Category: Bioethics

You can download Web information now about what your genes mean or how much exercise you should undertake if you have a particular gene. By 2004 those same websites will upload information from the genetic samples stored in your pocket gene analyzer and return customized information about the relationships between your genes and your current health.

Oh, really? Apparently I slept through this bit of 2004. (That was three years ago, right? Just checking.)

I admit, I mock. But ya gotta admit, it’s funny. (And yes, I accept my fate for this…)

I keep telling people this is a big issue, but sometimes I feel like no one is listening. (Except the reporters who’re obviously reading my brainwaves, or something.)

The solution is to just finish the preliminary research I’ve done, and write the damned paper, and figure out who to send it to for publication. And really, I’m sort of in a great place for help with that, so maybe I really should get off my ass and do it.

For some reason, though, it’s sort of intimidating to take on a large project on my own and just because. I realize that makes little sense; I think part of it is because I now have to create the constraints, instead of having them handed to me.

Hmm.

The latest issue of the American Journal of Bioethics has a story that, ideally, everyone should read. That won’t happen, but hey, I’ll do my part – here’s the abstract and a link to the whole thing:

The controversy over abusive interrogations of prisoners during the war against terrorism spotlights the need for clear ethics norms requiring physicians and other clinicians to prevent the mistreatment of prisoners. Although policies and general descriptions pertaining to clinical oversight of interrogations in United States’ war on terror prisons have come to light, there are few public records detailing the clinical oversight of an interrogation. A complaint by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led to an Army investigation of an interrogation at the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay. The declassified Army investigation and the corresponding interrogation log show clinical supervision, monitoring and treatment during an interrogation that employed dogs, prolonged sleep deprivation, humiliation, restraint, hypothermia and compulsory intravenous infusions. The interrogation and the involvement of a psychologist, physician and medics violate international and medical norms for the treatment of prisoners.