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Category: Research Articles
January 01, 2009
The mass media function both as reflector and a shaper of a society's attitudes and values and as such represent a forum within which one may understand and influence public opinion. While questions of medical ethics may be largely confined to academic and scientific spaces, their importance to s...
October 01, 2008
Privacy is a key component of individual autonomy, and a voluminous literature has established both its practical value in healthcare contexts and its status as a fundamental, but not absolute ethical right. Because the Right to Information Act (2005) permits citizens to gain information under...
July 01, 2008
It is a principle recognised not only by our own but by other legal systems that ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it. This is also expressed in the form of a legal presumption that everyone knows the law. So it is the duty of every person to be acquainted with that part of it which...
April 01, 2008
The National Blood Policy of India, 2002, advocates the disclosure of results of transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) to blood donors. However, in the absence of well-defined notification processes, and in order to avoid serious consequences resulting from unguided disclosure, blood bank pers...
April 01, 2008
Currently, there is a debate on what impact the implementation of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in India would have on its pharmaceutical industry and health care. The debate hinges primarily on two major questions. First, will the new patent regime provide an ...
October 01, 2007
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is controversial but widely practised in India. We elicited perspectives, using qualitative interviews, from patients who received ECT and their relatives. Ethical issues related to personal autonomy, right to information, competence, informed consent and consent b...
October 01, 2007
Fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of an antiprotozoal and an antibacterial, for treatment of diarrhoea, have been available in the Indian pharmaceutical market for about a decade. There is little evidence to substantiate this combination therapy. We evaluated 2,163 physician prescriptions for diarrh...
July 01, 2007
Research on violence and abuse, particularly involving vulnerable groups such as women and children, has many ethical ramifications. There are few published reports in India on ethical guidelines and standards in this area. This paper reviews Child Abuse: India 2007, a study conducted by th...
July 01, 2007
After the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, came into effect, a number of patients have filed cases against doctors. This article presents a summary of legal decisions related to medical negligence: what constitutes negligence in civil and criminal law, and what is required to prove it.
July 01, 2007
Laws that regulate the identification of a foetus and the termination of a pregnancy in India are shaped by their social context. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, discriminates against unmarried women by not recognising that unwanted pregnancies in unmarried women could result in a...