Follow-up/Ongoing conversation

I'm going to try this new post as a way to respond holistically to the prior week's posts.  Since I'm reading them after you've all posted, I'm missing the opportunity to be in the conversation and give feedback.  That's a problem with the asynchronous nature of online and especially blogging.  I'll date my responses so you know where I am and then we can try next week to have a meta-conversation about what we're learning and how our ideas about these topics in biomedical ethics are evolving.

So, some follow-up points.  29 May 15
1. Re: vulnerable patients and research.  I agree that vulnerable populations should only be involved in research if care is made to safeguard them.  But could you elaborate on informed consent?  If you're concerned with impoverished people in developing countries, are you similarly concerned with the impoverished, uneducated here?  Do you see such people at work?  Do you take extra steps to make sure that they are sufficiently educated for real informed consent?

2. Re: Codes of Ethics
Cindy and/or Shirley: could you elaborate on how you see the Codes being manipulated?
Donna, Cindy, Sherry: Interesting that you bring up the Nazis.  Our codes were in place after WWII, but American doctors and researchers continued to violate them.  I suppose this is what some of you mean when you say that the Codes can be manipulated.  So is it still important to have the Codes?  What do they do?

Case 38 Delayed Twinning (2June)

Be sure to apply your theories and applicable readings when analyzing this case.  Some of you should play devil's advocate.

Genetics videos (2June)

Hopefully you have some basic knowledge about genetics, and just need a refresher. Here are some basic videos for refreshment!

Genetics overview from National Geographic
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/science-behind/genetics-overview/ 

https://www.23andme.com/gen101/genes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBezq1fFUEA

this video shows 18 things to know about genetic it is the basics!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVk0twJYL6Y

This video is titled "basic introduction to genetics" Sorry the guy is super boring..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQjuSk1OM4U

Bill Nye The Science Guy: Genes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMzH9E_cnqU

Titled "What is a gene?" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MQdXjRPHmQ

Titled "Where do genes come from?" 
https://youtu.be/z9HIYjRRaDE

This is a decent video about three basic topics in Genetics!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEanu74zHkI&spfreload=10

This guy did a pretty good job of explaining it:
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/heredity-and-genetics/v/introduction-to-heredity

Case 15 (26May)

Argue a position you don't necessarily actually believe in. Someone please start the conversation by saying something provocative!

Case 12 HIV & surgery (26May)

Apply your readings and ethical theories to this case.  Challenge each other by taking a different ethical theory stance.

Process/Course Content (ongoing)

Questions about what's happening with the course?  Don't understand an assignment?  Ask here!

HIV/AIDS (26May)

After reading the "Don't Tell" essay (pp. 116-9) in your textbook, and watching the videos on HIV/AIDS, discuss any of the following (you don't all have to discuss the same issues):

• the ethics of needle-exchange
• http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us/surge-in-cases-of-hiv-tests-us-policy-on-needle-exchanges.html  
• reposted from "April Current Events on this blog": Rural Indiana Struggles to Contend With H.I.V. Outbreak - NYTimes.com
  
  A serious epidemic of HIV not too far away. Should Indiana step up treatment? Continue its needle-exchange program? How should we combat i.v. drug use, especially when it occurs across multiple generations within many families?
  http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/us/rural-indiana-struggles-to-contend-with-hiv-outbreak.html
   
• what is your obligation as a health-care professional to the dignity & protection/confidentiality of all, but especially vulnerable, patients like IV-drug users, homosexuals, prisoners, etc.?

• public health, especially protecting the blood supply
• http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/12/24/370937993/new-blood-donation-rules-would-still-exclude-many-gay-men 
• http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/BloodBloodProducts/QuestionsaboutBlood/ucm108186.htm 

Case 8: Nurse & Informed Consent (26May - for attendance)

Using your readings on informed consent, discuss this case and the questions at the end of the write-up.  Respond to at least 2 of your classmates.

Codes of Ethics (26May)

 What strikes you about the codes of ethics for research on human subjects?  What weren't you expecting?

After you read the Codes of Ethics in your text, look at your own Nursing Code of Ethics.  The Codes in your text relate to research on human subjects, but there is some overlap with your professional code of ethics.  Also look at the Hippocratic Oath.  Where's the overlap between all those?

Research on Human Subjects (26/27May)

Discussion Questions:
Answer each of the following and respond to 2 other posts by 27 May.
1) Regarding our readings on research with human subjects, do you think that these clinical trials on human subjects are ethical, or not? Explain.  Just pick 1-2 examples from the readings.
2) How would you address each of the criticisms that Brody discusses? (Do you agree or disagree?)
3) Pick an ethical perspective analyzed in this course, and assess a case from that perspective.  For this question, whomever gets to it first, gets to pick the example case (from a reading) to discuss :)

May current events (starting after12May)

Doctor: So much health care not healthy  http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/05/26/doc-regions-health-spending-whack/27959139/

Cincinnati, you're not getting a lot of value for your health care spending. Billboards point to the reason.

Doctoring, Without the Doctor By SABRINA TAVERNISEMAY 25, 2015http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/health/rural-nebraska-offers-stark-view-of-nursing-autonomy-debate.html?emc=edit_th_20150526&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=25414714&_r=0
A story about nurse practitioners in the rural West.

Review: ‘The Farewell Party’ Finds Laughs in Euthanasia - NYTimes.com
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/movies/review-the-farewell-party-finds-laughs-in-euthanasia.html?referrer= 

Map Reveals The Distinctive Cause Of Death In Each Statehttp://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/05/20/408011861/map-reveals-the-distinctive-cause-of-death-in-each-state  

Debating the Complications Involved in Saving Preemies - NYTimes.com
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/health/debating-whether-preemies-are-worth-fighting-for.html?referrer=

Rise in Suicide by Black Children Surprises Researchers - NYTimes.com

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/health/suicide-rate-for-black-children-surged-in-2-decades-study-says.html?referrer=

 
Review: In ‘Do No Harm,’ a Brain Surgeon Tells All - NYTimes.com
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/books/review-in-do-no-harm-a-brain-surgeon-tells-all.html?referrer=

Antibiotics Resurface as Alternative to Removing Appendix - NYTimes.com

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/health/antibiotics-resurface-as-alternative-to-removing-appendix.html?referrer=

 
The Case for Black Doctors - NYTimes.com

 http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/opinion/sunday/the-case-for-black-doctors.html?referrer

The Last Day of Her Life - NYTimes.com

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/magazine/the-last-day-of-her-life.html?referrer=

When Sandy Bem found out she had Alzheimer’s, she resolved that before the disease stole her mind, she would kill herself. The question was, when?
 
Needle Exchanges: helps stop spread of disease or encourages drug use?
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us/surge-in-cases-of-hiv-tests-us-policy-on-needle-exchanges.html?referrer=

Ethics in research
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/business/data-disclosure-leads-researchers-to-end-study-of-obesity-drug.html?referrer=