[washingtonpost] Physicians and the federal government cited the case of a San Francisco Bay area man who has fathered 14 children as an example of the risks posed by the informal market for sperm donations, which doctors consider unsafe but some people call a civil liberties issue.
Trent Arsenault, 36, of Fremont offers his sperm for [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today issued its report concerning federally-sponsored research involving human volunteers, concluding that current rules and regulations provide adequate safeguards to mitigate risk.  In its report, “Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research,” the Commission also recommended 14 changes to current practices to [...]

[AmedNews] U.S. Supreme Court justices in December heard oral arguments in two high-profile patent cases that could have widespread effects on patients who need certain drugs.
In Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories Inc., the high court is weighing whether a test that measures patients’ metabolite levels to determine drug dosages should be patentable. Prometheus sued [...]

[Zocalopublicsquare] Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could [...]

Government reforms announced yesterday could revolutionise the drugs industry, encouraging innovative cures that may save thousands of lives, says Michael Hanlon.

[telegraph] Sometimes caution can be deadly, something that the Prime Minister has realised with his plans, announced yesterday, to streamline the current tortuous exercise in circumlocution that is the drugs regulatory process. There is no [...]

[Amednews] A federal report demonstrates what many have long known: Most physician offices are unable to provide an estimate of the amount of money a patient eventually will pay out of pocket before medical services are provided, making it nearly impossible for price to play a role in health care decisions.

(Reuters) – France’s highest court on Monday overturned France’s ban on growing a strain of genetically modified maize (corn) developed by U.S. biotech firm Monsanto, saying it was not sufficiently justified.

[Vietnamnet] After the five biggest public hospitals in Hanoi banned their staff from taking ‘envelope’ (tip or black money) from patients in September 2011, VietNamNet has launched a forum on medical ethics and we have received emails from hundreds of readers making comments on this topic.
 
A survey by the Ministry of Health’s Trade Union reveals [...]

[WSJ] ‘Here is a staggering fact,” marvels John Lechleiter, the CEO and chairman of the drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. “In 1960 the average life expectancy in East Asia was 39. Thirty-nine! In 1990, 30 years later, it was 67. Think about that. Does that explain the Asian economic boom? I think it might [...]

A team of German, Canadian and American scientists have mapped the entire genome of the deadly Black Death plague from the 14th century. The Yersinia pestis bacterium responsible for the plague is still virulent, and scientists will compare genomes of present-day and ancient microbes in an effort to determine what made the disease so deadly [...]