COVID-19 Childbirth Restrictions Could Disproportionately Harm Black and Native Women
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A recent article by Kimberly Seals Allers discusses how COVID-19 safety restrictions related to giving birth and breastfeeding could potentially disproportionately harm black and Native American women. Photo courtesy of Women’s E-News Some hospitals are now classifying not only family … Continue reading

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Invisible Vulnerables
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Being a parent of someone in an especially vulnerable group makes one feel like you are sitting on a ticking bomb–in addition to the anxiety we all feel during this time of pandemic. I am hiding out in our lovely … Continue reading

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Coercion in childbirth destroys informed consent, whether from docs or partners
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Over at Vice yesterday, Rachael Sigee has an article that is worth a look: When Domestic Abuse Destroys Your Childbirth Plan. The subtitle? “Over a third of domestic violence gets worse or starts during pregnancy. Two women break down what … Continue reading

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The Desperate Measure of Womb Removal in Healthy Young Women in Rural India
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Whenever we see stories about the “plight” of women in developing nations, it’s critically important to step back and ask whether the journalistic framing is rooted in condescending colonialism, painting a picture of a problem as affecting women in the … Continue reading

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Feminist bioethicists and disability theorists speak out on Russia’s use of CRISPR to alter hereditary deafness
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Over at Canada’s Impact Ethics blog, feminist bioethicists and disability theorists Teresa Blankmeyer Burke and Jackie Leach Scully reflect on the Russian project to use CRISPR technologies to “correct a mutation that leads to hereditary deafness.” Blankmeyer Burke and Scully … Continue reading

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The Echo Chamber of the True Believer: Anti-Vaxxers, Magical Thinking, and Other Disasters
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There is an article that I suggest ought to be read as widely as possible. Underneath the anti-vaxxer exterior lies much scientific misinformation, compounded by phobias, conspiracy theories, and general hubris that views those who take science and medicine to … Continue reading

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The American Medical Association has been “neutral” on state abortion law. That has ended.
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The American Medical Association is intervening in the rapid increase of state legal restrictions on abortion for the first time, according to an article published in TIME magazine this morning. The American Medical Association is suing North Dakota to block … Continue reading

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Over at the Hastings Center, Nancy Berlinger urges bioethicists to move from outcry to action on migrant crises

In the US, a crisis has arisen due to government handling of much larger than usual numbers of asylum-seeking migrants at the southern border. Most are coming not from Mexico but through Mexico from other Central American and South American … Continue reading

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Cruel and Inefficient: The Difficulty of Aging and Dying Well in America
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James Sheridan Wood 1931-2019 Died peacefully in hospice May 22, 2019 after a long struggle by his family to get him end-of-life care in the U.S. health care system. I wish I could write about the spiritual and emotional meaningfulness … Continue reading

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Western University Researchers Release Report Advocating for More “Time to Attach” for People Who Provide Permanency to Children
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This blog entry comes to us from Heather Stewart, M.A. Stewart is a Ph.D. candidate at Western University and is a member of the Time to Attach Research Team. Here, she speaks about the feminist bioethics issue of … Continue reading

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Bisexual Microaggressions in Medical Contexts
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We recently shared an IJFAB Blog guest blog by Heather Stewart and Lauren Freeman on microaggressions facing transgender folks seeking medical care. In this blog, Heather Stewart focuses on microaggressions facing bisexual persons in medical contexts. Stewart addresses numerous features … Continue reading

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We Can Help You, But First…: Reports out of DCR indicate ebola vaccine study recruiters are demanding sex in exchange for enrollment
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In the last few days, allegations of terrible ethical violations have hit the news. These primarily concern Congolese women who are being recruited for the Ebola vaccine trials, and who are seeking vaccination under the “compassionate use” exemptions that allow … Continue reading

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