Faculty Bibliography

Caplan discusses the four problems with the conclusion that the way to combat organ trafficking is to make it legal. First, there is no reason to think that most nations have the resources to regulate a market in organs effectively. After all, even the US, Britain, and Germany proved unable to regulate their banking, housing and securities sectors. Second, there are other ways to expand the availability of organs and tissue that do not involve treating human beings as commercial body-parts factories. Nations could institute presumed-consent policies, asking those who do not want to be donors to carry cards or register their objection in computer registries. When supplemented with appropriate training and resources, these systems have proven very effective in Spain, Belgium, Austria, and other nations. Third--and perhaps the greatest problem with legalizing organ and body-part markets--is that such markets prey on the grim circumstances of the poor. Fourth, they clearly violate the medical ethics of physicians and health-care workers

Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson recently ruled that a 2008 state law requiring doctors to perform ultrasound tests on pregnant women seeking abortions is unconstitutional

[...] states with medical marijuana laws have consistently seen a decrease in teen use

The use of performance-enhancing drugs is rife in amateur and professional sports, and one can only wonder what the level of drug use would be if vigorous testing efforts were not in place. But perhaps that is the wrong worry. Should we try to weed out performance-enhancing drugs from sports or any other venue of life? As long as what is being used is relatively safe and users are free to decide, are we simply deluding ourselves that use can in any practical way be banned? It may make more sense to try to articulate an ethic of performance enhancement than to maintain an illusion of abstinence. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Chaplan comments on the latest trend of reproductive technology, where doctors put more than one embryo. No clinic should be putting more than two or three babies into even a younger patient who has already shown she can create children through success in previous rounds of in vitro fertilization. If the only way to prevent such outrageous treatment is to pass a law penalizing any doctor who implants numerous embryos under such circumstances, then let's get such a law passed

Caplan depicts a situation where conflict between parents and doctors right to determine if one of the patients or family members who was diagnosed with a highly malignant disease is dead. He further discusses whether family's religious view of death and the doctors' professional rights to declare death affects the decision of whether an individual is already dead. He explains that the determination of death is best left in the hands of doctors. The determination of when to end care that is completely and utterly futile because the patient has died is also best left to doctors. As much as death may trigger religious activity on the part of many, religion should never trump science when it comes to deciding when death has occurred in a hospital and what to do about the fact

Vaccination policy in the case of human papillomavirus (HPV) has remained a constant source of controversy ever since Gardasil, Merck's vaccine against HPV, received US Food and Drug Administration approval in the summer of 2006. This controversy has centered on the risks and benefits of vaccinating girls and women in rich and poor nations alike. However, despite all of the attention created by this important policy question, relatively little has been focused on another key public health question: should boys be vaccinated against HPV as well? If herd immunity against the most carcinogenic strains of HPV could be more rapidly and efficiently achieved by vaccinating everyone at risk for being a carrier, it logically follows that vaccine policy should expand to include boys and men.