Faculty Bibliography

Some forms of stem cell research involving the use of embryos require embryo destruction to extract a stem cell. Others, involving cloning, require transferring a full set of genes from an adult cell into an egg. Both procedures have received heavy criticism from those opposed to embryo destruction or embryo creation by a technique other than sex. While there's a good deal of focus on the problems generated by the power of money in generating bias in science and medicine, the battle over stem cell research makes very clear that religious views can also be a huge source of distortion and bias. Here, Caplan talks about the ongoing debate about stem cell research in the US

Caplan talks about a new program to jump-start the development of new drugs and therapies. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has announced a plan to create a new program to jump-start the development of new drugs and therapies. The new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences will have the mission of trying to bring promising basic NIH research closer to clinical trials. To make this happen, cuts in other NIH programs will have to be made. One program, the National Center for Research Resources, which awards grants to fund researchers and equipment, is on the chopping block

Caplan talks about the importance of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which became law on March 23, 2010. Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of either bill. In fact the Republicans used health-reform legislation to great effect in getting a good number of the Democrats who had supported it thrown out of office in the midterm elections. It is not clear why many Republicans hate this bill--other than that it strikes many of them as an extension of government power. Put aside the fact that the potpourri of programs in the US already make the government the biggest player by far in American health care, and no member of the GOP seriously proposes to privatize any of these

Some conservatives, disability advocates and right-to-lifers see rationing afoot when people like me try to turn the conversation toward how best to manage your dying. They think that by encouraging these discussions, it's simply a way to get old folks to save the federal government some money by slyly tricking them into saying that they don't want a lot of medical care if they are terminally ill. Not only are they wrong, they are being unethical

Picking on someone as being "not religious enough" for high office or on a religion as being insufficiently pious to produce a viable candidate for any office -- from county sheriff to president -- is intolerant bias, simply out of bounds in American political discourse

Dr. Conrad Murray has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson. It hardly could have been otherwise. The mere fact that Murray used a highly dangerous and difficult to manage drug, propofol, to treat Jackson's insomnia showed that he was acting in an irresponsible way. Even highly trained anesthesiologists in hospitals know they have to be extra careful with that drug

On Tuesday, a federal advisory panel, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, recommended that university scientists who have submitted articles on how to modify a flu virus to two very prestigious journals delete critical information from them before publishing. The papers describe how to alter bird-flu virus to be more infectious and potentially nastier