Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, February 8, 2018

"Roadmap to end aging" transcript, slightly more legible




18 minutes is an absolutely brutal time limit,
00:27
so I'm going to dive straight in, right at the point
00:29
where I get this thing to work.
00:31
Here we go. I'm going to talk about five different things.
00:33
I'm going to talk about why defeating aging is desirable.
00:36
I'm going to talk about why we have to get our shit together,
00:38
and actually talk about this a bit more than we do.
00:40
I'm going to talk about feasibility as well, of course.
00:42
I'm going to talk about why we are so fatalistic
00:44
about doing anything about aging.
00:46
And then I'm going spend perhaps the second half of the talk
00:48
talking about, you know, how we might actually be able to prove that fatalism is wrong,
00:53
namely, by actually doing something about it.
00:55
I'm going to do that in two steps.
00:57
The first one I'm going to talk about is
00:59
how to get from a relatively modest amount of life extension --
01:02
which I'm going to define as 30 years, applied to people
01:05
who are already in middle-age when you start --
01:07
to a point which can genuinely be called defeating aging.
01:10
Namely, essentially an elimination of the relationship between
01:14
how old you are and how likely you are to die in the next year --
01:16
or indeed, to get sick in the first place.
01:18
And of course, the last thing I'm going to talk about
01:20
is how to reach that intermediate step,
01:22
that point of maybe 30 years life extension.
01:25
So I'm going to start with why we should.
01:28
Now, I want to ask a question.
01:30
Hands up: anyone in the audience who is in favor of malaria?
01:33
That was easy. OK.
01:34
OK. Hands up: anyone in the audience
01:36
who's not sure whether malaria is a good thing or a bad thing?
01:39
OK. So we all think malaria is a bad thing.
01:41
That's very good news, because I thought that was what the answer would be.
01:43
Now the thing is, I would like to put it to you
01:45
that the main reason why we think that malaria is a bad thing
01:48
is because of a characteristic of malaria that it shares with aging.
01:52
And here is that characteristic.
01:55
The only real difference is that aging kills considerably more people than malaria does.
02:00
Now, I like in an audience, in Britain especially,
02:02
to talk about the comparison with foxhunting,
02:04
which is something that was banned after a long struggle,
02:07
by the government not very many months ago.
02:10
I mean, I know I'm with a sympathetic audience here,
02:12
but, as we know, a lot of people are not entirely persuaded by this logic.
02:15
And this is actually a rather good comparison, it seems to me.
02:18
You know, a lot of people said, "Well, you know,
02:20
city boys have no business telling us rural types what to do with our time.
02:25
It's a traditional part of the way of life,
02:27
and we should be allowed to carry on doing it.
02:29
It's ecologically sound; it stops the population explosion of foxes."
02:32
But ultimately, the government prevailed in the end,
02:34
because the majority of the British public,
02:35
and certainly the majority of members of Parliament,
02:37
came to the conclusion that it was really something
02:39
that should not be tolerated in a civilized society.
02:41
And I think that human aging shares
02:42
all of these characteristics in spades.
02:45
What part of this do people not understand?
02:47
It's not just about life, of course --
02:49
(Laughter) --
02:50
it's about healthy life, you know --
02:53
getting frail and miserable and dependent is no fun,
02:56
whether or not dying may be fun.
02:58
So really, this is how I would like to describe it.
03:00
It's a global trance.
03:02
These are the sorts of unbelievable excuses
03:04
that people give for aging.
03:06
And, I mean, OK, I'm not actually saying
03:08
that these excuses are completely valueless.
03:10
There are some good points to be made here,
03:12
things that we ought to be thinking about, forward planning
03:15
so that nothing goes too -- well, so that we minimize
03:17
the turbulence when we actually figure out how to fix aging.
03:20
But these are completely crazy, when you actually
03:23
remember your sense of proportion.
03:25
You know, these are arguments; these are things that
03:29
would be legitimate to be concerned about.
03:31
But the question is, are they so dangerous --
03:34
these risks of doing something about aging --
03:36
that they outweigh the downside of doing the opposite,
03:40
namely, leaving aging as it is?
03:42
Are these so bad that they outweigh
03:44
condemning 100,000 people a day to an unnecessarily early death?
03:50
You know, if you haven't got an argument that's that strong,
03:52
then just don't waste my time, is what I say.
