Ethical Issues in the Prenatal Diagnosis of Phenylketonuria

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-427
Author(s):  
Neil A. Holtzman

Clinicians often view ethical dilemmas in terms of individual patients: would couple X, who have a normal 2-year-old child with phenylketonuria (PKU) (due to early treatment), want prenatal diagnosis with subsequent pregnancies? Eventually, the question will be posed on that level, but not yet. At this stage, we are still dealing with a new, unproven technology; a more generic analysis is needed. We must consider whether the technology is ready to be disseminated, and if so, how. Until recently these questions were seldom asked. As a result, modern medicine is replete with examples of technologies—drugs, surgical operations, laboratory tests—whose lack of effectiveness became evident, sometimes at great cost, only after they became part of routine medical practice.1 Lack of "effectiveness" of prenatal diagnosis for PKU could mean the abortion of fetuses unaffected with the disorder, and the unwanted birth of affected infants. The technology introduces a new ethical issue as well: the appropriateness of abortion for treatable conditions. Three issues should be addressed before new technologies are disseminated: validation, acceptance, and proliferation. I will use prenatal diagnosis for PKU to illustrate them. Several items to be discussed under "acceptance" also apply at the personal level. I pose them because they are important in deciding if and how the new technology should be made available, which is a matter of public policy. Lest one think these decisions have all been made for prenatal diagnosis for PKU, consider the following: (1) Research funding must continue to discover other restriction endonuclease sites, develop better probes, and simplify the techniques.

Author(s):  
Michał Chojnacki ◽  
Anita Wójcik

Modern medicine has never before experienced such a rapid development of what is observed at the turn of the century. New opportunities bring new challenges that both - medical staff and patients - will have to face. The paper examines the role and safety issues new medical technologies in the light of respect for patients' rights and ethical dilemmas. For a better delineation of the phenomenon, presented the key moments of the origins and development of medical innovation. Based on observations and the current direction of the health sector were presented significant areas where abuse can occur at the level of ethical issues. Discussions have been subjected to actions considered modern medicine, in the light of security and respect for the patients' rights.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1346-1371
Author(s):  
Michał Chojnacki ◽  
Anita Wójcik

Modern medicine has never before experienced such a rapid development of what is observed at the turn of the century. New opportunities bring new challenges that both - medical staff and patients - will have to face. The paper examines the role and safety issues new medical technologies in the light of respect for patients' rights and ethical dilemmas. For a better delineation of the phenomenon, presented the key moments of the origins and development of medical innovation. Based on observations and the current direction of the health sector were presented significant areas where abuse can occur at the level of ethical issues. Discussions have been subjected to actions considered modern medicine, in the light of security and respect for the patients' rights.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5-6
Author(s):  
Horst D. Simon

Recent events in the high-performance computing industry have concerned scientists and the general public regarding a crisis or a lack of leadership in the field. That concern is understandable considering the industry's history from 1993 to 1996. Cray Research, the historic leader in supercomputing technology, was unable to survive financially as an independent company and was acquired by Silicon Graphics. Two ambitious new companies that introduced new technologies in the late 1980s and early 1990s—Thinking Machines and Kendall Square Research—were commercial failures and went out of business. And Intel, which introduced its Paragon supercomputer in 1994, discontinued production only two years later.During the same time frame, scientists who had finished the laborious task of writing scientific codes to run on vector parallel supercomputers learned that those codes would have to be rewritten if they were to run on the next-generation, highly parallel architecture. Scientists who are not yet involved in high-performance computing are understandably hesitant about committing their time and energy to such an apparently unstable enterprise.However, beneath the commercial chaos of the last several years, a technological revolution has been occurring. The good news is that the revolution is over, leading to five to ten years of predictable stability, steady improvements in system performance, and increased productivity for scientific applications. It is time for scientists who were sitting on the fence to jump in and reap the benefits of the new technology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-58
Author(s):  
Orietta Da Rold

Abstract In this essay, I offer a brief history of manuscript cataloguing and some observations on the innovations this practice introduced especially in the digital form. This history reveals that as the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts developed over time, so did the research needs it served. What was often considered traditional cataloguing practices had to be mediated to accommodate new scholarly advance, posing interesting questions, for example, on what new technologies can bring to this discussion. In the digital age, in particular, how do digital catalogues interact with their analogue counterparts? What skills and training are required of scholars interacting with this new technology? To this end, I will consider the importance of the digital environment to enable a more flexible approach to cataloguing. I will also discuss new insights into digital projects, especially the experience accrued by the The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220 Project, and then propose that in the future cataloguing should be adaptable and shareable, and make full use of the different approaches to manuscripts generated by collaboration between scholars and librarians or the work of postgraduate students and early career researchers.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3147
Author(s):  
Kiyoung Kim ◽  
Namdoo Kim ◽  
Jongryeol Jeong ◽  
Sunghwan Min ◽  
Horim Yang ◽  
...  

