Category: Ethics

Tightening Gene Editing Rules for Humans

Gene-editing regulations are again in the news. We need to take a thoughtful approach.

/ March 8, 2023
NY puberty blocker article

What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth

The New York Times recently published an article expressing grave concern about the use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria in transgender adolescents. Unfortunately, the reporting ignored evidence and important context to weave a narrative portraying puberty blockers as far more risky than they actually are.

, / December 4, 2022
Recycling old antivax arguments as "bioethics"

Recycling old antivax tropes as “bioethics”-based arguments against COVID-19 vaccination for children

A recently published article in Bioethics makes ethical arguments against vaccinating children against COVID-19. If you change the word "COVID-19" to measles, chickenpox, or rotavirus (or others), this article could have been published on one of the higher-brow antivax websites in 2010. Antivax arguments never change; they're just continually recycled.

/ March 28, 2022

Treating the Unvaccinated

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

/ December 8, 2021
The BMJ's Facebook logo

What the heck happened to The BMJ?

Last week, The BMJ published an "exposé" by Paul Thacker alleging patient unblinding, data falsification, and other wrongdoing by a company running three sites for the massive clinical trial of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. It was a highly biased story embraced by antivaxxers, with a deceptively framed narrative and claims not placed into proper context, leading me to look into the broader...

/ November 8, 2021

The Frenetic Frenum Freeing Frenzy

What problems do tongue-ties cause? Do all of them need to be clipped?

/ August 20, 2021

“Imbalanced Energy Field” is not a valid diagnosis and therapeutic touch is pseudoscience, so why can’t nurses just give it up?

“Imbalanced Energy Field” is not a valid diagnosis and therapeutic touch is pseudoscience. It's past time nursing gave up both.

/ August 12, 2021
Abigail Shrier vs. trans teens

Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: A Wealth of Irreversible Misinformation

A critical, science-based analysis of Abigail Shrier's book Irreversible Damage.

/ July 2, 2021

Ian Harris on “Surgery, the Ultimate Placebo”

Ian Harris explains that more than half of commonly performed surgical operations may be placebos. Adequate studies using a blinded control group are essential.

/ October 27, 2020

Acupuncture and cupping for adult idiopathic scoliosis at the VA

A veteran's adult idiopathic scoliosis was treated at a VA health clinic with acupuncture and cupping in an attempt to correct his spinal curvature, an impossibility without surgery. The ideology of so-called integrative medicine is firmly entrenched at the VA, to the detriment of veterans and taxpayers.

/ October 8, 2020