Nikola Biller-Andorno, Herwig Grimm, Rebecca Walker. Published October 2015 in Nature Biotechnology. In recent years, there has been growing sentiment outside of the research community that too many animals suffer ‘needlessly’ in experiments. Furthermore, an increasing number of researchers speak of the moral ‘costs’ of such work and raise doubts about its value, at least … Read more

Jean Cadigan, Dan Nelson, Gail Henderson, Anders Nelson, Arlene Davis. Published September 2015 in IRB: Ethics and Human Research. The regulations governing human subjects research (Common Rule) remain largely unchanged since their adoption. As a first step in their revision, the federal government published the Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) in 2011. The … Read more

Louise Winstanly discusses the IntraHealth campaign, End Shame: Restore Dignity. Two million women around the world live with fistula. Up to 100,000 more develop the condition every year, according to the World Health Organization. In low-income countries such as Mali, many women do not have access to the skilled health care that can prevent fistula, … Read more

Talk 2015 September 17 @ 12pm – 1pm, Brinkhous-Bullitt 219 (TraCS Conference Room). Research Ethics Grand Rounds. Jennifer Fishman, McGill University. In the last few years, the landscape of translational genomic research has been changing and is no longer confined to strictly academic research or institutionalized health care. New voices from advocacy organizations, direct-to-consumer (DTC) … Read more

Luncheon and talk 2015 September 22 @ 12:30pm. Please register if you plan to attend. Parr Center for Ethics, Ethics Around the Table. Dr. Amina White speaks about dilemmas that clinicians face in providing obstetrical care for survivors of childhood or adult sexual abuse who may perceive certain routine or emergency procedures during labor and … Read more

Based in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, ĦIVE links the humanities and health sciences through student-centered research projects, innovative curricula, and public engagement. Students and faculty from diverse fields—ranging from anthropology, journalism, and biology to occupational science, medicine, and social work—come together in teams to ask questions and develop new insights into … Read more

Mara Buchbinder. Published June 2015. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a pediatric pain clinic in California, Mara Buchbinder explores how clinicians, adolescent patients, and their families make sense of puzzling symptoms and work to alleviate pain. Through careful attention to the language of pain—including narratives, conversations, models, and metaphors—and detailed analysis of how young pain … Read more

Conference 2015 September 18 @ 8:30 am – 5 pm. Saying no: Exploring the ethical dimensions of refusals in healthcare. Refusals take place across the spectrum of healthcare–from the clinician who refuses to offer treatment believed to be futile, non-beneficial or inappropriate; the patient who spurns a proposed discharge plan; the family who declines to … Read more

Legislative support for physician aid-in-dying (PAD) in the United States has risen steadily in recent years. Five states currently authorize physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a mentally competent, terminally ill, adult patient for the purpose of ending the patient’s life, provided that certain preconditions are met. With ongoing legislative activities in … Read more

It is fitting that the release of our annual report corresponds with the implementation phase of the Carolina Value Initiative. The Hospital Ethics Committee (HEC) and the Clinical Ethics Services it supports are representative of the institution’s dedication to the care of its patients and education of its clinicians. The report represents the collective effort … Read more