Heroin addiction, ethics and philosophy of medicine.

Philosophy , Ethics , and Humanities in Medicine

The 2014 Varsity Medical Ethics debate convened upon the motion: “This house believes that genetic information should not be commoditised”. This annual debate between students from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, now in its sixth year, provided the starting point for arguments on the subject. The present article brings together and extends many of the arguments put forward during the ...

Ethics, philosophy, and evidence based medicine.

T his symposium is devoted to evidence based medicine (EBM) and the ethical issues it raises. Since Sir Archie Cochrane’s seminal Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust lectures in 1972 and their publication as the Rock Carling monograph for that year, Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services, the idea that medical interventions and health services should be evaluated an...

Heroin addiction and pregnancy.

Pregnant heroin addicts tend to be younger than nonaddicted pregnant patients, unmarried or separated from spouses, and a disproportionately large number are members of minority ethnic groups. Heroin addiction during pregnancy is associated with several significant medical and obstetrical complications and may result in both acute and chronic abnormalities in neonates. Malnutrition, venereal di...

Genetic signatures of heroin addiction

Heroin addiction is a complex psychiatric disorder with a chronic course and a high relapse rate, which results from the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Heroin addiction has a substantial heritability in its etiology; hence, identification of individuals with a high genetic propensity to heroin addiction may help prevent the occurrence and relapse of heroin addiction and ...

Morbid and mortal effects of heroin addiction.