Ethics Newsline®

In Canada, there’s controversy over sites where addicts can inject drugs under medical supervision; Indian hospital probes deaths of infants in drug trials; doctors debate ethics of speeding up the harvesting of babies’ organs for transplants

VARIOUS DATELINES
Medical controversies across the globe sparked headlines last week. Among the top stories:

• Canada’s health minister has stirred up a controversy after criticizing the ethics of doctors who support a safe-injection facility for addicts. The Canadian Press reports that Tony Clement said that a safe-injection site in Vancouver has created a moral “slippery slope.” Clement told a meeting of the Canadian Medical Association: “Already there are advocates saying that injection sites are not enough, that government should hand out heroin for free…. Others are now calling for inhalation rooms for people who smoke their drugs. While I support various aspects of harm reduction, I believe that we have to draw the line somewhere with regard to these kinds of measures. Is it ethical for health-care professionals to support the administration of drugs that are of unknown substance or purity or potency, drugs that cannot otherwise be legally prescribed?” The Canadian Medical Association’s president countered that allowing addicts to inject their own narcotics under the supervision of medical staff has been successful in reducing drug use and preventing the spread of disease, according to the Canadian Press report.
• India’s most prestigious medical facility is investigating the deaths of 39 babies in clinical trials, reports the Agence France-Presse. The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences has been in the spotlight after it was disclosed that the deaths occurred during clinical trials that an activist group says were associated with foreign drug companies. According to the AFP, India has become a popular venue for clinical research because of its enormous population and low costs. But the fact that many who participate in the trials are poor and have few other treatment options poses ethics questions about the human testing of new drugs there, reports the AFP. A spokesman for the hospital says that all of the infants who died were in the control groups and not among those receiving experimental medical intervention.
• A new approach to infant heart transplants — in which organs are removed from babies before they are declared brain dead — has sparked an ethics debate among physicians, reports ABC News. Reporter Joseph Brownstein writes: “Some say the approach saves lives by providing more viable organs to babies who have a chance at survival. But others say the practice devalues one life to try and save another.” The new protocol, known as “transplantation after declaration of cardiocirculatory death,” allows organs to be removed about 90 seconds after the heart stops beating.

Sources: AFP, Aug. 22 — ABC News, Aug. 21 — Canadian Press, Aug. 20.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, July 28 — Related Newsline story, June 30 — Related Newsline story, June 23 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 5, 2006 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 20, 2006.