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Category: Letters
January 01, 2018
For some time now, a debate has been raging on the issue of generic drug prescriptions. Doctors are divided on this matter. Those against generic prescription cite possible poor quality and inadequate testing; while those in favour assert that the move would make cheaper medicines accessible to m...
January 08, 2018
The World Medical Association (WMA) provides ethical guidance to physicians through its declarations, resolutions and statements. WMA first adopted its Resolution on physician participation in capital punishment in 1981, which was then amended in 2000, and 2008. The revised Declaration of Geneva ...
December 21, 2017
The editorial by Jesani and Johari in this journal raises some contentious yet relevant ethical issues pertaining to vaccination practices in India. Vaccination is one of the most important preventive measures against infectious diseases. The eradication of smallpox in the 70s and near eradicatio...
November 23, 2017
Consent and ethics are integral to a physician’s work. Patient images have been used for multiple purposes in medical practice; as an adjunct to clinical care, displayed to colleagues, students and other audiences in educational settings, and published in medical journals. But nowadays there is a...
November 14, 2017
The UK was the first country to legalise mitochondrial donation in October 2015. In 2016, the first three-parent baby was born in Mexico and the US Food and Drug Administration declared that further research on mitochondrial donation is ethically permissible. It has now become an important issue,...
September 19, 2017
As India finally has the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates, the GST Council declared that the tax rate on the sanitary products including sanitary napkins, sanitary towels, and tampons would be 12%, ie, the second lowest tax slab. Statistically this is an improvement since until now sanitary...
July 04, 2017
We are concerned about the changes effected by the WHO to the assessment methodology of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI), which make it almost impossible to classify adverse events (deaths in this case) noticed for the first time in phase IV post-marketing surveillance, as "consistent...
June 13, 2017
I am distressed by the political inclination of the journal reflected in publishing the article by Siddarth David in a recent issue of Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. The journal has tried to redeem its image by publishing a counterview by Ravindra Ghooi. I feel more voices need to be heard on ...
April 01, 2017
Over the past year, there has been constant debate in various journals on the circular issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in September 2015, regarding the requirements for promotion of teaching faculty. The lack of a time-bound promotion system of medical faculty results in higher stres...
January 01, 2017
Four-dimensional (4D) ultrasound (real-time volume sonography), which has been used in the West since the last decade for the determination of gender as well as for bonding and entertainment of the parents, has become widely available in India in this decade. Here, I would like to discuss the eth...