- Drugs known as cognition enhancers already are causing ethics concerns even though they are not widely used yet, reports London’s Daily Telegraph. The U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences has advised the government that the use of such drugs likely is to become so widespread that they will need to be regulated. In addition, a separate government-commissioned report from an ethics think tank warns that schools must be prepared to subsidize poorer children’s use of such drugs so that they can keep up with their more affluent peers, according to the Telegraph report.
- Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed last week that he is genetically predisposed to Parkinson’s disease, saying he made the discovery though a consumer-oriented genetic testing firm that his wife co-founded, according to trade journal InformationWeek. While Brin said that he made the announcement to garner public input on genetic screening and Parkinson’s treatment, some questioned whether it was more of a publicity stunt to pump his wife’s company. The firm, called 23andMe, recently lowered the price of its genetic screening to $399. Home-based genetic testing, in which samples are mailed to labs, has vaulted to popularity in recent years thanks to leapfrogging technological advances, reports Parade Magazine, but ethical and practical problems remain to be resolved. Among them: choices related to marrying and to having — or not having — children.
Sources: Parade, Sep. 21– New York Times, Sep. 19 — InformationWeek, Sep. 19 — USA Today, Sep. 19 — Daily Telegraph, Sep. 19.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Aug. 25 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 17, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 7 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 23, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 15, 2006.
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