In a search for what could be the ultimate cure for drug addiction, scientists have developed a vaccine which prevents the body from getting high.The hope is that it can stop people from falling back into a spiral of addiction if they have a relapse.
The most promising results so far have been with cocaine, but [...]

The BMA has hit back at media claims that some doctors would exclude older people and others from NHS treatment.
Dr Tony Calland, chair of the BMA’s Medical Ethics Committee today said: “Someone’s age or lifestyle choices should not impact on their eligibility for NHS treatment and the BMA would be against any such moves. The [...]

The vulnerability of this special group of patients, intrusion into their care and the questionable ethics of placebo use all must be considered.
Response: As medicine becomes increasingly data-driven, this question is raised ever more frequently. Responses are divided.
To some, the hospice environment is so different from other clinical settings as to be antithetical to research. [...]

A survey of more than 3,000 doctors, reported in the August 2007 Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, found that doctors lost confidence, were anxious about future errors and had trouble sleeping and reduced job satisfaction when they had been involved in a medical error. Only 10% said they thought their institution provided [...]

The intensive-care unit at Lindy Boggs Medical Center in New Orleans was devastated. Just 48 hours after Hurricane Katrina struck, the hospital’s generators had failed. There was no blood for transfusions and very little medication besides morphine.
One floor below the ICU, a plea had been written on a piece of cardboard: “Patients dying; please be [...]

An informative article from the AMA regarding Bioethics consultation services and why many doctors hesitate to ask for ethics help:  
Since their rise more than three decades ago, hospital ethics committees have sought to help physicians, patients and their families resolve ethical disagreements and navigate the treacherous terrain that so often accompanies medical care at the [...]

The fight against discrimination based on race, gender, class and sexuality may not yet be won, but experts in artificial intelligence are warning that this century societies will have to tackle a new prejudice – against individuals with brains made of silicon.
Even the most enthusiastic promoters of robot rights admit that it is likely to [...]

Medical advancements hailed as long-awaited breakthroughs often come with a sobering ethical flip side. Also, all too often, the advancements come before the debate on their accompanying ethics has begun.
Researchers at the Autism Consortium in Boston, as well as at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, have located a chromosomal link to autism that could lead [...]

Dr. Sukru Emre slices an 8-inch incision through Corey Gray’s six-pack abs, splaying the young man’s belly like a butterflied leg of lamb. Tightening heavy metal clamps that anchor flesh and muscle to either side of Gray’s ribs, Emre reveals the healthy liver — the main event of the day’s surgery.
It is a risky procedure [...]

There’s new hope for the five million people in the United States who live with heart failure. Scientists say they have been able to grow a rat heart in a lab. They were also successful at getting it to start beating.About 50,000 people die each year waiting for a heart donor. But that all may [...]