While justifying high prices by the high risk of failure of new drugs, the industry consistently reports higher profits than any other industry, 17% vs 3.1% for all the other industries on the Fortune 500 list – hardly a sign of high risk. The high profits reflect the exorbitant prices, particula...

The urge to select children's sex is not new and may be traced back to the Sth century. Effective pre-natal determination of gender through amniocentesis became available in 1 970s. Decriminalisation of abortion afforded choice about continuation of pregnancy. Recently preimplantation genetic dia...

The author describes the choices that he and his family made to make his father's death peaceful. His father's condition had begun to deteriorate rapidly from an ill-defined dementing illness. The father had made his wishes clear: he did not want to prolong dying. The family struggled to find a w...

This article examines available evidence on the efficacy of the US medical malpractice system to promote safer medicine and adequately compensate patients wrongfully injured.

The revised Declaration of Helsinki, 2000 mandates that controls in a research trial receive the best care available anywhere and that participants get ongoing care after the conclusion of the study.

Obtaining informed consent is now a routine part of both clinical practice and research, but the focus on giving information about risk has evolved differently in clinical and research settings. The law has played a large part in informed consent in clinical practice. Consent in clinical research...

In Pakistan, the autosomal recessive beta-thalassaemia gene is present in 5% of the population. The estimated birth rate of affected infants is 1.3 per 1,000 live births, and about 5,250 infants with beta-thalassaemia are born annually. A monthly blood transfusion maintains an excellent quality o...

India is currently one of only 83 countries retaining the death penalty. In India, the death penalty is imposed by way of hanging or shooting. Recently, the Law Commission of India circulated a document entitled 'Consultation Paper on Mode of Execution of Death Sentence and Incidental Matter'. Th...