Many leading companies in the automotive industry have been putting tremendous effort into developing new powertrains and technologies to make their products more energy efficient. Evaluating the fuel economy benefit of a new technology in specific powertrain systems is straightforward; and, in an early concept phase, obtaining a projection of energy efficiency benefits from new technologies is extremely useful. However, when carmakers consider new technology or powertrain configurations, they must deal with a trade-off problem involving factors such as energy efficiency and performance, because of the complexities of sizing a vehicle’s powertrain components, which directly affect its energy efficiency and dynamic performance. As powertrains of modern vehicles become more complicated, even more effort is required to design the size of each component. This study presents a component-sizing process based on the forward-looking vehicle simulator “Autonomie” and the optimization algorithm “POUNDERS”; the supervisory control strategy based on Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle (PMP) assures sufficient computational system efficiency. We tested the process by applying it to a single power-split hybrid electric vehicle to determine optimal values of gear ratios and each component size, where we defined the optimization problem as minimizing energy consumption when the vehicle’s dynamic performance is given as a performance constraint. The suggested sizing process will be helpful in determining optimal component sizes for vehicle powertrain to maximize fuel efficiency while dynamic performance is satisfied. Indeed, this process does not require the engineer’s intuition or rules based on heuristics required in the rule-based process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen V. Milner ◽  
Sondre Ulvund Solstad

ABSTRACTDo world politics affect the adoption of new technology? States overwhelmingly rely on technology invented abroad, and their differential intensity of technology use accounts for many of their differences in economic development. Much of the literature on technology adoption focuses on domestic conditions. The authors argue instead that the structure of the international system is critical because it affects the level of competition among states, which in turn affects leaders’ willingness to enact policies that speed technology adoption. Countries adopt new technology as they seek to avoid being vulnerable to attack or coercion by other countries. By systematically examining states’ adoption of technology over the past two hundred years, the authors find that countries adopt new technologies faster when the international system is less concentrated, that changes in systemic concentration have a temporally causal effect on technology adoption, and that government policies to promote technology adoption are related to concerns about rising international competition. A competitive international system is an important incentive for technological change and may underlie global technology waves.


1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-6
Author(s):  
Patrick Commins ◽  
James V. Higgins

This article examines possible future developments with particular references to the role of new technology and the implications for Europe's agricultural producers. The main proposition is that the maintenance of commercial viability will oblige producers to adopt innovations and new practices, but the most successful will be farmers with the greater economic resources and superior managerial abilities. The outcome will be increasing socio-economic differentiation within the EEC population of agricultural producers and an increasing proportion of farm output coming from the top 20 per cent of farmers in the Community.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S39-S39
Author(s):  
S. Galderisi ◽  
F. Caputo

IntroductionMobile health (m-health) technology has been growing rapidly in the last decades. The use of this technology represents an advantage, especially for reaching patients who otherwise would have no access to healthcare. However, many ethical issues arise from the use of m-health. Health equity, privacy policies, adequate informed consent and a competent, safe and high quality healthcare need to be guaranteed; professional standards and quality of doctor-patient relationship in the digital setting should not be lower than those set for in-person practice.AimsTo assess advantages and threats that may arise from the wide use of m-health technologies, in order to guarantee the application of the best medical practices, resulting in the highest quality healthcare.MethodsA literature search has been conducted to highlight the most pressing ethical issues emerging from the spreading of m-health technologies.ResultsFew ethical guidelines on the appropriate use of m-health have been developed to help clinicians adopt a professional conduct within digital settings. They focus on the need for professional associations to define ethical guidelines and for physicians to take care of their education and online behavior when using m-health technologies.ConclusionsThe rapid spreading of m-health technologies urges us to evaluate all ethical issues related to its use. It would be advisable to produce an ethical code for the use of these new technologies, to guarantee health equity, privacy protection, high quality doctor-patient relationships and to ensure that m-health is not chosen over traditional care for merely economic purposes.Disclosure of interestSG received honoraria or Advisory board/consulting fees from the following companies: Lundbeck, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Hoffman-La Roche, Angelini-Acraf, Otsuka, Pierre Fabre and Gedeon-Richter. All other authors have declared.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumiko Hayashi ◽  
Elizabeth Klee

Consumers pay for hundreds of goods and services each year, but across households and across goods, consumers do not choose to pay the same way. This paper posits that payment choices depend in part on consumers' propensity to adopt new technologies and in part on the nature of the transaction. To test this hypothesis, this paper analyzes consumer's payment instrument use at the point of sale and for bill payment. The sample includes consumers surveyed in 2001, who are primarily users of the Internet. The results indicate that consumers who use new technology or computers are more likely to use electronic forms of payment, such as debit cards and electronic bill payments. Particularly, the use of direct deposit is a significant predictor of electronic payment use. Furthermore, the results indicate that payment choice depends on the characteristics of the transaction, such as the transaction value, the physical characteristics of the point of sale, and a bill's frequency and value variability.


1984 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-213
Author(s):  
G. J Fairbairn

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