The paper outlines the universal problem of ensuring ethical practices in human subject research, and focuses on specific difficulties faced in the developing world with particular reference to Pakistan. It discusses the influence of traditional and hierarchical social norms of physician-patient relationships in heightening these problems. Two emerging issues of specific concern in Pakistan are...

Since the term was coined about 40 years ago, fetal alcohol syndrome has slowly become recognized as a public health issue. Alicestine October reports from South Africa's Western Cape province, which has the highest reported rate in the world.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are generated by ectopic expression of defined transcription factors in somatic cells. They can undergo unlimited self-renewal and maintain the embryonic stem cells (ESCs)-like ability to differentiate into all three germ layers. iPSCs can potentially provide unlimited autologous cells for therapy and therefore hold great promise for regenerative medicine....

i a c s t r l o s d n K etamine and related drugs are arguably one of the most exciting developments in antidepressant pharmacology in more than half a century and are a potentially new mechaism capable of mediating antidepressant action. That mechanism s the antagonism of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor NR) and possibly one or more subtypes of that receptor. By blockng NMDA receptors,...

The great therapeutic potential of human embryonic stem (ES) cells (see Box) and the thorny ethical issues surrounding their use have prompted many governments to revisit existing regulations on embryo research (see Table on next page). Just in recent weeks, the Canadian government proposed regulatory guidelines that would allow the derivation and use of ES cells from human embryos but, unlike ...