Medical-Ethics Stories Make Headlines in Britain, Canada, and U.S.
Apr 14th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsControversy surrounds a deathbed wish to donate organs to a relative; a couple seeks to give birth to a “savior sibling” to provide transplant cells; and discipline is handed down in medical-records snooping — but doctors escape harshest punishments
VARIOUS DATELINES
Several stories last week highlighted dilemmas resulting from the technological advances in transplantation, in-vitro fertilization, and computerized medical records. The stories included:
- A British woman in need of a kidney transplant was denied a last-wish donation by her dying daughter because rules forbid people from willing their organs to select recipients upon their death. The Times of London reports that the woman’s daughter, who died of respiratory difficulties, informally had promised her mother she could have the organs. Current regulations dictate that the kidneys of the daughter, who was a registered organ donor, would be dispersed through normal channels to those with the greatest clinical need and who provide the best tissue match. The kidneys were given to strangers and the mother remains on the waiting list for a new kidney, according to the Times report. But the board governing organ transplants says it will consider changing the rules in the future to allow bequeathing of body parts in “exceptional circumstances.”
- A couple from British Columbia will travel to a Chicago hospital to attempt in-vitro fertilization in order to give birth to a “savior sibling” — a child who can provide donor stem cells that may save the life of the couple’s seriously ill son. The Vancouver Sun reports that doctors at Children’s and Women’s Hospital in British Columbia would not go along with the plan because of concerns, in the words of the Sun’s report, “about creating — and exploiting — a life to potentially save another.” The ill child may be able to beat his cancer with a bone-marrow transplant, but there are no family matches and an international registry of potential donors has turned up no matches in two years. A transplant from cells in a newborn’s umbilical cord could produce a similar benefit to a bone marrow transplant, although the parents have been informed that the success is not guaranteed, according to the Sun.
- Thirteen hospital employees — none of them physicians — who snooped into the medical records of pop star Britney Spears when she was treated for a psychiatric disorder have been fired, according to a report from the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, California. Eight doctors who improperly accessed the medical records suffered a milder punishment, with three being suspended and five reprimanded. A hospital spokeswoman could offer no explanation for the discrepancy, reports the Press-Enterprise. Disciplinary authorities say inadequate safeguards on the computer system, as well as old-fashioned voyeurism, were at the root of the problem.
Sources: Times of London, Apr. 12 — Vancouver Sun, Apr. 12 — Riverside Press-Enterprise, Mar. 12.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 7 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 17 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 28 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 14 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 9, 2007.
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