Wed Feb 6, 2010
Arthur Caplan
A dozen years ago, a British physician named Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a paper in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet that did immeasurable harm to children.
Monday, December 28th, 2009
Arthur Caplan
As 2009 ends, mundane threats have replaced high-tech worries.
Analysis of a dozen published studies testing possible new uses for a Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company documents showed.
Monday, April 20th, 2009
By: Kerry Grens
A new drug to treat overactive bladder hit pharmacy shelves this month. The pill is similar to others on the market - for folks who need the bathroom often and sometimes have accidents. Pharmaceutical companies say the condition is widespread and under-treated. Critics say it’s just another case of drug company disease mongering. More from WHYY in Philadelphia
President Obama ends ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research
PODCAST: Bioethicist, Arthur Caplan, discusses the health care challenges facing the Obama administration. A professor of Bioethics at The University of Pennsylvania, Caplan was recently named one of the ten most influential people in science by Discover Magazine.
"No surgeon can say that giving breast implants to a 17-, 18-year-old for beauty reasons is ethical," Caplan said. "It's terrible that these pageants are turning into plastic-surgery competitions and are no longer about real beauty."
Students Learn How, Not What, to Think About Difficult Issues
"A new project at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) will help teachers tackle topics in neuroethics, such as potential forensic and military uses of brain-imaging technology and the care of patients in a persistent vegetative state (see hsneuroethics.org/). Funded by the Dana Foundation and led by bioethics graduate student Dominic Sisti, the program will supplement a high school bioethics project begun several years ago by Penn bioethicist Arthur Caplan. The group is developing a neuroethics primer and will run workshops for local teachers." - Science October 10, 2008
Using Biomedicine to Enhance Ourselves
Arthur Caplan discusses "Is it Immoral to Want to Live Longer, Be Smarter and Look Better? The Ethics of Using Biomedicine to Enhance Ourselves and Our Children" as a part of The Ethical Frontiers of Science during the 2008 Chautauqua Institution morning lecture series. July 14, 2008, The Chautauqua Institution
President Obama is carrying out his campaign promise to permit federal funds to be used for embryonic stem cell research. This reversal of former President George W. Bush's ban on such funding is good news for the science needed to find treatments for currently incurable conditions and for the ethics at stake in the issue.