Do you want to know the latest information and news about today's important healthcare topics? Join the conversation with The Point, CMDA's blog focusing on breaking news stories in bioethics and healthcare. CMDA's experts contribute to the blog and also recommend additional resources and information.
The purpose of this blog is to stimulate thought and discussion about important issues in healthcare. Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily express the views of CMDA. We encourage you to join the conversation on our website and share your experience, insight and expertise. CMDA has a rigorous and representative process in formulating official positions, which are largely limited to bioethical areas.
Archived Articles
Are healthcare conscience laws needed?
By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® |
This excerpt is the fifth in a series of essays on conscience in healthcare, by Jonathan Imbody, Vice President for Government Relations of the Christian Medical Association and Director of Freedom2Care. The essays respond to "Physicians, Not Conscripts — Conscientious Objection in Health Care," Ronit Y. Stahl, Ph.D. and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, New England Journal of Medicine 376;14, April 6, 2017.
A Lack of Self-care in Healthcare
By Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, MBA |
How many times have you gone to clinic when you were sicker than the patients you were treating? Listened to other people’s woes and stresses when your own were weightier? Given your last emotional resources to a patient whose need was less than your family member’s? Forfeited sleep while advising a patient of how curative it is? Advised a patient about nutrition and exercise right after scarfing a quick lunch from the vending machine?
“Patient autonomy” – The Trojan Horse assault on conscience freedom in healthcare
By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® |
Just as the Declaration of Geneva’s original commitment in 1948 to honor pre-born life fell to new ideology, so did the original commitment to healthcare professionals' conscience freedom. The relevant clause in the original Declaration of Geneva read simply, "I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity.”
“My Child is Transgender. Make Her a Son.” Guidance for the Doctor.
By Andrè Van Mol, MD |
A mother brings in her 10-year-old daughter because she identifies as male and wishes to promptly begin transitioning. Your advice is not solicited, just your authorization for the consult to get the process moving quickly.
Reporting on IVF Incidents
By D. Joy Riley MD, MA (Ethics) |
In the United Kingdom, patients pay for 60 percent of the 76,000 annual in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments rendered. Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the regulatory body overseeing both fertility treatment and embryo research, released in December its State of the Fertility Sector: 2016-17, a report detailing the health of the fertility sector in the UK.
Bedrock Oaths Vs. Zeitgeist Barometers
By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® |
On the heels of World War II, with medical ethics in the spotlight following unconscionable Nazi atrocities, the World Medical Association (WMA) decided the Hippocratic Oath, which had guided medicine since around 500 BC, needed to be replaced. So the WMA developed a new oath that contained some of the principles of the ancient oath but opened the door to continual modernizing.
The “Five Solas,” Then and Now
By Robert E. Cranston, MD, MA (Ethics) |
October 31, 1517 is often identified as the birthdate of the Protestant Reformation. On this date Martin Luther purportedly nailed his “95 Theses” to the cathedral door in Wittenberg, Germany. Actually, as Eric Metaxas tells us in Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World...
Treating the New Chronic Pain Patient
By Amy Givler, MD |
I had a tooth pulled last month. I wasn’t expecting much post-op pain because the tooth already had a root canal, years earlier. Yet with my mouth clamped on a large cotton wad after the procedure, I heard my oral surgeon say to his assistant, “Print out a script for Norco 7.5’s – 30 of them.”
The Commercialization of Marijuana
By David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics) |
What happens when marijuana is legalized for either medical or recreational use with little regulation and almost no enforcement? Unfortunately, we know by looking at what has happened in Colorado over the last few years, as Ben Cort relates in his excellent book Weed, Inc.
Sharing Experiences and Decreasing Isolation in Healthcare
By Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, MBA |
An article crossed both my inbox and my Facebook feed this week entitled “Here’s Why Women Doctors Need Time Together.” It certainly wasn’t an academic study, but, as a woman physician, I was intrigued by the title. One sentence summarizes the author’s major premise: “There is an amazing power in gathering, shared experiences and decreasing isolation.” And I agree. When I watch my kids play sports or perform, I gather with other parents who share that experience—and we cheer as loudly as we can. When my marriage needs refreshment, my husband and I gather with other couples who share the experiences, both joyful and difficult, of marriage—and the isolation of our challenges is decreased.
Exciting Technologies and Ethical Applications
By David Prentice, PhD |
Some scientists have said one reason they don’t consult bioethicists or think about the ethical implications of their research is because ethicists usually say “no” to new technologies, or that ethics is arbitrary. But what they are really avoiding is the necessity of setting rational limits on science, thinking they can thereby avoid any limits on their work. Limits that protect all human beings, even nascent human life, are not arbitrary and actually say “yes” to some exciting—and ethical—applications of new technologies.
Autonomy Quickly Translates to Tyranny
By Christian Medical & Dental Associations® |
It's one thing to expect physicians to do everything possible to advance healing for patients. It's quite another to insist that whatever the patient wants, the patient gets—so the physician must provide it at risk of his or her career. Whenever one group gets its way regardless of the impact on others, that is not autonomy; that is tyranny.