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Category: Research Articles
July 01, 2004
The concept of property is usually understood as a moral and legal right to exercise exclusive influence and control over a material object. A person who owns something, such as a patent or medicine, can dispose of (or control access to) it without regard for others. Like and including patents, m...
July 01, 2004
Omar Swartz presents a number of good arguments in favour of treating the formulae for making human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other life-saving drugs as public goods rather than private property: ideas can be shared without being used up; the most effective use of blueprints for life-savin...
July 01, 2004
Female sterilisation is the mainstay of contraceptive methods in India. Every year over four million female sterilisation operations are conducted in the country. Like all surgical procedures, female sterilisation, despite being a relatively low-risk procedure, has its attendant risk and failure ...
July 01, 2004
Munnabhai, the don who takes on the mantle of ethics in medical practice in the film Munnabhai MBBS, is the quintessential response to the death of ethics in the medical profession. Munnabhai fails to become a doctor and rightly so, but he sends a message to the medical profession which ...
July 01, 2004
Psychiatry has been isolated from the mainstream of medicine; this has been bad for the profession and worse for the mentally ill. This article discusses some important ethical problems in the practice of psychiatry in India.
January 01, 2004
Laparoscopic or 'minimally invasive' surgery has become the gold standard procedure in cholecystectomy, fundoplication and adrenelectomy and has major advantages in appendicectomy and for diagnosis of pain/mass of unknown origin in the abdomen. However, because of its mass acceptance by patients ...
April 01, 2004
I am a pathologist in private practice since 1975. Being a consultant, I consider myself to be a specialist in pathology and hence I only give advice in the branches of pathology and microbiology. Though my basic degree is MB,BS, and I see at least 20 diabetic patients per day, I have never given...
April 01, 2004
When the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was first discovered over 20 years ago, there began a huge effort to educate people about the risks associated with HIV infection, and promote abstinence, condoms and clean needles as ways to curb the growing rate of infection. Despite the massive effor...
October 01, 2003
The reported harassment of a medical student by his teachers has sparked off a heated debate in Kerala. The student, the son of a former state legislator, committed suicide, apparently after teachers intentionally failed him in the final examination. Following extensive press coverage, the state ...
October 01, 2003
Physicians should act in their patients' best interests. They should also respect their patients' wishes-which may not be in their best interests. For example, a patient may be in the ICU and nearing death with no chance of survival. Yet, he wants to continue active treatment. In such cases, pati...