Catholic hospitals: survival without moral compromise.

The three overriding challenges facing Catholic hospitals today are the decline in vocations, commercialization through competition, and the moral pluralism of participatory democracy. These problems lead to a single practical question: How can Catholic health care institutions preserve their integrity while surviving in today's fiscal and moral climate? Cooperation throughout the entire Catholic health care ministry is essential. Either the whole Catholic community will cooperate and make sacrifices to confront the eroding forces in a specifically Christian way, or the authenticity of the Church's healing ministry will gradually be compromised into extinction.

Relevance and utility of courses in medical ethics. A survey of physicians' perceptions.

In the last decade the teaching of medical ethics has become almost universal in American medical schools. Its effectiveness is, however, just beginning to be evaluated. A stratified random sample of 3,000 practicing physicians who were graduated between 1974 and 1978 was surveyed to evaluate their perceptions of the utility and relevance of medical ethics teaching.

What is a profession? The ethical implications of the FTC order and some Supreme Court decisions.

The professions have sought to formulate and maintain their own codes of conduct and ethics, in order to safeguard relationships of trust between client and professional and uphold a commitment to care and service. Recent court decisions reviewed here have asserted the supremacy of competition in professional as well as commercial relationships, where it is up to the buyer to "beware." The implications of these decisions have posed a moral challenge.

The composition of recrystallized bone mineral.

Bone mineral and synthetic calcium-deficient carbonate apatite (CDCA), when defined in terms of their respective thermal stabilities and ignition products, are homologous. When heated to 550 degrees, they may have a structure similar to that of the mineral dahllite. When heated to temperatures greater than 550 degrees, CDCA (like bone mineral) losses its structural CO3 and is recrystallized to whitlockite and/or OH-apatite, depending on its stoichiometry.

"The common devotion"--Cushing's legacy and medical ethics today. The 1983 Harvey Cushing oration.

The author examines the principles that have been specific to the profession of medicine. He iterates Harvey Cushing's exhortation to reaffirm adherence to traditional medical ethics which are at times strained in dealing with major congenital defects, maintenance of ancillary support, technological possibilities, and terminal illness. Moral considerations must be examined and respected, and remain the personal responsibility of the profession.

A chick bone model for evaluating radial bone growth. 1. Effects of vitamin D3 deficiency.

Vitamin D3 is essential for calcification and normal bone development in chicks. In its absence, calcification is reduced but the volume (and mass) of bone increases. In vitamin D3-deficient chicks, this study shows the major defect to be in bone resorption rather than formation.

What is a profession?

The Western world has long cherished the ideal and idea of professions, of groups who, because of the special nature of their activities, "profess" themselves dedicated to moral standards that oblige them to place the good of those they serve above their own self-interest. But for several decades this pristine ideal has undergone serious erosion, and the practical and moral consequences of this erosion for society are yet to be fully examined. Is there some justification for retaining the traditional idea of a profession? The author here argues that there is such a justification and that it can be found in the nature of the human needs the professions address and the human relationships peculiar to them.

Glutamine metabolism in bone.

Evidence is provided for the utilization of glutamine by calvaria and compact bone of rat. Glutamine was actively transported into calvaria, principally by sodium-dependent mechanisms; its uptake was significantly inhibited by neutral amino acids (alanine, proline, serine, asparagine) and glutamine analogs (L-glutamate-gamma-hydroxamate, albizziin). Glutamine was degraded to ammonia and glutamate by phosphate-dependent glutaminase, a mitochondrial enzyme present in both calvaria and compact bone.