Art Caplan came up with the best explanation I've heard for the disease argument. People don't want to see addicts jailed, he said, so they've come up with a scenario to spare users from incarceration. Ergo: "The whole drug establishment is invoking the disease model as an antidote to the criminal-justice model." more...
A 32-year-old pregnant woman from Massachusetts, known only as Mary Moe, is at the center of a heated battle over abortion and sterilization, in a case so complex you could use it to teach an entire course on bioethics. Read more...
Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane
Ezekiel Emanuel on the Health Care Law and Health Care Costs
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Last week the Supreme Court agreed to review the constitutional challenge to the 2010 health care bill over the provision that requires most Americans to buy health care coverage. EZEKIEL EMANUEL worked on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act when he served as a top health care adviser to President Obama from 2009-2011. Emanuel is a prominent oncologist, researcher and medical ethicist. He headed the Bioethics Department at the National Institutes of Health, and has won awards for his work improving end-of-life care. He’s also the brother of Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Ezekiel Emanuel has recently moved to Philadelphia to serve as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. In this hour, Marty sits down with Emanuel to talk about the health care bill, health care costs, and the quality of medical care in the United States.
Arthur Caplan, PhD | MSNBC.com
Researchers have created a remarkable portrait of life for those with Down syndrome — and the people who love them.
Through the lens of a series of surveys conducted by Children’s Hospital Boston, the Down syndrome experience looks far different — and far happier — than the one most of us are used to picturing.
Most parents who answered the survey said they were proud of their child with Down syndrome, felt their outlook on life was more positive because of the experience — and had no regrets about having the child. more...
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a globally renowned bioethicist, will join the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as the 13th Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, beginning Sept. 1.
The announcement was made by Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price.
Emanuel's title will be Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor and vice provost for global initiatives. His appointment will be shared between the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy, which he will chair in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and the Department of Health Care Management in the Wharton School, pending formal ratification by the School faculties, the Provost’s Staff Conference and the University trustees.
“The University of Pennsylvania is tremendously fortunate to have attracted to our faculty one of the most insightful and well-respected bioethicists of our time,” Gutmann said. “Zeke Emanuel is an eminent scholar, a passionate teacher, a collaborative leader and a tireless public servant. He has time and again demonstrated the vital importance of putting the broadest and deepest understandings to work in service of others. I am delighted that he will join the ranks of our esteemed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professors.” more...
Should drug addicts be vaccinated to help them recover? Some authorities, such as bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, have suggested coercing addicts into taking drugs like naltrexone, which curb the highs they crave. The recent death of singer Amy Winehouse, who had well-documented problems with drugs and alcohol, and the publication last week of research on a heroin vaccine and an anti-cocaine drug, have again raised the question. more from New Scientist...
Alleged Ariz. shooter may be given antipsychotic medications so that he can stand trial
Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old man who allegedly shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head, killed six and wounded a dozen more last January in Tucson, Ariz., has been declared so mentally ill that he can't be tried...I think he should be given the drugs, even though forcing anyone to take medication violates a core right to be able to refuse medical care and puts Loughner at risk of being convicted and sentenced to death. more...
'Hypersexual disorder' might make DSM-5: At an annual meeting, psychiatrists also consider grouping compulsive gambling with substance-use disorders in the updated manual. Internet addiction probably won't be designated as a mental disorder in DSM-5, said Dr. Charles P. O'Brien, chairman of the DSM-5 work group on substance-related disorders and a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania. It may be included in the appendix of DSM-5 as a behavior that needs more research, along with excessive video gaming...more
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Judging from news reports that Jared Loughner was dismissed from community college and told not to return until he was evaluated for mental illness, and looking at his web postings, which appear very delusional, it's likely he has a psychotic disorder. Here is a college student, not in school because of untreated mental illness, who has spiraled downward and allegedly committed an atrocious act of violence. While most patients with serious mental illness do not act violently, there is a minority of individuals who, in the throes of psychosis or other mental derangement, have access to weapons and turn these on innocent people. I hope that rather than call Loughner "nuts" and further stigmatize people with mental illness, we look at this as a tragic missed opportunity. A quiet and normal kid became very sick and apparently didn't get the help he needed. We need to prevent this from happening to others.
Dr. Anthony L. Rostain
Director of Education
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
