Elena Kagan 'as liberal as they come' on 'life' issues: Bioethicist
USA Today
June 27, 2010
At bioethics.net, Summer Johnson blogs, “All things considered, Kagan is about as liberal as they come” when it comes to bioethics.
Link: Kagan on Bioethics, Bioethics.net, Summer Johnson, PhD
Guilty Verdict Bad News For Chronic Pain Patients?
Kansas Public Radio
June 25, 2010
A federal court jury found Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, guilty of prescription practices that led to the deaths of ten patients. In this report Myra Christopher of the Center for Practical Bioethics explains how even legitimate prosecutions may diminish the level of pain relief for patients who need it.
Link: Couple found guilty in Kansas ‘pill mill’ case, The Wichita Eagle, June 25
Doctors, prosecutors clash over painkillers
Roxana Hegeman
Associated Press
June 15, 2010
Myra Christopher, president of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo., a research center on medical ethics issues, said most government prosecutions appear to be well-founded but that the enforcement is having a "chilling effect" in the legitimate prescribing of painkillers.
"Physicians are very sensitive about these cases and when these cases get a lot of media attention ... it compels them to believe their fears are right," said Christopher.
Note: This article also published in Seattle Times, Kansas City Star, Lexington Herald Leader, National Public Radio online, and various other media outlets.
Ethics concern over synthetic cell
BBC
May 20, 2010
“There are obviously very important ethical issues,” said Glenn McGee, PhD, editor in chief of the American Journal of Bioethics and Francis Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics.
“This work has proceeded without any real regulation at all. The science is flying 30,000 feet over the public's understanding of the ethics.”
Genome from a bottle
Laura Sanders
Science News
May 20th, 2010
To claim the creation of synthetic life, asserts Glenn McGee of the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City, Mo., the entire organism must be successfully produced from raw materials.
“The landmark achievement has yet to occur,” McGee says. “What they’ve done is they’ve successfully transplanted DNA from one thing to another without noticeably harming the operation of the old DNA, as best they understand it, from their definition of its function. When I put it that way, it’s a hell of a lot less significant.”
Informed consent: Hospitals explore personalizing risks
Kevin B. O'Reilly
American Medical News
May 17, 2010
Glenn McGee, the Francis Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics, says that better forms can improve medical decision-making but cannot replace a substantive give-and-take between physician and patient. Securing informed consent from a patient is a skill, he said. "Training people to get a good informed consent is every bit as difficult as training them to get a good history."
California, New York mull changes to organ donor laws
CNN
May 11, 2010
Tarris Rosell of the Center for Practical Bioethics said presumed consent infringes on individual’s rights. Some religious and cultural beliefs value the integrity of the body and oppose organ donations, he added.
Biomedical ethics in a brave, new world
Ken Camp
Associated Baptist Press
May 06, 2010
“We’re still dealing with the age-old question: ‘Given what can be done, ought we?’ But the list of ‘can-do’ options in health care get longer each day; hence, also the ‘ought’ questions and the complexities of knowing right from wrong, good from bad,” said Tarris Rosell, professor at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan., and the Rosemary Flanigan Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics in nearby Kansas City, Mo.
Personalized Medicine
The Walt Bodine Show
KCUR Radio
May 3, 2010
Where are we with personalized medicine? And what will it mean for individuals and society as a whole?
Elana Gordon seeks answers with Steven Leeder, division chief, clinical pharmacology and medical toxicology, and professor of pediatrics and pharmacology, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Glenn Edwards McGee, John B. Francis Chair in Bioethics, Center for Practical Bioethics.
Living wills: Have they failed?
Judith Graham - Chicago Tribune
LexingtonHerald Tribune
April 27, 2010
"We need to move away from a legal model of filling out forms to a social model of having conversations about values, preferences and goals of care at the end of life," says John Carney, a vice president at the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City.
Other experts agree, but say it doesn't have to be an either-or proposition.
Eleanor Clift in Healthcare Reform Battle/Future of Medicare
Up to Date
KCUR Radio
April 14, 2010
In a live broadcast from the Kansas City Library central branch at a symposium sponsored by the Center for Practical Bioethics Steve Kraske talks with Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift and University of Utah School of Medicine professor Perry Fine, MD, about the next steps for health care reform.
Making informed decisions about end of life
Mary Sanchez
Kansas City Star
April 12, 2010
Friday is an important day – National Healthcare Decisions Day, when people are urged to consider circumstances such as, “Who would you want to make your health care decisions, if you could not?” and “Would you want to be sedated if it was necessary to control your pain?”
The theme promoting the day is “Have You Had the Talk?”
The Center for Practical Bioethics has a guide for such discussions. Go to www.practicalbioethics.org and click on Caring Conversations.
National Healthcare Decisions Day
Health Talk
KMBZ Radio
April 10, 2010
April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day, a day to designate someone to speak for you when you can no longer speak for yourself during a serious illness or at the end of life. John Carney of the Center for Practical Bioethics and Ed Kraemer, MD, a family physician talk about it in this edition of Health Talk.
Court ruling puts human gene patenting in doubt
Scott Canon
Kansas City Star
April 3, 2010
“If a gene in my body is part of nature, then nobody should be able to patent it,” said Glenn McGee, a bioethicist at the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City.
He once wrote an article titled “Gene Patents Could be Ethical.” “I’ve since recanted that,” he said.
The future of bioethics
Bill Tammeus
Faith Matters Blog
March 29, 2010
So, have you thought about the bioethical questions involved in what we human beings will face in a few years when we begin to integrate such external devices as phones, GPS systems and computer technology into our very bodies?
Glenn McGee has.
The Ethics of Living Forever
Up to Date
KCUR Radio
February 24, 2010
Glenn McGee, the John B. Francis Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics, talks about the ethics of living forever in this interview with Steve Kraske.
Catholic Church sanctions some infertility treatment
Tim Townsend
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 16, 2010
"American Catholics are no more going to listen to this than they listen to the church about birth control," said Glenn McGee, a scholar at the Center for Practical Bioethics in Kansas City.
Note: this article also appeared in the Washington Post.
