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November 07, 2017
In this commentary we argue that medical ethics has a key role in discussing the effects of conflicts and other violent human rights abuses. Contemporary medical ethics is an emerging academic discipline without clearly defined boundaries and we have no desire to impose them. We are seeking inste...
October 31, 2017
An ethics panel, convened by the National Institute of Health and other research bodies in the USA, disallowed researchers from the Johns Hopkins University and University of Vermont from performing controlled human infection of healthy volunteers to develop a vaccine against Zika virus infection...
October 25, 2017
Even though 1% of people require palliative and end-of-life care in low-resource situations, it remains an uncharted arena. Yet it is as important as curative care to alleviate suffering. Palliative care is not only a need in cancer and HIV disease; but is needed in a diverse group of illnesses r...
October 17, 2017
The Paolo Macchiarini case has several ethical ramifications. Professor Macchiarini, formerly of the Karolinska Institutet (KI), became famous for the tracheal surgeries he conducted between 2008 and 2014. His rapid rise to fame was followed by an almost equally rapid fall from grace as official ...
October 13, 2017
Dr. William Beecher Scoville, an eminent American neurosurgeon of the 1940s, offered to treat Mr Molaison for his intractable epilepsy. During the operation, he removed large portions of both of Mr. Molaison's temporal lobes. Such an operation had never been performed earlier as the function o...
September 26, 2017
Universal health coverage (UHC) in the Indian context is understood as easily accessible and affordable health services for all citizens. The Planning Commission of India constituted a High Level Expert Group (HLEG) in October 2010 for the purpose of drafting the guidelines of UHC. While the prim...
September 05, 2017
There have been a number of spontaneous reports of sudden unexpected death soon after the administration of Infanrix hexa (combined diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, hepatitis B, inactivated poliomyelitis and Haemophilus influenza type B vaccine). The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK...
August 16, 2017
Public health surveillance (PHS) is an essential public health activity, which entails collecting data on diseases and disease-related states in a timely manner to aid in international health regulations and in local health planning. Opinions differ sharply on whether it is a research or non-rese...
July 25, 2017
This paper examines various documents written by Major General SL Bhatia CIE, MC, IMS from the 1920s to the1960s on the "Social Responsibilities of a Physician". His reflections are of historical significance, since they provide us with an insight into the challenges confronting the people who at...
May 30, 2017
With additional training and qualification, nurses in several countries are recognised as independent professionals. Evidence from several countries shows that capacitating nurses to practise independently could contribute to better health outcomes. Recently, the idea of nurses practising indepen...