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April 25, 2020
Pregnancy brings joy and excitement to some women, but great distress to those who suffer from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Women with severe mental illnesses (SMIs) may have difficulty planning a pregnancy and deciding whether to continue to viability, and thence to term. Dilemmas...
April 25, 2020
Malaysia is a South East Asian country with a racially diverse population. Islam is the state religion and about 60% of the population is Muslim, but the rights of other religious groups are protected by law. The Parti Islam se Malaysia, which has ruled the state of Kelantan since 1999, and belie...
April 25, 2020
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has barred individuals whose circulating testosterone levels are higher than 5 nmol/L from competing in women’s competitions in middle-distance track events. To become eligible, they must take anti-testosterone treatment to achieve the...
April 25, 2020
This article uses my experience of being heckled by patient advocates at a health technology conference in Canada as a springboard for discussing the politics of health technology assessment (HTA). While HTA is widely understood and practised as a scientific endeavour grounded in rigorous quantit...
February 17, 2020
Global efforts are being made to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem by 2030. These efforts are being thwarted by the challenge of effective management to minimise the progression of latent TB infection (LTBI) to TB, thereby interrupting the chain of transmission. Approximately...
February 17, 2020
Diabetes care in low-resource rural areas is often compromised by access and finance barriers, leading to ethical dilemmas for physicians in diagnosis and treatment. Rural health workers should be educated on how poverty, disproportionate rural health infrastructure, and illiteracy impact diabete...
February 17, 2020
State-driven community surgery camps have been organised in India for nearly five decades. Despite their being extremely beneficial to people not having ready access to surgical healthcare (SHC), they continue to be mired in controversies because of negative consequences following free surgery, e...
November 06, 2019
On September 13, 2018, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration was expelled from the organisation, by a narrow vote of 6 to 5. Many see this as a moral collapse in what was once a magnificent grassroots organisation, guided by ethical principles and helping people make better decisions ...
November 06, 2019
During the last five years, globally, cases of polio caused by vaccine viruses have outnumbered those of polio caused by natural (wild) polioviruses, posing a moral dilemma. Public health ethics should ensure the best interests of the community, with equity in sharing benefits and risks irrespect...
November 30, 1999
The field of Medical Humanities, shaped by a belief in the vitality of interdisciplinary and non-hierarchical conversations across disciplines, would only be sustainable if both components of the field – ‘medical’ and ‘humanities’ were given equal validity and weightage. The challenge for any exp...