Archive by category | Ethics

Minister halts Italian stem-cell therapy trial

The clinical trial of a controversial stem-cell therapy supported by the Italian government has been stopped before recruiting any patients – to the relief of scientists who have been fighting the trial for months.  Read more

Taiwan court set to decide on libel case against scientist

Taiwan court set to decide on libel case against scientist

A Taiwanese court will rule on 4 September in a libel lawsuit filed by a petrochemical company against an environmental engineer whose studies had suggested that a plant operated by the company was causing higher cancer rates in its vicinity.  Read more

Differences on display on US informed-consent rules

Was it enough for doctors to tell the parents of extremely premature infants that there was “no additional risk” to their babies if they enrolled them in a randomized trial?  One treatment group, in which the preemies were maintained with higher blood oxygen, risked eye damage.  The other kept the babies at lower oxygen levels, risking brain damage and perhaps death.  Both were within the range of care that the babies would have received anyway.  Read more

Japan investigations allege misconduct in large-scale clinical studies

The credibility of Japan’s clinical research system has come under fire as investigations report manipulation of data and conflict of interest involving the pharmaceutical company Novartis. Six published papers have been retracted, but Novartis has denied any wrongdoing. The country’s health minister has now started its own investigation, which is due to release its findings at the end of September.  Read more

Academies expose plight of jailed Turkish scientists

A human rights mission to Turkey to investigate the cases of eight scientists, engineers and medical doctors detained under vague but broad-ranging crimes like ‘attempting to overthrow the government’ has concluded that prosecutors have not provided convincing evidence of their guilt and called for all eight to be released.  Read more

Conviction upheld for Turkish scientist opposing headscarves

A Turkish astrophysicist faces two years of jail for forbidding access to a university building to a student wearing a headscarf. On Thursday, Ankara’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s verdict against Esat Rennan Pekünlü, an astronomer at Ege University in Izmir.  Read more