Implications of Developmental 17-OHPC Exposure on the Mesocorticolimbic Serotonergic and Dopaminergic Pathways and Adolescent Mood-Related Behavior in Rats.

The synthetic progestin, 17-α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPC), is administered to pregnant individuals at risk for recurrent preterm birth during a critical period of fetal mesocorticolimbic serotonergic and dopaminergic pathway development. These pathways play an important role in regulating cognitive behaviors later in life. Despite this, there has been very little research regarding the potential long-term effects of 17-OHPC on the behavioral and neural development of exposed children.

"Comprehensive Healthcare for America": Using the Insights of Behavioral Economics to Transform the U. S. Healthcare System.

"Comprehensive Healthcare for America" is a largely single-payer reform proposal that, by applying the insights of behavioral economics, may be able to rally patients and clinicians sufficiently to overcome the opposition of politicians and vested interests to providing all Americans with less complicated and less costly access to needed healthcare.

Neurologic Diseases and Medical Aid in Dying: Aid-in-Dying Laws Create an Underclass of Patients Based on Disability.

Terminally ill patients in 10 states plus Washington, D.C. have the right to take prescribed medications to end their lives (medical aid in dying).

Stereotypic beliefs contribute to gender disparities in the field of economics.

Why are women under-represented in the field of economics relative to men? We propose that stereotypes associated with economists contribute to women's interest in the field. We test the predictions that economists are stereotypically associated with low levels of communion and high levels of agency and that this type of stereotype content is associated with women's lower interest in the field. In Study 1 ( = 883), stereotypes associated with people in the field of economics were masculine, characterized with low levels of communion and high levels of agency.

Empowering Patients with Alzheimer's Disease To Avoid Unwanted Medical Care: A Look At The Dementia Care Triad.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia with acute medical problems, who have lost capacity and are without advance directives, are at risk of being over treated inhospitals. To deal with this growing demographic and ethical crisis, patients with dementia need to plan for their future medical care while they have capacity to do so. This article will examine the role of each member of the dementia care triad and how to empower the patient to participate in planning future medical care.

Swaps and Chains and Vouchers, Oh My!: Evaluating How Saving More Lives Impacts the Equitable Allocation of Live Donor Kidneys.

Live kidney donation involves a delicate balance between saving the most lives possible and maintaining a transplant system that is fair to the many thousands of patients on the transplant waiting list. Federal law and regulations require that kidney allocation be equitable, but the pressure to save patients subject to ever-lengthening waiting times for a transplant has been swinging the balance toward optimizing utility at the expense of justice. This article traces the progression of innovations created to make optimum use of a patient's own live donors.

Justice or Injustice: a History and Critique of the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs.

The creation of the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs ("Justice Center") was announced with great fanfare in 2013. Its goal is laudable: strengthening and standardizing "the safety net for vulnerable persons, adults and children alike, who are receiving care from New York's human service agencies and programs." Its jurisdiction is broad: covering residential and non-residential programs and provider agencies that come within the purview of six state oversight agencies, namely, the Office of Mental Health, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, the Office of Children and Family Services, the Department of Health, and the State Education Department.

Medical Schools' Willingness to Accommodate Medical Students with Sensory and Physical Disabilities: Ethical Foundations of a Functional Challenge to "Organic" Technical Standards.

Students with sensory and physical disabilities are underrepresented in medical schools despite the availability of assistive technologies and accommodations. Unfortunately, many medical schools have adopted restrictive "organic" technical standards based on deficits rather than on the ability to do the work. Compelling ethical considerations of justice and beneficence should prompt change in this arena.

U.S. Medical Schools' Compliance With the Americans With Disabilities Act: Findings From a National Study.

Purpose: Physician diversity improves care for underserved populations, yet there are few physicians with disabilities. The authors examined the availability of technical standards (TSs) from U.S.

Selection against Disability: Abortion, ART, and Access.

This essay re-examines the disability critique of prenatal and pre-implantation screening in light of evidence about the larger context in which fertility and reproductive healthcare is rendered in the U.S. It argues that efforts to identify acceptable criteria for trait-based selection or otherwise impose reasons-based limitations on reproductive choice should be avoided because such limitations tend to perpetuate the discrimination encountered by adults with disabilities seeking fertility and reproductive health services.

Understanding of Essential Elements Required in Informed Consent Form among Researchers and Institutional Review Board Members.

The process of informed consent remains a constant challenge in clinical research. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the understanding of researchers and members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) regarding the essential elements of an Informed Consent Form (ICF) as required by internationally recognized regulations. Using eight case studies to illustrate basic ethical elements, the study involved 107 participants, mainly from the Asia Pacific and African regions.

A pilot study to determine penile oxygen saturation before and after vacuum therapy in patients with erectile dysfunction after radical prostatectomy.

Introduction: Provoked and spontaneous nocturnal erections are thought to play a role in maintenance of male sexual health through oxygenation of the corpus cavernosa. Conversely, hypoxia is thought to be an etiological factor in the pathogenesis of cavernosal fibrosis and long-term erectile dysfunction. It has been hypothesized that the early penile hypoxia after radical prostatectomy (RP) may lead to fibrosis and consequently a decrease in stretched penile length and long-term erectile dysfunction.

Banning front-of-package food labels: first Amendment constraints on public health policy.

In recent months, the FDA has begun a crackdown on misleading nutrition and health claims on the front of food packages by issuing warning letters to manufacturers and promising to develop stricter regulatory standards. Leading nutrition policy experts Marion Nestle and David Ludwig have called for an even tougher approach: a ban on all nutrition and health claims on the front of food packages. Nestle and Ludwig argue that most of these claims are scientifically unsound and misleading to consumers and that eliminating them would 'aid educational efforts to encourage the public to eat whole or minimally processed foods and to read the ingredients list on processed foods'.

Signs of change or clash of symbols? FDA regulation of nutrient profile labeling.

A new generation of food labels uses symbols and ratings on the front of packages and on supermarket shelves to indicate a product's nutritional value. Proponents of these new labels assert that they help consumers make healthier dietary choices. Critics contend that the new labels are confusing and misleading.

"Body property": challenging the ethical barriers in organ transplantation to protect individual autonomy.

One of two articles related to the current organ shortage, this article advocates the need for legislation to recognize organs and tissues separated from the body as a distinct category of personal property. After addressing the legislative history of organ procurement and psychological barriers to donor consent, the article examines the importance of separating the lifetime rights of ownership in our own bodies from postmortem rights. Ultimately, the author proposes a futures market approach to this problem in which individuals before death, or surviving family members after death, are permitted sell the decedent's organs in a private contract.

The effectiveness and ethical justification of psychiatric outpatient commitment.

Studies link involuntary outpatient commitment with improved patient outcomes, fueling debate on its ethical justification. This study compares inpatient utilization for committed outpatients in the 1990s with those who were not under outpatient civil commitment orders. Findings reveal committed outpatients had higher utilization of inpatient services and restraint episodes prior to their commitment compared with a control group.