Faculty Bibliography

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

Fertility preservation is a newly developed branch of reproductive medicine aimed at preserving the potential for genetic parenthood in adults of reproductive age or children, who are at risk of sterility before undergoing anticancer treatments. Except for embryo and semen freezing, all the available options to preserve fertility are considered experimental and thus, they raise ethical issues. In this study, we reviewed the informed consent and the risk-benefit analysis of offering experimental procedures for both adults and children when they are in vulnerable situations. In particular, children represent a special category of patients and their assent to treatment to be sought at anytime should be possible. Overall, there should be no ethical objections to offer these services as they are offered with the scope of preserving future fertility.