Editor’s Note: Anna K. Swartz works on neuroethics and mental illness. Here, she reflects on the conceptual and ethical pitfalls of attempting to use brain scans to determine whether children who report being trans are “really” trans. In late May … Continue reading
In the US, researchers at academic institutions who do work with human research participants must obtain the approval of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that looks to assure that research protocols do not violate ethical requirements for such research. Washington … Continue reading
Editor’s Note: This blog comes to us from Sayer Johnson, who blogged for IJFAB Blog in the past on the issue of how clinicians respond to trans patients. Here, Mr. Johnson reaches a frustrated breaking point with the way that … Continue reading
At the end of August, news broke about an effort to develop a herpes vaccine. On the face of it a good use of human subject research, in fact the research conducted on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts was … Continue reading
Medicine has been searching for a hormonal contraceptive for men for some time. Recent news trumpeted the withdrawal of a number of men from clinical trials of male hormonal contraceptive injections due to the side effects. While this editor recently … Continue reading
According to a recent article in the popular press, a California based biotech firm, BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, has completed Phase 2 of a clinical trial for a drug that would partially suppress the expression of the Achondroplasia gene in a child’s … Continue reading
Today the BMJ published a re-analysis of the data in Study 329. The results of this study, funded by GlaxoSmithKline were first published in 2001 in the prestigious Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. That article … Continue reading
Guest post by Elizabeth Yuko (Fordham University) Yesterday, a group that calls itself the “Center for Medical Progress” released a video which shows a Planned Parenthood doctor discussing various aspects of the fetal tissue donation process. Filmed undercover and heavily edited, … Continue reading
Branded as “The Little Pink Pill” and “Female Viagra,” flibanserin, Sprout Pharmaceuticals’ only drug, was recently resubmitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), a questionable condition promoted by pharmaceutical companies to sell … Continue reading
In celebration of the 20th year of its Bioethics Programme, UNESCO has published an edited anthology, Global Bioethics: What For? It is freely available in its entirely online and features short essays by IJFAB advisory board member and one-time guest-contributor Daniel Callahan as … Continue reading
One analysis claimed that in 2013 nine out of the top ten drug makers spent more on marketing than they did on research. Drug companies are a bit like high-school boyfriends: they’re much more concerned with getting inside you And the popular … Continue reading
As a feminist working on bioethics, I often turn to the reality of material singularity as a way to argue for more specificity in our dealings with the matter of living bodies. What do I mean by “material singularity?” This … Continue reading
