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.
Grasping for Certainty
I had lunch with some dear friends today—Christian women physicians who have been my friends for almost 20 years. We talked about medicine—the woes of the current healthcare system. And we said we couldn’t imagine how things would continue, given the problems our healthcare system faces. We talked about parenting—the challenges of raising daughters. And we said we couldn’t imagine how kids could process social media and technology in a healthy way. We talked about our churches—the deep divisions between the maskers and non-maskers over the last couple of years. And we said we couldn’t imagine how the wounds could be healed. We talked about politics—the uncompromising partisan viewpoints on both sides of the aisle. And we said we couldn’t imagine how people could learn to work together given the depth of the divide.
Even Failed Therapy for Undesired Same-Sex Sexuality Results in No Harm, Finds New Study
Swiftly on the heels of his 2021 study showing sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) “strongly reduces suicidality” and that restrictions on SOCE may “deprive sexual minorities of an important resource for reducing suicidality, putting them at substantially increased suicide risk,”[1],[2] Sociologist Paul Sullins’ new peer-reviewed analysis revealed, as per its title, an “Absence of Behavioral Harm Following Non-efficacious Sexual Orientation Change Efforts: A Retrospective Study of United States Sexual Minority Adults, 2016–2018.”[3]
Intellectual Humility: From Ancient Biblical Proverbs to 21st Century Research
No matter where you stand, it should be evident that a large swath of humanity confidently clings to tenets that are demonstrably untrue. Moreover, these beliefs are not borne exclusively of facts, experience and logic but a deadly array of confounding factors. The vast complexity of most subjects, misinformation, disinformation and information overload preclude anyone from total mastery of an issue. The solution is biblical, and it’s called intellectual humility.
“First Do No Harm”
What would you think of a major regulatory body, known for its demanding standards for quality and utility—read integrity—that suddenly abandons its own rules, despite the loud protestations of its own quality advisory committee, and put its imprimatur of approval on a medication that: 1) fails to meet its established endpoints of utility; 2) costs more than $50,000 per year; and 3) has well-documented negative side effects? Not much, I hope. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently did with Aducanumab (trade name Aduhelm), a new monthly injection for early Alzheimer’s Disease.
Ample Alternatives to Fetal Failures
Fairy tales and science usually don’t coincide; fairy tales are the stuff of myth and fancy, science of objective fact. Yet the continued push for fetal tissue research is extensively constructed of flimsy fairy tales, with proponents willfully ignoring objective fact in hopes of gaining some taxpayer dollars. The falsehoods about fetal tissue research have been repeatedly debunked by factual evidence, but fetal tissue research advocates continue to apply the Illusory Truth Effect: repeat something often enough, even if false, and people will begin to believe it. Unwilling to let a good crisis go to waste, fetal tissue proponents have even tried to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that fetal tissue is essential for study of SARS-CoV-2 infections, making humanized “lung-only mice” using fetal tissue from abortion. Sadly, the unphysiological and anatomically inappropriate mouse model highlights the lengths to which some scientists will go to justify unethical practices. And while the Biden administration in 2021 removed sound ethical reviews and prohibitions on taxpayer-funded fetal tissue research, clinging to this antiquated research holds back modern, productive science. Here is just a small sampling of the scientifically and ethically superior methods and models that should be receiving attention.
Gospel Hope in Burnout
As the medical system groans beneath the burden of the pandemic, conversations have appropriately turned to burnout among healthcare professionals. Most dialogues point to external systems, e.g., the shrinking workforce, limited supplies and political contentions over vaccines. While these forces exert significant influence, and indeed pose a crisis in many parts of the U.S., deeper and more personal dynamics are at play.
Avoiding Burnout
Apparently, Medscape does a yearly survey on physician burnout, and the one that just came out asked 13,000 physicians from 29 specialties about their personal experience with stress and signs of burnout. Being in the midst of a global pandemic, it won’t surprise anyone that burnout rates are rising.
Unless You Tell Them
“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14, ESV).
Proposed UK “conversion therapy” Ban Against Counseling Choice: Putting Already At-risk Sexual Minorities in Harm’s Way
Five of we Americans were in London a few weeks ago at the invitation of the International Federation for Therapeutic & Counseling Choice (IFTCC) and Christian Concern to—along with colleagues from the United Kingdom, Norway and Australia (some by video presence)—to hold a one-day conference one block from Parliament challenging the proposed UK “conversion” therapy ban. I wrote the following at the request of Christian Concern and IFTCC, reprinted here with their permission.
Not By Might, Nor By Power
How do we, as followers of Christ, engage the secular world?
This is no simple question, as the situations and circumstances are nearly infinite in possibility.
Since St. Augustine penned The City of God, there has been a general understanding that Jesus did not come to establish an earthly dominion. One might argue there have been “Christian nations” in a particular sense, but through most of Western history, church and state have always been separate power bases in an uneasy tension. Sometimes the church was on the ascendancy, as when Pope Gregory VII excommunicated emperor Henry IV (1050-1106) over the investiture controversy. You may have heard the story about how Henry stood three days barefoot in the snow to beg forgiveness. This feeds the popular myth of an all-powerful Catholic church embraced by many secularists. Less well known is that three years later, after his second excommunication, Henry IV led his armies against Rome, forcibly deposing Gregory VII and putting his own man in charge. So much for the “all-powerful” church. Power is fleeting, even for emperors and popes.
Private Equity in Healthcare
While many people, including healthcare professionals, think that much of medical ethics is highly arbitrary and relativistic, with the single prevailing rule being patient autonomy, there are nonetheless some widely accepted principles within medical ethics. Principlism, which is based on four guides made famous by Beauchamp and Childress, includes patient autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. Unfortunately, for many people, these are the only ethical considerations needed to make informed decisions regarding right and wrong regarding patient care. Several other considerations are needed to decide complex issues rightly.
Will Roe Stand?
On December 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) heard arguments regarding the legality of abortion restrictions put into place by the state of Mississippi. The case is known as Dobbs v. Jackson. It is the most high-profile abortion case argued before the Supreme Court since Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.
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