Facebook users now can send e-condoms to their online friends compliments of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In a world of abstinence only education, where many public health departments focus on suppressing information about safe sex, I applaud NYC’s bold move to provide accurate, lifesaving information to teenagers. While there are some flaws in the design – [...]
Two judges in Pennsylvania pleaded guilty last week to taking $2.6 million in exchange for sentencing juveniles to time in privately run detention centers. 5,000 juveniles have been sentenced since this kickback scheme started; many of them were first-time offenders. What if sentencing of those 5,0000 juveniles had been done by a judge seeking accountability and rehabilitation for the offender [...]
Time Magazine’s cover story this week is on the promise of stem cell research, and the scientists who persisted developing this field despite obstacles mounted by President George W. Bush. In 2001, without formal rulemaking or even an Executive Order, President Bush announced a policy that effectively put an end to federally funded embryonic stem cell research. He based his [...]
Over the past eight years, government censorship of science has ranged from silencing researchers to creating policies that interfered with the free exchange of scientific ideas. Government censorship of science includes distortion and suppression of data, and threatens the public’s access to truthful and accurate information. Though many examples of censorship and suppression have been revealed, it is likely in [...]
The Boston Globe reported the launch of a new website that allows Massachusetts residents to compare the cost and quality of care at different hospitals in the state. Patients now have access to previously confidential information that they can use to make informed decisions about the medical care they seek. Consumers can compare, for example, patient satisfaction data and safety [...]
President Thabo Mbeki’s suppression of scientific information about AIDS has led to the deaths of thousands of people in South Africa. According to a new study conducted by Harvard researchers, the South African government could have prevented 330,000 premature deaths of AIDS patients had it supplied them with antiretroviral drugs. Those same drugs could have prevented pregnant women from infecting [...]
A study published this month in PLoS Medicine, documents self-censorship of scientists in response to a political controversy. According to Joanna Kempner, the study’s author, the controversy at issue began in July 2003 when Patrick Toomey, a Republican Congressman, proposed the discontinuance of five NIH grants that were unworthy of taxpayer funding. As a result, the Director of NIH received [...]
The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule in August that values a religious doctor’s choice to refuse provision of services over a woman’s right to receive care. The proposed rule would protect the jobs of doctors who, on the basis of religious beliefs or moral convictions, refuse to provide abortion or sterilization services. In fact, those doctors [...]
On November 4, Michigan voters enacted a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research in their state. The amendment allows the use of human embryos for research in Michigan so long as the embryos: (1) were created for fertility treatment; (2) are in excess of those required for implantation; (3) are not suitable for implantation; (4) [...]