David White – Bioethics Today

North Korea and Their Medical Treatment Program

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

North Korea is set to launch a medical tourism program in a bid to earn foreign currency, with China and South Korea as its main targets.
The program will offer treatments not available in the North, such as cancer therapy and cosmetic surgery, according to state media.
Pyongyang has already built a number of hospitals and clinics catering to foreign tourists. It’s not clear how many people from China and South Korea would be willing to travel to North Korea for medical treatment, given the countries’ tense relations. But if the program does take off, it could provide a much-needed boost to the North’s …

More People Travel Across the Globe to Get Covid-19 Cure

David White7 months ago5 months ago02 mins

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has now reached over two dozen countries and has infected over 80,000 people worldwide. With the World Health Organization declaring the outbreak a global health emergency, many are wondering how this will impact the future of medical tourism.
Medical tourism is defined as “traveling to another country for medical care.” It’s become an increasingly popular option for those seeking treatment for everything from plastic surgery to fertility treatments and beyond. And while the industry was already facing some challenges prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, …

The Increasing Number of Women Who Travel for Abortions

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

A new study finds that the number of patients traveling out of state for abortions has increased dramatically since Roe v. Wade, with low-income women and women of color disproportionately affected.
The research, published in the American Journal of Public Health, used data from the Turnaway Study—a longitudinal study of over 1,000 women who sought but were denied abortions due to gestational age limits at their clinics—to examine trends in interstate abortion travel from 2008 to 2014.
During that time, 24 percent of participants traveled out of state for an abortion, up from just 3 percent in the years immediately …

The World Facing Shortage of Healthcare Human Resources

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

The global nursing shortage is becoming a bidding war as countries vie for talent.
The U.S. is facing a nursing shortage of more than 1 million nurses by 2025, according to a recent report from the American Nurses Association. The U.K., meanwhile, is facing a nursing shortage of nearly 40,000 nurses, according to the Royal College of Nursing.
With the demand for nurses far outpacing the supply, countries are starting to poach nurses from each other. The U.S., for example, has been actively recruiting nurses from the Philippines and India in recent years. In 2017, the U.K. government launched a $1 million advertising campaign …

Increasing Cases of Diabetes and Its Cure

David White7 months ago5 months ago02 mins

Medical care can help prevent type 2 diabetes and its complications, but it will not be enough to reverse the diabetes epidemic, according to a new study.
In the study, which was published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, researchers used data from 175 countries to model what would happen if everyone received the recommended medical care for type 2 diabetes. They found that such care would lead to a 40 percent reduction in diabetes-related deaths by 2045. However, the number of people with diabetes would still increase from 406 million in 2018 to 508 million in 2045.
“Our findings show that …

The Development of Breast Cancer Vaccines

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

In the 1990s, breast cancer mortality rates in the United States began to decline. The reasons for this are not fully understood, but better screening and treatment are likely to have played a role.
However, in the last few years, there has been an increase in the incidence of aggressive breast cancers that are difficult to treat. This has led to a renewed interest in developing a vaccine to prevent breast cancer.
There are several different types of breast cancer vaccines under development. Some of these are designed to target specific mutations that are known to be associated with aggressive forms of the disease. Others are…

Comprehensive Doctrines of Bioethics Experts

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

The notion of moral expertise is contested. Some think that there are no such experts, while others think that moral experts do exist, but their expertise are limited.
This article critically assesses the suggestion that members of ethics commissions should be seen as moral experts. The article does so by looking at how different comprehensive doctrines would approach this suggestion.
The article concludes that the suggestion faces significant difficulties regardless of which comprehensive doctrine one subscribes to.
The role of moral experts as members of ethics commissions is a controversial one. Critics argue that …

Nudges in Bioethics

David White7 months ago5 months ago02 mins

In recent years, there has been a growing movement to use “nudges” in public policy. The idea is that small changes in the way choices are presented can lead to better outcomes, without requiring people to make difficult decisions.
This approach has been used in a variety of domains, from retirement savings to organ donation. In the area of bioethics, nudges have been proposed as a way to increase vaccination rates, reduce waste in biomedical research, and promote organ donation.
There are many potential benefits of using nudges in bioethics. Nudges can help us make better decisions by taking our cognitive biases into …

Bioethics and Its Topic-Modeling Study

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

In this study, we use topic modeling to analyze the development of the Hastings Center Report over its 50-year history. We find that the Report has shifted from a focus on end-of-life issues in its early years to a broader focus on biomedical ethics in recent years.
Our results suggest that the Report has played an important role in shaping debates within the field of bioethics.
We find that the Hastings Center Report has generally maintained a focus on core topics such as end-of-life care, medical decision-making, and professional ethics.
However, there has been a shift in emphasis over time, with increasing attention…

An Update on Covid-19 Situation in Africa

David White7 months ago7 months ago02 mins

A new study has found that the vast majority of coronavirus genomes from Africa are closely related to a single lineage that is different from the ones spreading in Europe and North America. The study, published in the journal Nature, analyzed over 100,000 genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Of these genomes, only 3.8 percent belonged to lineages that have been previously identified in Europe and North America. The rest belonged to a single lineage known as 20A.EU1.
This lineage is thought to have first emerged in Africa sometime around mid-October 2020. It then rapidly spread across the continent and has now become the …