How do we die? Is it an event or a process? Does everyone die in the same way or are there different ways of dying? Even with humankind's claims to gigantic strides in knowledge, death still remains one of the great mysteries for the living. And that makes it the subject of profound and perennial...

Controlled Human Infection Models (CHIMs) refers to the intentional introduction of an infectious agent into a healthy volunteer to deliberately induce the infection under regulated conditions. These studies can be useful in discovering the origin and development of a disease, its immunological r...

The Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has accepted six amendments to the National Medical Commission Bill suggested by the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee ( George Thomas

The relation between science and society is, simply put, very complex. In the history of global bioethics, it is the Code of Nuremberg which foregrounded the acute ways in which biomedical/scientific research could (negatively) impact society; this 1947 Code became the point of reference for subs...

The Medical Council of India (MCI) must be commended for its efforts to introduce definitive criteria for appointments and promotions for teachers in medical institutions. On June 8, 2017, the MCI issued a circular to amend the Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulatio...

Teaching in a school of public health, I often listen to presentations from master's degree students who undertake analysis of primary data collected to answer a question of public health relevance. Inexorably, the presentation will lead to an analysis slide which depicts the results of a multiva...

Gorakhpur has, yet again, sent out a warning. The death of a child anywhere, anytime, is a matter for grief and the news that an unusually large number of children, mainly newborns had died at the BRD Gorakhpur Medical College in eastern Uttar Pradesh has truly shocked the nation. All the reports...

In November 2016, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) in collaboration with the World Health Organization published the fourth revision of its ethical guidelines. The International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans (1) are the culm...

The hubbub following the first two uterus transplants in India seems to have died down. But it highlights gaps in the mechanisms to regulate potentially harmful research. It also flags the need to examine this controversial technique which is poised to become part of the assisted reproductive tec...

Vaccines and vaccination have emerged as key medical scientific tools for prevention of certain diseases. Documentation of the history of vaccination shows that the initial popular resistance to universal vaccination was based on false assumptions and eventually gave way to acceptance of vaccines...