Hemeroteca de Bioética

Florida  be-came  the  first  state  to  pro-hibit  life  insurance  companies  from  using  genetic  information,  defined  as  the  results  of  predic-tive genetic tests, in underwriting unless the information is accom-panied by a diagnosis of a medi-cal  condition.  This  policy  is  im-portant   because   the   federal   Genetic  Information  Nondiscrim-ination  Act  (GINA)  applies  only  to employment and health insur-ance.

During previous public health emergencies, the issue of whether public health agencies should recommend that women avoid be-coming pregnant because of potential risks to them-selves  and  their  newborns  has  been controversial. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has again led to  questions  regarding  whether  women should consider postpon-ing  pregnancy  because  of  poten-tial  virus-related  risks.  Such  dis-cussions involve important ethical considerations.

Canines seem to detect coronavirus infections with remarkable accuracy, but researchers say large-scale studies are needed before the approach is scaled up.
Around the world, canines are being trained to detect the whiff of COVID-19 infections. Dog trainers are claiming extraordinary results — in some cases, they say that dogs can detect the virus with almost perfect accuracy. Scientists involved with the efforts suggest that canines could help to control the pandemic because they can screen hundreds of people an hour in busy places such as airports or sports stadiums, and are cheaper to run than conventional testing methods such as the RNA-amplification technique PCR.

Este viernes se ha debatido en el Consejo de los ADPIC la propuesta de India y Sudáfrica sobre la suspensión de patentes para todas las tecnologías frente a la covid durante la pandemia. Habrá una votación final el 17 de diciembre. Los países ricos están en contra de esta medida que abarataría el precio de las vacunas y permitiría una producción mucho más rápida.

About  400000  transgender  people live in China.1 These individuals might not have equal rights at work or equal rights to education and thus many find themselves unable to fully participate in  society  or  experiencing  suicidal  ideation.

Nuestras cifras de incidencia de la pandemia, lejos de provocar la alarma que causan parámetros similares entre nuestros vecinos, invitan a la mayoría de los responsables a los análisis positivos y al anuncio de tendencias favorables
Austria acaba de decretar el confinamiento domiciliario con cierre del sistema educativo hasta el 6 de diciembre, tras constatar que dos semanas de toque de queda a las ocho de la noche, cierre parcial de la hostelería y llamamientos al autoconfinamiento no han conseguido bajar la incidencia por debajo de los 500 casos por cada cien mil habitantes. Al anunciarlo el canciller Sebastian Kurz, reconocía que ya no eran capaces de rastrear el origen de más del setenta por ciento de los casos y que se trataba del último intento para evitar el colapso del sistema sanitario.

“Cradle to grave” — that is the promise and privilege of family medicine: the opportunity to care for individuals and families at every stage of life. For a family medicine intern, this privilege has a slightly different f lavor. It’s the  privilege  of  witnessing  the  events that bring people into the hospital   throughout   their   life­span — birth and death and the illness  in  between  them.  And  as  an  intern  in  the  midst  of  a  pan­demic, I’ve learned that this priv­ilege  can  go  hand  in  hand  with  pain. These days, it is the pain of witnessing  the  profound  loneli­ness  created  by  closing  our  hos­pital  doors  to  all  but  the  ill  and  the  people  charged  with  healing  them  —  a  loneliness  that  feels  entirely distinctive at each age and stage of life.

As  uprisings  continue  around  the United States in response to  police  violence  against  Black  people,  we  have  reached  a  mo-ment   of   reckoning   for   many   Americans.  As  a  nation,  we  are  struggling to find a way forward. Many  organizations  have  issued  statements of solidarity and made promises of support, as first steps. Individual  clinicians  and  physi-cians’  organizations  have  joined  the efforts, speaking out against police  violence  and  naming  rac-ism  as  a  public  health  issue  or  crisis.

Vaccines   to   protect   against   severe   acute   respiratory   syndrome   coronavirus   2   (SARS-CoV-2)   have   risen   up   the  agenda  of  most  policy  makers  and  individuals  as  the  second  wave  of  COVID-19in  northern  hemisphere  countries   grows   and   there   is   increasing   pressure   on   health-care systems.For any licensed vaccine, efficacy and duration  of  protection  are  key  issues.  Vaccine  efficacies  to  protect  against  infection  above  80%  are  desirable,1but  duration  of  protection  will  remain  uncertain  for  a  number  of  years  post  licensure  of  COVID-19  vaccines.

Slovakia plans to be the first country to test its whole population for SARS-CoV-2, but experts warn of logistical and technical challenges. Ed Holt reports from Bratislava.
Slovakia  has  begun  a  massive  opera-tion to test its entire adult population for  SARS-CoV-2  in  a  bid  to  halt  what  its government has said is an alarming acceleration of the spread of the virus in the country.

No  one  disputes  the  urgent  need  for  safe  and  effective  COVID-19    vaccines.    But    confidentiality    within    the    processes   of   vaccine   development   is   also   essential.   Ensuring   rapid   availability   of   COVID-19   vaccines   will   depend on rigorous evidence of their safety and efficacy.1T

The  equity  of  his  nation’s  health  services  provision  is  a  core  mission for ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeon Kelvin Kong, Associate  Professor  at  the  University  of  New  South  Wales  (UNSW), Sydney, and the University of Newcastle in eastern Australia.  “As  an  Indigenous  Australian,  I  feel  obligated  to  strive to ensure that access to quality health care is available to  all  Australian  citizens”,  he  says.

Why proposals to largely let the virus run its course — embraced by Donald Trump’s administration and others — could bring “untold death and suffering”.
In May, the Brazilian city of Manaus was devastated by a large outbreak of COVID-19. Hospitals were overwhelmed and the city was digging new grave sites in the surrounding forest. But by August, something had shifted. Despite relaxing social-distancing requirements in early June, the city of 2 million people had reduced its number of excess deaths from around 120 per day to nearly zero.

El estudio, titulado Arquitectura de la tortura en Europa, se ha realizado a partir de 160 entrevistas que, según sus impulsores, constituyen una "muestra representativa de la realidad en el campo.