Faculty Bibliography

Here, Caplan says if there is any silver lining in the ignorant, and grossly offensive statements offered about rape by the failed candidates for Senate in the recently concluded election, Missouri's Congressman Todd Akin and Indiana's Richard Mourdock, it is that they may have finally shown both the folly and the moral dodginess inherent in efforts by conservative fundamentalists to posit God's hand in every act, no matter how horrific or awful. They do this both in situations where misery besets an individual and where tragedy overwhelms a group and both are ethically disgusting. He adds he is inclined to think that the best explanation for hurricanes, floods, and other calamities is coincidence often compounded by poor human choices. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, there is a lot of prayer going on with mixed messages being sent, and God cannot satisfy everyone. Perhaps someday, fervent religious leaders will come to see that linking pregnancies resulting from rape and the destruction of a city to divine will and retribution is a very dicey and highly unethical thing to do

The NY SAFE Act requires individuals who own a handgun or an assault rifle to recertify their permits every 5 years; limits the capacity of ammo clips to 7 shots; clarifies and broadens the definition of assault weapons to restrict their sale; and requires nearly all gun transfers between private parties to be conducted through a federal firearms licensee, subject to a federal National Instant Criminal Background Check. There has long been a legal obligation in most states, generated by the famous 1976 Tarasoffcase in California, that mental health care professionals disclose a threat of violence to an identifiable third party if they think the threat is credible and the act imminent

A 2013 poll in The New York Times found that three-quarters of Americans have concerns about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their food; most are worried about health effects. Thirty-seven percent of those with worries fear that GM foods cause cancer or allergies

Experts agree that influenza vaccination of health-care personnel (HCP) is the best method of preventing nosocomial outbreaks. Because voluntary uptake among HCP has not achieved recommended levels, hundreds of health-care facilities and twenty states have implemented mandatory vaccination programs. How- ever, employee unions assert that unilateral changes to working conditions violate established principles of collective bargaining. In this article, we argue that mandatory vaccination in the health-care context is supported by ethics, science, and law. We examine nosocomial influenza outbreaks and how hospitals have attempted to curb infections through mandatory HCP influenza vaccination policies. We also explore employee unions' administrative and legal chal- lenges to the requirements. Finally, we suggest an approach to resolving the dispute between HCP labor representatives and health-care facility management. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

BACKGROUND: The creation of each edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of psychiatry has proven enormously controversial. The current effort to revise the 'bible' of disorder definitions for the field of mental health is no exception. The controversy around DSM-5 reached a crescendo with the announcement from National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that the institute would focus efforts on the development of their own psychiatric nosology, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) (NIMH, 2013). DISCUSSION: The RDoC seem to be structured around the concern that the only way to find objectivity in the classification of diseases or disorders in psychiatry is to begin with biology and work back to symptoms. Values infuse medical categories in various ways and drive practical considerations about where and how to divide up constellations of already agreed upon symptoms. SUMMARY: We briefly argue that all nosologies are infused with values and, while we should continue to sharpen the psychiatric nosology, normativity will permeate even the strictest biologically based taxonomy; this need not be a bad thing.

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." J.S. Mill, On Liberty "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else" Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." Oliver Wendell Holmes David Ropiek in his useful essay on how society should respond to the risks created by those who choose not to vaccinate themselves or their children does a very useful job of identifying the enormous costs in money and health that non-vaccinators create. (1) He also pinpoints the many factors that drive vaccine resistance locating them not in a misunderstanding of the facts but, in fears and negative emotions. (1) It is important to pay attention to his message since frequently those who want to try to reduce vaccine hesitation or outright non-vaccination behavior put their faith in education and resort to an invocation of the facts about the value of vaccines when it is fear and emotions that must be addressed. (2.)

Air pollution has been found to cause significant global mortality, with 6.8 million excess deaths attributed to air pollution each year, and similarly large numbers of exacerbations of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiological research has identified associations, and experimental human exposure has provided critical information on dose-response relationships of adverse effects caused by controlled human exposure to individual pollutants. Human exposures further enable examination of the relationship of adverse effects such as symptoms and pulmonary function changes to presumed mechanisms of disease revealed through analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained from the lower respiratory tract. In this Perspective, we analyze the ethics of human exposure, the importance of the information gained, and the risks of such exposure. We find that these studies appear to have been done with proper approval of institutional review boards, were done with informed consent from the participants, and have rarely been associated with serious adverse events.

In 2008, Alberta Roman Catholic Bishops' discouraged in-school HPV vaccination because: "a school-based approach to vaccination sends a message that early sexual intercourse is allowed, as long as one uses 'protection.'" The publicly funded Calgary Catholic School District Board voted against in-school HPV vaccine administration. In 2009, vaccine uptake was 70% in Calgary public schools and 18.9% in Calgary Catholic schools. To physician-citizens who requested in-school vaccination, the elected school trustees repeatedly responded that they were "directed" by the bishop. When trustees refused to hear from the city's chief oncologist, a citizen's group was created and held a June 2012 media event to help overturn the ban. The Board remained intransigent until the citizen's group threatened legal action, former senior administrators pressured the Board, Pediatrics reported that the HPV vaccine had no effect on sexual behavior, and the bishop told trustees that they could consult school councils. 87% (91/104) of school councils approved in-school HPV vaccine administration. On November 28, 2012, the Board permitted the HPV vaccine, four years after first requested by public health officials. This paper outlines a successful health campaign that may serve as a model for addressing unwarranted concerns about community health programs dedicated to improving public health.