No child left without a brain scan? Toward a pediatric neuroethics.

Brain research is yielding new information about the development of cognitive and behavioral traits in children--and how development can go off track. This is information parents, teachers, and others will use to help with problems from dyslexia to drug abuse. But with this information, often technical, come many questions.

Hospital ethics case consultations: practical guidelines.

Hospital ethics committees provide education, assist in policymaking, and deliver consultation services. In this article, we describe the structure, operation, and institutional framework within which an ethics committee fulfills its missions, with emphasis on the consultation process.

The NHLBI lymphangioleiomyomatosis registry: characteristics of 230 patients at enrollment.

Rationale: Pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis is a progressive cystic lung disease that is associated with infiltration of atypical smooth muscle-like cells. Previous descriptions of clinical characteristics of subjects with lymphangioleiomyomatosis have been based on a limited number of patients.

Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics of subjects with pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis, both sporadic and tuberous sclerosis-related forms.

Ethical issues in the long-term management of progressive degenerative neuromuscular diseases.

Degenerative neuromuscular diseases are characterized by a gradual decline of motor function leading to respiratory collapse, while the patients retain consciousness and cognition. The ethical challenges of caring for such patients result from the need to implement various combinations of initiating, withholding, and withdrawing life-sustaining interventions. In caring for this population of patients physicians should adhere to the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.

Nicotine addiction through a neurogenomic prism: ethics, public health, and smoking.

Studies are under way to examine the neurogenetic factors contributing to smoking behaviors. The combined approaches of genomics, molecular biology, neuroscience, and pharmacology are expected to fuel developments in pharmacogenetics, to create new genetic tests, and ultimately to provide the basis for innovative strategies for smoking cessation and prevention. The emergence of a neurogenomic understanding of nicotine addiction is likely to induce fundamental changes in popular, clinical, and public health views of smoking, which could significantly shape existing practices and policies to reduce tobacco use.