03:55
(Laughter)
03:56
Now, there is one argument
03:57
that some people do think really is that strong, and here it is.
03:59
People worry about overpopulation; they say,
04:01
"Well, if we fix aging, no one's going to die to speak of,
04:03
or at least the death toll is going to be much lower,
04:06
only from crossing St. Giles carelessly.
04:08
And therefore, we're not going to be able to have many kids,
04:10
and kids are really important to most people."
04:12
And that's true.
04:14
And you know, a lot of people try to fudge this question,
04:17
and give answers like this.
04:18
I don't agree with those answers. I think they basically don't work.
04:21
I think it's true, that we will face a dilemma in this respect.
04:24
We will have to decide whether to have a low birth rate,
04:28
or a high death rate.
04:30
A high death rate will, of course, arise from simply rejecting these therapies,
04:33
in favor of carrying on having a lot of kids.
04:37
And, I say that that's fine --
04:39
the future of humanity is entitled to make that choice.
04:42
What's not fine is for us to make that choice on behalf of the future.
04:46
If we vacillate, hesitate,
04:48
and do not actually develop these therapies,
04:51
then we are condemning a whole cohort of people --
04:55
who would have been young enough and healthy enough
04:57
to benefit from those therapies, but will not be,
04:59
because we haven't developed them as quickly as we could --
05:01
we'll be denying those people an indefinite life span,
05:03
and I consider that that is immoral.
05:05
That's my answer to the overpopulation question.
05:08
Right. So the next thing is,
05:10
now why should we get a little bit more active on this?
05:12
And the fundamental answer is that
05:14
the pro-aging trance is not as dumb as it looks.
05:17
It's actually a sensible way of coping with the inevitability of aging.
05:21
Aging is ghastly, but it's inevitable, so, you know,
05:25
we've got to find some way to put it out of our minds,
05:27
and it's rational to do anything that we might want to do, to do that.
05:31
Like, for example, making up these ridiculous reasons
05:34
why aging is actually a good thing after all.
05:36
But of course, that only works when we have both of these components.
05:40
And as soon as the inevitability bit becomes a little bit unclear --
05:43
and we might be in range of doing something about aging --
05:45
this becomes part of the problem.
05:47
This pro-aging trance is what stops us from agitating about these things.
05:51
And that's why we have to really talk about this a lot --
05:55
evangelize, I will go so far as to say, quite a lot --
05:57
in order to get people's attention, and make people realize
06:00
that they are in a trance in this regard.
06:02
So that's all I'm going to say about that.
06:04
I'm now going to talk about feasibility.
06:07
And the fundamental reason, I think, why we feel that aging is inevitable
06:11
is summed up in a definition of aging that I'm giving here.
06:14
A very simple definition.
06:15
Aging is a side effect of being alive in the first place,
06:18
which is to say, metabolism.
06:20
This is not a completely tautological statement;
06:23
it's a reasonable statement.
06:24
Aging is basically a process that happens to inanimate objects like cars,
06:28
and it also happens to us,
06:30
despite the fact that we have a lot of clever self-repair mechanisms,
06:33
because those self-repair mechanisms are not perfect.
06:35
So basically, metabolism, which is defined as
06:37
basically everything that keeps us alive from one day to the next,
06:40
has side effects.
06:42
Those side effects accumulate and eventually cause pathology.
06:44
That's a fine definition. So we can put it this way:
06:46
we can say that, you know, we have this chain of events.
06:48
And there are really two games in town,
06:50
according to most people, with regard to postponing aging.
06:53
They're what I'm calling here the "gerontology approach" and the "geriatrics approach."
06:57
The geriatrician will intervene late in the day,
06:59
when pathology is becoming evident,
07:01
and the geriatrician will try and hold back the sands of time,
07:04
and stop the accumulation of side effects
07:07
from causing the pathology quite so soon.
07:09
Of course, it's a very short-term-ist strategy; it's a losing battle,
07:12
because the things that are causing the pathology
07:15
are becoming more abundant as time goes on.
07:17
The gerontology approach looks much more promising on the surface,
07:21
because, you know, prevention is better than cure.
07:24
But unfortunately the thing is that we don't understand metabolism very well.
07:27
In fact, we have a pitifully poor understanding of how organisms work --
07:30
even cells we're not really too good on yet.
07:32
We've discovered things like, for example,
07:34
RNA interference only a few years ago,
07:37
and this is a really fundamental component of how cells work.
