Faculty Bibliography

Caplan comments on the legislative restrictions and mandates on what doctors can say. Such third-party intrusions on the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship bode for both the trust patients have in their doctors and for doctors' ability to do what they deem is best for their patients. The exam room is too small to fit greedy corporate titans, gun nuts, religious zanies, and state officials alongside the doctor and patient. Allowing them to dictate medical practice is simply bad medicine for all of people

Caplan talks about celebrity chef Paula Deen, who was accused of gross hypocrisy in taking on the nicely compensated role of shill for a diabetes drug. After not disclosing the fact that she had diabetes for three years while promoting foods that give diabetologists everywhere hives, she went on national television this past January to announce her malady. She then went on to say she had been signed on by the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to be a spokeswoman for its $500-per-month diabetes drug. Deen's announcement and the criticism that it evoked tells a lot about how many Americans have a distorted, dreamy view of self-determination, personal choice, and personal responsibility

Caplan recalls his experience while attending a very unusual conference inside the Vatican City. The Pontifical Academy for Culture had convened a meeting to examine "ethical" ways to do stem cell research. Church leaders have made it clear time and again that they oppose the destruction of embryos as a way to get stem cells. It does not matter where the embryos come from; even if they are obtained from unwanted embryos at fertility clinics. Here, he observes that the church wants to find cures for a long list of awful diseases, but prelates face the prospect of a possible cure coming from ongoing embryonic stem-cell research that is taking place in many nations and some states in the US. A major point of the meeting this past November was to make it clear to the world that the Vatican recognizes the need to find cures. The meeting was called to illustrate a possible way forward via what the church has been convinced is the promising path of adult stem cells

Caplan talks about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to ban large sugary drinks. Bloomberg proposed that no business in New York City should sell soda and other sugary drinks bigger than sixteen ounces. Keeping humongous containers of Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, A&W root beer, and other such calorie-infested potions off-limits might help trim the ever-expanding girth of New Yorkers. He admires the mayor for taking on gigantic portions of food and drink as a source of obesity. However, he notes that a ban on big sugary drinks both unfair and unlikely to have any impact on the obesity epidemic

The movement to try to close the ever-widening gap between demand and supply of organs has recently arrived at the prison gate. While there is enthusiasm for using executed prisoners as sources of organs, there are both practical barriers and moral concerns that make it unlikely that proposals to use prisoners will or should gain traction. Prisoners are generally not healthy enough to be a safe source of organs, execution makes the procurement of viable organs difficult, and organ donation post-execution ties the medical profession too closely to the act of execution. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Why are Catholic board trustees banning this vaccine and not others? Because unlike measles, mumps or rubella, this disease is sexually transmitted. [...]thousands of girls go unvaccinated every year

The human papillomavirus virus (HPV) causes various types of deadly cancers, genital warts and cervical lesions that can cause infertility. HPV vaccines can prevent many of these problems. The vaccine has such well-documented safety data and is so effective that it is enthusiastically endorsed by the World Health Organization and countless medical organizations