Ethical challenges in FASD prevention: Scientific uncertainty, stigma, and respect for women's autonomy.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a leading form of neurodevelopmental delay in Canada, affecting an estimated 3000 babies per year. FASD involves a range of disabilities that entail significant costs to affected individuals, families, and society. Exposure to alcohol in utero is a necessary factor for FASD development, and this has led to FASD being described as "completely preventable".

Examining chronic care patient preferences for involvement in health-care decision making: the case of Parkinson's disease patients in a patient-centred clinic.

Background: Patient-centred care is a recommended model of care for Parkinson's disease (PD). It aims to provide care that is respectful and responsive to patient preferences, values and perspectives. Provision of patient-centred care should entail considering how patients want to be involved in their care.

What Is Everyday Ethics? A Review and a Proposal for an Integrative Concept.

"Everyday ethics" is a term that has been used in the clinical and ethics literature for decades to designate normatively important and pervasive issues in healthcare. In spite of its importance, the term has not been reviewed and analyzed carefully. We undertook a literature review to understand how the term has been employed and defined, finding that it is often contrasted to "dramatic ethics.

Deep brain stimulation: a principled and pragmatic approach to understanding the ethical and clinical challenges of an evolving technology.

DBS has emerged in the past few decades as a powerful clinical tool in the treatment of movement disorders such as dystonia and Parkinson's disease. As a result of its striking effects, the therapeutic utility of DBS has been investigated in a number of different neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. Ethical discussion has accompanied this evolution of DBS and has led to the identification of a number of important ethical challenges.

Comments and reflections on ethics in screening for biomarkers of prenatal alcohol exposure.

Early identification of and intervention for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) has been shown to optimize outcomes for affected individuals. Detecting biomarkers of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) in neonates may assist in the identification of children at risk of FASD enabling targeted early interventions. Despite these potential benefits, complicated ethical issues arise in screening for biomarkers of PAE and these must be addressed prior to the implementation of screening programs.