07:39
Basically, gerontology is a fine approach in the end,
07:42
but it is not an approach whose time has come
07:44
when we're talking about intervention.
07:46
So then, what do we do about that?
07:49
I mean, that's a fine logic, that sounds pretty convincing,
07:51
pretty ironclad, doesn't it?
07:53
But it isn't.
07:55
Before I tell you why it isn't, I'm going to go a little bit
07:58
into what I'm calling step two.
08:00
Just suppose, as I said, that we do acquire --
08:04
let's say we do it today for the sake of argument --
08:06
the ability to confer 30 extra years of healthy life
08:10
on people who are already in middle age, let's say 55.
08:13
I'm going to call that "robust human rejuvenation." OK.
08:16
What would that actually mean
08:17
for how long people of various ages today --
08:20
or equivalently, of various ages at the time that these therapies arrive --
08:24
would actually live?
08:26
In order to answer that question -- you might think it's simple,
08:28
but it's not simple.
08:29
We can't just say, "Well, if they're young enough to benefit from these therapies,
08:32
then they'll live 30 years longer."
08:33
That's the wrong answer.
08:35
And the reason it's the wrong answer is because of progress.
08:37
There are two sorts of technological progress really,
08:39
for this purpose.
08:40
There are fundamental, major breakthroughs,
08:43
and there are incremental refinements of those breakthroughs.
08:47
Now, they differ a great deal
08:49
in terms of the predictability of time frames.
08:52
Fundamental breakthroughs:
08:53
very hard to predict how long it's going to take
08:55
to make a fundamental breakthrough.
08:56
It was a very long time ago that we decided that flying would be fun,
08:59
and it took us until 1903 to actually work out how to do it.
09:02
But after that, things were pretty steady and pretty uniform.
09:06
I think this is a reasonable sequence of events that happened
09:09
in the progression of the technology of powered flight.
09:13
We can think, really, that each one is sort of
09:17
beyond the imagination of the inventor of the previous one, if you like.
09:20
The incremental advances have added up to something
09:24
which is not incremental anymore.
09:26
This is the sort of thing you see after a fundamental breakthrough.
09:29
And you see it in all sorts of technologies.
09:31
Computers: you can look at a more or less parallel time line,
09:34
happening of course a bit later.
09:35
You can look at medical care. I mean, hygiene, vaccines, antibiotics --
09:38
you know, the same sort of time frame.
09:40
So I think that actually step two, that I called a step a moment ago,
09:44
isn't a step at all.
09:45
That in fact, the people who are young enough
09:48
to benefit from these first therapies
09:50
that give this moderate amount of life extension,
09:52
even though those people are already middle-aged when the therapies arrive,
09:56
will be at some sort of cusp.
09:58
They will mostly survive long enough to receive improved treatments
10:02
that will give them a further 30 or maybe 50 years.
10:04
In other words, they will be staying ahead of the game.
10:07
The therapies will be improving faster than
10:10
the remaining imperfections in the therapies are catching up with us.
10:14
This is a very important point for me to get across.
10:16
Because, you know, most people, when they hear
10:18
that I predict that a lot of people alive today are going to live to 1,000 or more,
10:23
they think that I'm saying that we're going to invent therapies in the next few decades
10:27
that are so thoroughly eliminating aging
10:30
that those therapies will let us live to 1,000 or more.
10:33
I'm not saying that at all.
10:35
I'm saying that the rate of improvement of those therapies
10:37
will be enough.
10:38
They'll never be perfect, but we'll be able to fix the things
10:41
that 200-year-olds die of, before we have any 200-year-olds.
10:44
And the same for 300 and 400 and so on.
10:46
I decided to give this a little name,
10:49
which is "longevity escape velocity."
10:51
(Laughter)
10:53
Well, it seems to get the point across.
10:56
So, these trajectories here are basically how we would expect people to live,
11:01
in terms of remaining life expectancy,
11:03
as measured by their health,
11:05
for given ages that they were at the time that these therapies arrive.
11:08
If you're already 100, or even if you're 80 --
11:10
and an average 80-year-old,
11:12
we probably can't do a lot for you with these therapies,
11:14
because you're too close to death's door
11:16
for the really initial, experimental therapies to be good enough for you.
11:20
You won't be able to withstand them.
