Take Two of These and See Me in the Morning (Although I Might Have a Hangover)

An interesting question was addressed in Journal of Medical Ethics by James Peterman, "Is it ethical for physicians to drink while they are on call?" Peterman says no. But others aren't quite the teetotalers. Bill Glasson, the president of the Australian Medical Association: '[I]f you go home and have a glass of wine with your spouse, that's OK.' " [Link] - Dominic Sisti

Four Parents, Sort of

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has found one of those "lots of people in the mix" IVF cases, in this case fairly garden variety 90s courtroom drama about who gets or is responsible for les enfant. Pennsylvania, though, has had some pretty interesting cases in which the typical "I agree not to ask for the child to whom I am contributing DNA or a womb" agreements are nullified. In addition, Pennsylvania had an extraordinary case in the 1990s involving a man who killed an infant whom he had made with the assistance of a surrogacy shop in Indiana. The man in that case had not been in any way screened to determine whether he might, as he evidently would have, posed a risk to a child. That case sparked a fight in middle Pennsylvania over whether surrogacy should be made illegal. It makes for an interesting set of problems that culminate in the new Erie case.

Whose Fault is SARS?

The Scientist reports that Hong Kong is preparing for a major judicial panel review of the responsibility for what appear to be instances of mismanagement or mistreatment.