Exploring the Futility of Care for Charlie Gard
On July 28, 2017, the world said goodbye to a little boy whose story touched many. After months of legal battles, Charlie Gard died. Charlie was an 11 month old British boy who had a rare, inherited genetic condition called infantile
Surreptitious Genetic Testing: Fact or Fiction?
Picture this: You’re a young, ambitious aspiring politician in a town somewhere in the United States. You’ve noticed issues in your community and you’ve resolved to get into government to help fix them. So you decide to run for local
Hungry for Change
Some of you may wonder why there are so many fast food restaurants in lower income, predominantly African-American neighborhoods. Everyone needs to eat healthy food, and everyone should eat fruits and vegetables, but not everyone has access to fresh produce and
President Obama’s Bioethics Legacy
Bioethics is not a topic commonly associated with Presidential administrations and the President’s legacy. But in fact, in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities which can often involve health, science, and technology policy, for decades, Presidents have appointed special commissions to
Presidential Bioethics: Valuing Product and Process
As we reach the height of the political season, we are inundated with pundit opinions, news commentaries, and our own questions about the impact of the Presidential election. In the healthcare sphere, the future of the Affordable Care Act, funding
Doctors Carrying Guns
Do No Harm is the well known Hippocratic mantra that is synonymous with the fundamental ethical way physicians practice medicine. This pledge is the ideal belief that most thoughtful, responsible doctors adopt as they build their career. Is there a
Potential Benefits of Genetically Modified Food
Genetic modification is one of the most controversial revolutionary developments in the biotechnological sector. Production, processing, marketing, and consumption of GM food and common advocation that they have benefits still manage to cause a huge conflict of opinions among the
IMPAKTER ESSAY: Vaccination, Medical Tourism, and the Expansion of Global Bioethics
In 2003, the Concorde stopped ferrying international passengers across the Atlantic Ocean at supersonic speeds, while metaphorically demonstrating how much smaller the world has become. But international travel at prices more affordable than the Concorde demanded remains popular, despite the
Impakter Essay: Angel of Equity — Questioning Motives and the Need for Global Bioethics to Regulate Big Pharma
Bioterrorist? Bane of “Big Pharma”? Angel of equity? Industry gadfly? Unrealistic idealist? I have no doubt that some pharmaceutical industry representatives would paint Marcia Angell, MD, former editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine and author of The Truth
Adding Humanity into Medicine
How does one go about reviving a failing healthcare system of a major Ivy League university? According to Dr. Arthur Rubenstein, you add humanity. Dr. Arthur Rubenstein is a 78-year-old endocrinologist, specializing in diabetes, from South Africa. Patient-centered care is
Still Craven After All These Years
It was tantamount to a Friday afternoon “news dump.” On Monday, December 21, 2015—amidst the final build-up to Christmas and the related travel and time off—the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was changing its obsolete
The New Horizons of Regenerative Medicine: Danny Cabrera, Founder of Biobots
Much has been done in the 3D printing field this past decade, but this market has often been criticized for a lack of industrial outputs due to the market being too young. Biobots was created in August 2014 with the