11:21
But if you're only 50, then there's a chance
11:23
that you might be able to pull out of the dive and, you know --
11:26
(Laughter) --
11:27
eventually get through this
11:30
and start becoming biologically younger in a meaningful sense,
11:33
in terms of your youthfulness, both physical and mental,
11:35
and in terms of your risk of death from age-related causes.
11:37
And of course, if you're a bit younger than that,
11:39
then you're never really even going
11:41
to get near to being fragile enough to die of age-related causes.
11:44
So this is a genuine conclusion that I come to, that the first 150-year-old --
11:49
we don't know how old that person is today,
11:51
because we don't know how long it's going to take
11:53
to get these first-generation therapies.
11:55
But irrespective of that age,
11:57
I'm claiming that the first person to live to 1,000 --
12:01
subject of course, to, you know, global catastrophes --
12:04
is actually, probably, only about 10 years younger than the first 150-year-old.
12:08
And that's quite a thought.
12:10
Alright, so finally I'm going to spend the rest of the talk,
12:13
my last seven-and-a-half minutes, on step one;
12:16
namely, how do we actually get to this moderate amount of life extension
12:21
that will allow us to get to escape velocity?
12:24
And in order to do that, I need to talk about mice a little bit.
12:28
I have a corresponding milestone to robust human rejuvenation.
12:31
I'm calling it "robust mouse rejuvenation," not very imaginatively.
12:34
And this is what it is.
12:36
I say we're going to take a long-lived strain of mouse,
12:38
which basically means mice that live about three years on average.
12:41
We do exactly nothing to them until they're already two years old.
12:44
And then we do a whole bunch of stuff to them,
12:46
and with those therapies, we get them to live,
12:48
on average, to their fifth birthday.
12:50
So, in other words, we add two years --
12:52
we treble their remaining lifespan,
12:54
starting from the point that we started the therapies.
12:56
The question then is, what would that actually mean for the time frame
12:59
until we get to the milestone I talked about earlier for humans?
13:02
Which we can now, as I've explained,
13:04
equivalently call either robust human rejuvenation or longevity escape velocity.
13:08
Secondly, what does it mean for the public's perception
13:11
of how long it's going to take for us to get to those things,
13:13
starting from the time we get the mice?
13:15
And thirdly, the question is, what will it do
13:17
to actually how much people want it?
13:19
And it seems to me that the first question
13:21
is entirely a biology question,
13:22
and it's extremely hard to answer.
13:24
One has to be very speculative,
13:26
and many of my colleagues would say that we should not do this speculation,
13:29
that we should simply keep our counsel until we know more.
13:33
I say that's nonsense.
13:34
I say we absolutely are irresponsible if we stay silent on this.
13:37
We need to give our best guess as to the time frame,
13:40
in order to give people a sense of proportion
13:43
so that they can assess their priorities.
13:45
So, I say that we have a 50/50 chance
13:48
of reaching this RHR milestone,
13:50
robust human rejuvenation, within 15 years from the point
13:53
that we get to robust mouse rejuvenation.
13:55
15 years from the robust mouse.
13:58
The public's perception will probably be somewhat better than that.
14:01
The public tends to underestimate how difficult scientific things are.
14:03
So they'll probably think it's five years away.
14:05
They'll be wrong, but that actually won't matter too much.
14:07
And finally, of course, I think it's fair to say
14:10
that a large part of the reason why the public is so ambivalent about aging now
14:14
is the global trance I spoke about earlier, the coping strategy.
14:16
That will be history at this point,
14:18
because it will no longer be possible to believe that aging is inevitable in humans,
14:21
since it's been postponed so very effectively in mice.
14:24
So we're likely to end up with a very strong change in people's attitudes,
14:28
and of course that has enormous implications.
14:31
So in order to tell you now how we're going to get these mice,
14:34
I'm going to add a little bit to my description of aging.
14:36
I'm going to use this word "damage"
14:38
to denote these intermediate things that are caused by metabolism
14:42
and that eventually cause pathology.
14:44
Because the critical thing about this
14:46
is that even though the damage only eventually causes pathology,
14:48
the damage itself is caused ongoing-ly throughout life, starting before we're born.
14:53
But it is not part of metabolism itself.
14:56
And this turns out to be useful.
14:57
Because we can re-draw our original diagram this way.
