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Category: COMMENTS
July 01, 2001
A recent Supreme Court judgement ruled that drug samples provided free to physicians, marked "physician sample, not for sale", are in fact advertisements meant to promote sales. Hence expenditure incurred on them cannot be exempted from tax liability. This ruling by Justices SP Bharucha and Ruma ...
January 01, 2001
I read about Rene Favalaro's tragic death as a fleeting news item in the inside pages of the newspaper. The surgeon who pioneered coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) using saphenous vein graft had committed suicide on July 24, 2000, at his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 77 and was appare...
January 01, 2001
After the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, the debates around how to effectively reduce the population of the country became very civilised. Everybody began talking about the issue of human rights of women and denouncing the programme that targeted thousand...
October 01, 2000
Dr. George clearly points out the problems in medical education and health delivery system, and concludes, 'All these ills are part of an overall drift in medical education in India'. The solution suggested is 'change the entire focus of our planning in the health field'.
April 01, 2000
As a counsellor for families of psychiatric patients, I have come across many instances of questionable behaviour among psychiatrists. While it may be difficult to describe them outright unethical, they seem to prevent people from getting effective psychiatric help, and increase the burden carrie...
April 01, 2000
Contrary to international public health experience, identical versions of a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Bill are being considered in the respective state assemblies of Maharashtra and Karnataka. These are private members' bills. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has categorical...
April 01, 2000
Ninety per cent of people with HIV in India have no access to modern pharmaceuticals, which can cost more than $10,000 per year. A combination of denial, helplessness and complacence dominates the issue of access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in the country.
October 01, 1999
During my fourth year in medical school, we were required to record the procedure for post-mortems. I remember the morgue where the bodies were kept, and the large hall where the PMs were conducted by the pathologist on call. It was a procedure carried out with surgical precision and with attenti...
July 01, 1999
Observations on doctors' attitudes and practices, and some suggestions, from someone who has had more exposure to the profession than she would wish
January 01, 1998
Recent publicity about unethical trials raises a number of questions about research in developing countries. It also reminds us of the limitations of accepted safeguards: some of the trials under attack passed ethical review boards in the funding countries and have the approval of the local...