Categories
Bioethics Medicine

A case more disturbing than Terry Schiavo

A little more than a year ago, the entire nation was captivated by the case of Terri Schiavo. As you may remember, Ms. Schiavo was an unfortunate woman who lapsed into a persistent vegetative state after suffering anoxic brain damage after a cardiac arrest. Her husband insisted that she had stated that she never wanted […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine

Cure for cancer worth $50 trillion

Here’s an interesting tidbit that I came across: A new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, calculates the prospective gains that could be obtained from further progress against major diseases. Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel, two University of Chicago researchers, estimate that even modest advancements […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine

Reader mail: Can viruses cause tumor shrinkage?

I just have time for a short take today. (If you need more, fortunately, Bora has posted the 33rd Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle for your edification. Yes, my preamble was just an excuse to plug the Skeptics’ Circle one more time.) In the comments of yesterday’s post about a medical student who is a […]

Categories
Medicine

The 33rd Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle

The 33rd Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle has been posted at Science and Politics. Bora has kindly provided an abstract: Complaints like “hurts my brain” and “blows my mind” as a result of exposure to incredible stories have recently been definitively tied to the neuronal cell death (apoptosis). Furthermore, the notion of the usefullness of […]

Categories
Medicine

Tangled Bank

The latest Tangled Bank is up at The Inoculated Mind, this time with a nifty Star Wars theme! Orac “Skywalker,” Jedi Knight? I like it. I like the reference to “Darth Voxer” (a reference to Vox Day and his antivaccination idiocy) even more…