Tag: medical ethics

Nuremberg Doctors Trial

COVID-19 vaccines and the Nuremberg Code

Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code and call for Nuremberg-style tribunals to hold public health and vaccine advocates "accountable". As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about. This is also not a new antivax narrative, although what is unprecedented is that what was once fringe even among antivaxxers is now...

/ August 29, 2022

Treating the Unvaccinated

Should vaccination status be used to triage care for critically ill patients during a crisis?

/ December 8, 2021

Italy’s Antivaccine Government – The Attack on Experts Continues

Anti-vaccine Italian government fires its entire Health Council. This is unfortunately part of a bigger trend against expertise and reality-based policy.

/ December 5, 2018

Chinese Researcher Reports First Gene-Edited Babies

A Chinese scientist announces first gene-edited babies, setting off a discussion of the science and ethics of using CRISPR on humans.

/ November 28, 2018

Integrative Medicine finally admits it’s attracting bad apples

Integrative medicine proponents finally acknowledge their field is attracting bad apples but fail to identify the real source of their problem: It's rejection of science-based medicine, not lack of training in integrative medicine.

/ September 13, 2018

The Primum non nocere principle in psychotherapy: A science based approach

Is the principle of primum non nocere, to do no harm, applied by psychotherapists?

/ July 26, 2018

The Ethics of Involuntary Pediatric Drug Testing

Although it may seem like a good idea, testing for recreational drug use on an adolescent patient without consent is ethically questionable, challenging to interpret, and unlikely to benefit patient or family.

/ June 16, 2017

Naturopathic Experiences: Remembrance of things past.

Interacting with patients who also get care from naturopaths: uncomfortable dilemmas.

/ April 14, 2017

Pharmacists Selling Snakeoil

Edzard Ernst published an excellent editorial today addressing the question of why pharmacists sell bogus products. Our own resident pharmacist, Scott Gavura, expressed similar points here on SBM a year ago. Their points are worth emphasizing and expanding upon. Professional ethics The explicit premise of both editorials is that pharmacists, like physicians, are health care professionals. Being a professional means adhering to...

/ July 20, 2016

The Ethics of Prescribing Worthless Treatments

Is it ever ethical for a physician to prescribe a treatment to a patient that they know to be entirely without efficacy? Is it ever possible to do this without deceiving the patient to some degree? I think the answer to both questions is a clear “no.” Within the flipped reality of “alternative medicine,” however, it suddenly becomes acceptable to deceive patients...

/ December 9, 2015