15:00
We can say that, fundamentally, the difference between gerontology and geriatrics
15:03
is that gerontology tries to inhibit the rate
15:05
at which metabolism lays down this damage.
15:07
And I'm going to explain exactly what damage is
15:09
in concrete biological terms in a moment.
15:12
And geriatricians try to hold back the sands of time
15:14
by stopping the damage converting into pathology.
15:16
And the reason it's a losing battle
15:18
is because the damage is continuing to accumulate.
15:20
So there's a third approach, if we look at it this way.
15:23
We can call it the "engineering approach,"
15:25
and I claim that the engineering approach is within range.
15:28
The engineering approach does not intervene in any processes.
15:31
It does not intervene in this process or this one.
15:33
And that's good because it means that it's not a losing battle,
15:36
and it's something that we are within range of being able to do,
15:39
because it doesn't involve improving on evolution.
15:42
The engineering approach simply says,
15:44
"Let's go and periodically repair all of these various types of damage --
15:48
not necessarily repair them completely, but repair them quite a lot,
15:52
so that we keep the level of damage down below the threshold
15:55
that must exist, that causes it to be pathogenic."
15:58
We know that this threshold exists,
16:00
because we don't get age-related diseases until we're in middle age,
16:03
even though the damage has been accumulating since before we were born.
16:06
Why do I say that we're in range? Well, this is basically it.
16:10
The point about this slide is actually the bottom.
16:13
If we try to say which bits of metabolism are important for aging,
16:16
we will be here all night, because basically all of metabolism
16:19
is important for aging in one way or another.
16:21
This list is just for illustration; it is incomplete.
16:24
The list on the right is also incomplete.
16:26
It's a list of types of pathology that are age-related,
16:29
and it's just an incomplete list.
16:31
But I would like to claim to you that this list in the middle is actually complete --
16:34
this is the list of types of thing that qualify as damage,
16:37
side effects of metabolism that cause pathology in the end,
16:40
or that might cause pathology.
16:42
And there are only seven of them.
16:45
They're categories of things, of course, but there's only seven of them.
16:48
Cell loss, mutations in chromosomes, mutations in the mitochondria and so on.
16:53
First of all, I'd like to give you an argument for why that list is complete.
16:58
Of course one can make a biological argument.
17:00
One can say, "OK, what are we made of?"
17:02
We're made of cells and stuff between cells.
17:04
What can damage accumulate in?
17:07
The answer is: long-lived molecules,
17:09
because if a short-lived molecule undergoes damage, but then the molecule is destroyed --
17:12
like by a protein being destroyed by proteolysis -- then the damage is gone, too.
17:16
It's got to be long-lived molecules.
17:18
So, these seven things were all under discussion in gerontology a long time ago
17:21
and that is pretty good news, because it means that,
17:25
you know, we've come a long way in biology in these 20 years,
17:27
so the fact that we haven't extended this list
17:29
is a pretty good indication that there's no extension to be done.
17:33
However, it's better than that; we actually know how to fix them all,
17:35
in mice, in principle -- and what I mean by in principle is,
17:38
we probably can actually implement these fixes within a decade.
17:41
Some of them are partially implemented already, the ones at the top.
17:45
I haven't got time to go through them at all, but
17:48
my conclusion is that, if we can actually get suitable funding for this,
17:52
then we can probably develop robust mouse rejuvenation in only 10 years,
17:56
but we do need to get serious about it.
17:59
We do need to really start trying.
18:01
So of course, there are some biologists in the audience,
18:04
and I want to give some answers to some of the questions that you may have.
18:07
You may have been dissatisfied with this talk,
18:09
but fundamentally you have to go and read this stuff.
18:11
I've published a great deal on this;
18:13
I cite the experimental work on which my optimism is based,
18:16
and there's quite a lot of detail there.
18:18
The detail is what makes me confident
18:20
of my rather aggressive time frames that I'm predicting here.
18:22
So if you think that I'm wrong,
18:24
you'd better damn well go and find out why you think I'm wrong.
18:28
And of course the main thing is that you shouldn't trust people
18:31
who call themselves gerontologists because,
18:33
as with any radical departure from previous thinking within a particular field,
18:37
you know, you expect people in the mainstream to be a bit resistant
18:41
and not really to take it seriously.
18:43
So, you know, you've got to actually do your homework,
18:45
in order to understand whether this is true.
18:46
And we'll just end with a few things.
