Promoting children's rights to health and well-being in the United States.

The United States has a highly sophisticated pediatric healthcare system and spends more than any other country per capita on children's healthcare. However, not all children have access to needed and affordable health care and the life expectancy and health outcomes of children in the country are worse than in any other industrialized nation. These nations typically offer universal healthcare for children as part of a robust recognition of a children's rights framework.

Do Pluripotent Stem Cells Offer a New Path to Reproduction?

The ability of pluripotent stem to develop into any of the cell types in the human body has meant that it was only a matter of time before scientists would try to transform them into human gametes. Up to now though it has not been possible to do so. Nevertheless a 2016 book written by Henry Greely speculated that in twenty to forty years most people in developed countries will cease reproduction through sex, using sex exclusively for pleasure, and instead will rely on reproduction through pluripotent stem cell-derived gametes.

Climate Justice, Humans Rights, and the Case for Reparations.

The global community is facing an existential crisis that threatens the web of life on this planet. Climate change, in addition to being a fundamental justice and ethical issue, constitutes a human rights challenge. It is a human rights challenge because it undermines the ability to promote human flourishing and welfare through the implementation of human rights, particularly the right to life and the right to health.

Rethinking the issue of reparations for Black Americans.

The differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color in the United States along with the civil unrest taking place in 2020 in response to the killing of unarmed Black men and women by the police have increased awareness of the structural racism pervading US society. These developments have reraised the issue of reparations for Black Americans, usually proposed in the context of providing financial compensation for the injustices of slavery to the descendants of those who were enslaved. This paper will discuss the systematic racial inequality and structural racism in US society that have significantly disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities while giving advantages to white Americans, which most recently have resulted in significantly higher mortality and morbidity among Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans during the pandemic.

Sri Lanka and the possibilities of achieving universal health coverage in a poor country.

Sri Lanka has been lauded for providing good health coverage at a low cost despite having a modest per capita income. This article identifies the unique historical factors that enabled Sri Lanka to achieve near universal coverage, but it also discusses how this achievement is now being undermined by inadequate government investment in health services, the burdens of non-communicable diseases, and the growing privatisation of health services. In doing so, the article highlights the challenges of achieving and maintaining universal health coverage in a relatively low income country with a health system designed to treat infectious diseases and provide child and maternal health services as the country undergoes an epidemiological transition from infectious to non-communicable diseases.

Ethical Guidelines for Genetic Research on Alcohol Addiction and Its Applications.

Research on the genomic correlates to addiction raises ethical issues in a number of different domains. In this paper, we evaluate the status of genetic research on alcohol dependence as background to addressing the ethical issues raised in conducting research on addiction and the application of that research to the formulation of public policies. We conclude that genetic testing is not yet ready for use in the prediction of alcohol dependence liability.

Assessing the universal health coverage target in the Sustainable Development Goals from a human rights perspective.

Background: The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in September 2015, include a comprehensive health goal, "to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages." The health goal (SDG 3) has nine substantive targets and four additional targets which are identified as a means of implementation. One of these commitments, to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), has been acknowledged as central to the achievement of all of the other health targets.

Can human rights standards help protect children and youth from the detrimental impact of alcohol beverage marketing and promotional activities?

Background And Aims: The alcohol industry in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region promotes demand for alcohol products actively through a number of channels, including advertising and sponsorship of sports and other events. This paper evaluates whether human rights instruments that Latin American countries have ratified can be used to limit children's exposure to alcohol advertising and promotion.

Methods: A review was conducted of the text of, and interpretative documents related to, a series of international and regional human rights instruments ratified by most countries in the LAC region that enumerate the right to health.

Ethical and practical challenges in providing noninvasive prenatal testing for chromosome abnormalities: an update.

Purpose Of Review: Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) through the analysis of cell-free DNA in maternal plasma has rapidly changed screening for fetal chromosome abnormalities. We review practical and ethical challenges associated with the transition, progress in their resolution, and identify new emerging difficulties.

Recent Findings: NIPT is an advanced screening test for trisomies 21, 18, and 13 that was initially limited to women at high risk for an affected pregnancy.

Obstetricians and gynecologists' practice and opinions of expanded carrier testing and noninvasive prenatal testing.

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the opinions of Fellows of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on expanded carrier testing (molecular detection of >100 genetic diseases of variable severity) and noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT).

Methods: A survey conducted between March and August 2012, assessed current use of testing, provision of genetic counseling, types of disorders that should be identified, preferences for future use, ethical aspects, and views on regulatory oversight.

Results: Expanded carrier testing was offered to all patients by 15% of the responders and 52.

Evaluating the first-in-human clinical trial of a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy.

Phase I clinical trials generally raise greater ethical and human protection challenges than later stage clinical trials, suggesting a need to proceed cautiously. This is particularly the case for Phase I trials with a novel therapy being tested in humans for the first time, usually termed first-in-human (FIH) trials. In January 2009, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Investigational New Drug application of Geron Corporation, a small California-based biopharmaceutical company, to initiate a clinical trial to assess GRNOPC1, a human embryonic stem cell-derived candidate therapy for severe spinal cord injuries.