Latest Center News
Posted 10 February 2012
Greetings Bioethics Center Members,
*Just for fun, click on this site, and you can visit practically any city and country around the world. A “staycation” at its best!
*Congratulations to Bioethics Center Member Jennifer Ruger who was recently cited in a brief for petitioners in the Supreme Court. YaleNews recently posted a story about it.
*Congratulations to Bioethics Center Member Joel Marks whose book “Ethics without Morals” has been accepted by Routledge Press and will be included in the Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory series. Ethics without Morals offers a defense of amorality as both philosophically justified and practicably livable. In so doing the book extends the contemporary debate about atheism to cover morals. Here Marks argues that “new atheists” such as Louise Antony, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Greg Epstein, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have been too complacent in retaining their embrace of morality. He seeks to build a positive case for a desire-based ethics to replace morality, both theoretically and practically. The book begins with an analysis of what morality is and then argues that the concept is not instantiated in reality. Following this, the question of belief in morality is addressed: How would human life be affected by accepting that morality does not exist? Marks argues that at the very least a moralist would have little to complain about in an amoral world, and at best we might hope for a world that was more to our liking overall. An extended look at the human encounter with nonhuman animals serves as an illustration of amorality’s potential to make both theoretical and practical headway in resolving heretofore intractable ethical problems.
*Congratulations to Bioethics Center Member Barry Schaller on the upcoming publication of his newest book “Veterans on Trial: The Coming Court Battles Over PTSD.” (Potomac Books, Inc.) Although the book is due out in June, it has already appeared on the publisher’s website, Amazon, and B&N. Congratulations Barry!
*Here is a listing of jobs in bioethics from the American Journal of Bioethics. Among others, The Hastings Center is looking for a new research assistant.
*What’s New at The Hastings Center:
-The latest Hastings Center Report – How can insurers justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year on “orphan drugs” – extremely expensive medications for rare conditions that are mostly chronic and life-threatening – when this money could provide greater overall health benefit if spread out among many other patients? Those spending decisions reflect the “rule of rescue,” the value that our society places on saving lives in immediate danger at any expense. But the broad application of the rule of rescue will be increasingly difficult to support as “personalized medicine produces more drugs genetically targeted to relatively small groups of patients. For example, rather than a new blockbuster drug that treats millions with hypertension new targeted therapies will treat only those few thousand with a particular genetic makeup.
*Addicts’ cravings have different roots in men and women: a new brain imaging study by Yale School of Medicine researchers suggest stress robustly activates areas of the brain associated with craving in cocaine-dependent women, while drug cues activate similar brain regions in cocain-dependent men. (American Journal of Psychiatry, January 31, 2012) Findings suggest that women with cocaine dependence might benefit from stress-reduction therapies that specifically target these cravings. Men, on the other hand, might derive more benefit from elements of cognitive behavioral therapy or 12-step programs based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Please click here for a review.
*Carol’s Article and Newspaper Picks of the Week:
“Revised Criteria for Mild Cognitive Impairment May Compromise the Diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease Dementia,” John C. Morris, MD, Archives of Neurology (future Issue).
“Nocebo Effects, Patient-Clinician Communication, and Therapeutic Outcomes,” Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, and Damien Finniss, MSc Med, Journal of the American Medical Association (Feb.8; vol. 307, #6)
“Nurse Reveals Top 5 Regrets Of The Dying,” Kelly Oxford, from Arise India Forum.
“Long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes after intrauterine and neonatal insults: a systematic review,” Dr. Michael K. Mwaniki, MBChB et al..Lancet
“Cognitive Problems Common Among Non-demented Elderly – Major Public Health Concern,” The Karolinska Institute, News Resease.
“Georgia Court Overturns Law Restricting Assisted Suicide,” Ashby Jones, The Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2012
“Court to weigh use of religious confessions,” by David Ashenfelter, Detroit Free Press and USA Today, February 8, 2012
“State Supreme Court Strikes Expert Witness Requirement That Plaintiff Experts Practice in Same Areas as Defendant,” Alicia Gallegos, American Medical News, February 6, 2012.
“A Chance to See Disabilities as Assets,” John C. Morris, MD, The New York Times, February 8, 2012.
“Ritalin Gone Wrong,” L. Alan Sroufe, The New York Times Sunday Review, Opinion Page, January 28, 2012
-Carol
