Critically ill patients frequently have uncertain prognoses, but their families overwhelmingly wish that physicians would address prognostic uncertainty candidly, according to a new study out of the University of San Francisco Medical Center.

The health conscience protection rule that was signed Thursday by the Bush administration has steered a national debate on medical ethics. Some say it ignores treatment to needy, others say doctors should have the right to follow their ethics and conscience when providing treatment.

Early stage gene therapy clinical trials are recruiting patients from the developing world, providing medically deprived populations access to interventions that show promise but have largely unknown effects in humans.

A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators.

Today's issue of eMaxHealth has an interesting story that an Oregon man has become pregnant and is already 22 weeks ahead in Pregnancy. The man's name is Thomas Beatie who lives with his wife Nancy in Oregon. While the issue of male pregnancy is very intriguing it's also very controversial since a man becoming pregnant is very unique event in the history of human existence.

In a commentary and two editorials published in the September 2007 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, three anesthesiologists and a medical ethicist discussed whether doctors should participate in capital punishment executions.

A significant number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds can be persuaded to take part in research studies, according to a report published in the online open access journal, BMC Public Health.

Should doctors be involved in the state-ordered administration of capital punishment? In the September issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, three anesthesiologists and a medical ethicist take an in-depth look at this question in a commentary and two editorials.

Medical research scientists in public health and other areas routinely make ethical value judgments, even if they're not aware of it, according to a new Weill Cornell Medical College research study. And not only do these judgments not lead to bias necessarily, but they can make for better research.