March was pandemic preparedness month for the State of Pennsylvania; BEI ran Grand Rounds programs and meetings with hospitals throughout the state on (1) the just allocation of limited resources, particularly ventilators, (2) duty to care ethics, (3) triage ethics, (4) end-of-life decision-making, and (5) a guide to ethical decision-making.
Featured Pandemic Preparedness Ethics Grand [...]

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released an ethics statement that a clinician must perform requested abortion-related services or refer patients to someone who will, potentially violating federal laws preventing “abortion-related discrimination and protecting a doctor’s conscience rights.” 
The ethics statement has been met with opposition and concern by many including Michael Leavitt, Health [...]

Las Vegans who underwent medical procedures at a local clinic that reused syringes reacted angrily to news that they should seek testing for hepatitis strains and HIV, calling Thursday for the Shadow Lane facility to be shut down.
But that won’t happen, state officials said, even as they revealed that an affiliated center that performs colonoscopies [...]

A “growing number” of U.S. hospitals are accessing patients’ personal financial information to help determine how likely patients are to pay their medical bills, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, some hospitals look at patients’ credit reports — which provide information on available lines of credit, debt and payment histories — while [...]

If there is a right to die there will be a duty to end life: Bioethics and Euthanasia. 
A French teacher suffering from a rare case of cancer that has left her disfigured lost a request Monday that she had lodged in a court to be allowed to die by euthanasia. Chantal Sébire, 52, suffers from [...]

Financially strapped states are looking to take away government health insurance and benefits from millions of Americans already struggling with a souring economy.An Associated Press review of the budgets in all 50 states reveals coverage would be eliminated for hundreds of thousands of poor children, disabled and the elderly. More than 10 million people would [...]

Sales of U.S. prescription drugs grew 3.8% to $286.5 billion in 2007, the lowest increase since a 3.3% rise in 1961, according to the annual U.S. Pharmaceutical Market Performance Review released Wednesday by IMS Health, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. [from Kaiser Daily Health]

It’s been a year since the parents of a severely disabled child made public their decision to submit their daughter to a hysterectomy, breast surgery and drugs to keep the girl forever small. Today, the couple tell CNN, they believe they made the right decision — one that could have a profound impact on the [...]

Last month, right after he had the heart attack and then the heart surgery and then started receiving the medical bills that so far have topped $200,000, Melvin Tsosies joined the 91,000 other residents of Oregon who had signed up for a lottery that provides health insurance to people who lack it.
“They said they’re going [...]

As doctors struggle to eradicate polio worldwide, one of their biggest problems is persuading parents to vaccinate their children. In Belgium, authorities are resorting to an extreme measure: prison sentences.Two sets of parents in Belgium were recently handed five month prison terms for failing to vaccinate their children against polio. Each parent was also fined [...]