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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“More an Inmate Than a Patient…”: check out this consideration of autonomy and long-term care settings
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Bioethicists have long been alert to the delicate dance of preserving patient autonomy in long-term residential care settings such as nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, and other institutional settings where patients may reside for extended periods of time in the U.S. … Continue reading

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Persons as Producers: Why bioethics should be concerned with work culture and the structure of labor
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Today, May 1, is known in the labor rights movement as May Day or International Workers’ Day. It celebrates the dignity of laboring humans and the right to be seen as and live as fully human. I want to use … Continue reading

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“And How Did You Spend Your Summer Vacation?” The European Institution of the Summer School and “What About the Family?”
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There are lots of admirable policies and practices prevalent in E.U. members states, and in Europe more broadly; many speak effectively to profound and population wide needs. The “Summer School” is maybe not the most significant way in which the … Continue reading

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None of us are getting out of here alive. But who goes first, and why? New JAMA article.

Did you catch the Journal of the American Medical Association article on the Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the US, 2001-2014? Spoilers: there is one. This piece tries to break it down further using deidentified tax records to look … Continue reading

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Behind Closed Doors: A flawed AHCA does nothing to fix the flaws of the ACA, makes things worse for 10s of millions of Americans
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Many of us in the bioethics community are following along with the political maneuvers in the U.S. Senate on the Republican attempt to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA/“Obamacare”).  From my perspective it has been more difficult to … Continue reading

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Effects of Trump administration policies, including census questionnaire changes, on LGBT elderly populations
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Editor’s Note: SAGE is a group that provides advocacy and services for LGBT Elders, a group often multiply invisible in public policy due to ageism combined with homophobia, biphobia, and/or transphobia as well as other intersecting oppressions. With the group’s permission, … Continue reading

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“Rogue” doctor in India provides fertility to older patients
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As profiled in a recent Independent article, Dr. Anurog Bishnoi provides in vitro fertilization services to women who are often deemed “too old” by medical standards. Reading this excerpt, and the article, you might keep in mind classic themes of bioethics and … Continue reading

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The Biggest Health Problem Facing Canada: Indigenous Health
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EDITOR’S NOTE: An expanded version of this editorial by Editor Alison Reiheld was solicited by the Canadian bioethics blog Impact Ethics. You can find it here. It contains links to more indigenous authors and groups about these kinds of health issues … Continue reading

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The ABCs of the AHCA: A is for abortion, B is for backward, C is for costly
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece’s posting was delayed by technical errors. However, the analysis of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) is still pressing and relevant. While the bill was pulled from a planned House vote in the US Congress on … Continue reading

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Bioethics Meets Families in The Netherlands this Summer
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EDITOR’S NOTE: IJFAB Blog is pleased to have Jamie L. Nelson, of IJFAB’s editorial team and Michigan State University, join us as a regular contributor. Her work has been linked from the blog previously in this entry on Bathrooms, Binaries, … Continue reading

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Just Caring for Caregivers in the U.S. Workplace… For Some Workers
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On September 8, 2016, Deloitte LLP announced it would grant 16 weeks of paid leave to employees who provide family caregiving not only to new children, but to older children, parents, and spouses.  This is an enormous improvement in the U.S. … Continue reading

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