[ModernMedicine] The Montana Supreme Court will decide whether the state constitution protects physicians from prosecution if they prescribe lethal medication to terminal patients who ask for it.
The court heard oral arguments earlier this month in a case stemming from a dying man’s request to control the timing and manner of his death, arguing that Montana [...]

[NYTimes] When Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, appeared in public recently for the first time in months, he revealed that he had received a liver transplant from the victim of a car crash. “I wouldn’t be here without such generosity,” Mr. Jobs said, adding that he hoped that many people would become organ donors.  [...]

[ToledoBlade] A Sylvania Township couple received a double whammy of astonishing news this year from their fertility doctor, news that landed them on national television Monday.  
The first part they anticipated: Carolyn Savage was pregnant. But the follow-up that came later carried a horrifying jolt: It’s not their baby. 
Carolyn and Sean Savage shared with the [...]

Bioethics International’s Executive Director, Jennifer Miller, appeared on CBS2 (9/22) to discuss the ethics of ovarian transplants and childbearing age-limits with Dr. Holly Phillips.  To view the news segment video click here. 
NEW YORK (CBS)Many women who delay having children often find they’ve waited too long and can’t get pregnant.  But now there is a controversial medical [...]

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., announces that NIH is now accepting requests for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines to be approved for use in NIH-funded research. The NIH Director is also pleased to announce the members of a new working group of the Advisory Committee to the Director [...]

[FRCBlog - excerpts only]  A U.S. company is backing out of the dogfight over cloning dogs, but leaving behind some interesting kibbles and bits about the cloning business. BioArts International, associated with disgraced cloner Woo-Suk Hwang, has announced it is ending its pet cloning business. BioArts had been in a patent dispute with South Korean [...]

[medscape] As US leaders tackle healthcare reform, many conflicting goals and interests vie for supremacy.
Although the overall aim is to lower the nation’s healthcare costs and create access to healthcare for America’s 46 million uninsured, many aspects of the plans could have a huge impact on physicians.
Several healthcare reform plans are being proposed. Major discussions [...]

 
“If they had just paid for the pills, I’d still have my kidney,” Melissa J. Whitaker said of Medicare, which covers just three years’ worth of anti-rejection drugs for transplant patients under 65. Ms. Whitaker and her boyfriend, Joe Jamieson, in their San Diego condo.
[nytimes]  Melissa J. Whitaker has one very compelling reason to keep [...]

Doctors at the school’s Center for Reproductive Health were found to have stolen eggs or embryos for years and given them to other women. Two doctors involved fled the country to avoid prosecution.
[LATimes] The UC Board of Regents has quietly settled a dozen lawsuits stemming from fertility fraud uncovered nearly 15 years ago — drawing [...]

[EurekaAlert] A growing number of hospitalized adults are incapable of making their own health decisions, but little research has explored how doctors feel about making medical decisions with a patient’s surrogate decision maker.
A study published in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that one in five doctors are not [...]