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Identifying Sperm Donors, Genetic Privacy and Public Benefit: How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
A story in today’s Daily Mail reveals some of the harms experienced by children born to sperm donors. Since 2005, children born to sperm donors have had access to the identity of the man who donated sperm that created them. But prior to that point, donors were not required to disclose their identity. These children
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Fishing outside the reef: the illusion of control and finance
Humans regularly see patterns where there are none, but stress makes this tendency worse. Some new studies suggest this may be making the current market troubles worse. Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky (Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception, Science 3 October 2008 Vol. 322. no. 5898, pp. 115-117) demonstrated that when people feel they lack
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Refusing to refer: thus conscience doth make cowards of us all
In Victoria next week a proposal to make abortion legal in certain circumstances is due to be voted on by the upper house. Some doctors, as well as the Catholic church, have attacked one clause in that legislation, as it is said to deny doctors the right to conscientiously object to abortion. But what is…
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Knowledge may be power, but is it healing?
The explosion of medical information on the internet is a good thing, right? Patients worried that their condition is not being taken seriously, those who want a second opinion but are worried about upsetting their GP by asking for it, and those with symptoms too trifling or embarrassing to take to a doctor—all these people
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The price of ignorance: the Durham study and research ethics
Ben Goldacre (who seems to be one of this blog’s favorite sources) tears into the Durham fish oil trial. A while ago Durham County together with the company Equazen decided to test whether giving omega-3 supplements would improve the GCSE scores of children. Unfortunately there were clear problems with the trial design. In the face
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Why object to improving prenatal tests?
The Daily Mail reports this week on a new blood test to detect conditions such as Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis in fetuses. The article raises concerns about ‘designer babies’. Yet given the recent concern about the risk of miscarrying normal fetuses with current screening procedures for Down syndrome why isn’t the Daily Mail welcoming…
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Publishing Negative Research Results
Ben Goldacre, in the Guardian this weekend, noticed the range of headlines on health and health risks that are to be found in the media. He mentions, among others, the rise of ‘manorexia’, the failure of water to induce weight loss and the dangers of antibiotics to prevent premature birth. I found a couple more:
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DON’T PANIC
It has been an extraordinary week in the financial markets of the world. With the collapse of major international financial institutions, and governments forced to intervene by propping up ailing insurers or authorising the merger of banks, newspapers headlines have competed to convey the scale and significance of the crisis. But there is a difficult…
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