18:48
One thing is, you know, you'll be hearing from a guy in the next session
18:51
who said some time ago that he could sequence the human genome in half no time,
18:55
and everyone said, "Well, it's obviously impossible."
18:57
And you know what happened.
18:58
So, you know, this does happen.
19:02
We have various strategies -- there's the Methuselah Mouse Prize,
19:04
which is basically an incentive to innovate,
19:07
and to do what you think is going to work,
19:10
and you get money for it if you win.
19:13
There's a proposal to actually put together an institute.
19:16
This is what's going to take a bit of money.
19:18
But, I mean, look -- how long does it take to spend that on the war in Iraq?
19:21
Not very long. OK.
19:22
(Laughter)
19:23
It's got to be philanthropic, because profits distract biotech,
19:26
but it's basically got a 90 percent chance, I think, of succeeding in this.
19:30
And I think we know how to do it. And I'll stop there.
19:33
Thank you.
19:34
(Applause)
19:39
Chris Anderson: OK. I don't know if there's going to be any questions
19:42
but I thought I would give people the chance.
19:44
Audience: Since you've been talking about aging and trying to defeat it,
19:48
why is it that you make yourself appear like an old man?
19:52
(Laughter)
19:56
AG: Because I am an old man. I am actually 158.
19:59
(Laughter)
20:00
(Applause)
20:03
Audience: Species on this planet have evolved with immune systems
20:07
to fight off all the diseases so that individuals live long enough to procreate.
20:11
However, as far as I know, all the species have evolved to actually die,
20:16
so when cells divide, the telomerase get shorter, and eventually species die.
20:21
So, why does -- evolution has -- seems to have selected against immortality,
20:26
when it is so advantageous, or is evolution just incomplete?
20:30
AG: Brilliant. Thank you for asking a question
20:32
that I can answer with an uncontroversial answer.
20:34
I'm going to tell you the genuine mainstream answer to your question,
20:37
which I happen to agree with,
20:39
which is that, no, aging is not a product of selection, evolution;
20:42
[aging] is simply a product of evolutionary neglect.
20:45
In other words, we have aging because it's hard work not to have aging;
20:50
you need more genetic pathways, more sophistication in your genes
20:52
in order to age more slowly,
20:54
and that carries on being true the longer you push it out.
20:57
So, to the extent that evolution doesn't matter,
21:02
doesn't care whether genes are passed on by individuals,
21:04
living a long time or by procreation,
21:07
there's a certain amount of modulation of that,
21:09
which is why different species have different lifespans,
21:12
but that's why there are no immortal species.
21:15
CA: The genes don't care but we do?
21:17
AG: That's right.
21:19
Audience: Hello. I read somewhere that in the last 20 years,
21:24
the average lifespan of basically anyone on the planet has grown by 10 years.
21:29
If I project that, that would make me think
21:32
that I would live until 120 if I don't crash on my motorbike.
21:37
That means that I'm one of your subjects to become a 1,000-year-old?
21:42
AG: If you lose a bit of weight.
21:44
(Laughter)
21:47
Your numbers are a bit out.
21:50
The standard numbers are that lifespans
21:53
have been growing at between one and two years per decade.
21:56
So, it's not quite as good as you might think, you might hope.
22:00
But I intend to move it up to one year per year as soon as possible.
22:03
Audience: I was told that many of the brain cells we have as adults
22:06
are actually in the human embryo,
22:08
and that the brain cells last 80 years or so.
22:10
If that is indeed true,
22:12
biologically are there implications in the world of rejuvenation?
22:15
If there are cells in my body that live all 80 years,
22:18
as opposed to a typical, you know, couple of months?
22:20
AG: There are technical implications certainly.
22:22
Basically what we need to do is replace cells
22:26
in those few areas of the brain that lose cells at a respectable rate,
22:29
especially neurons, but we don't want to replace them
22:32
any faster than that -- or not much faster anyway,
22:34
because replacing them too fast would degrade cognitive function.
22:38
What I said about there being no non-aging species earlier on
22:41
was a little bit of an oversimplification.
22:43
There are species that have no aging -- Hydra for example --
22:47
but they do it by not having a nervous system --
22:49
and not having any tissues in fact that rely for their function
22:51
on very long-lived cells.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Report for Feb 8 | Kimberly Edwards, Kyle Jameson, Vincent Lehman

Hey everyone! We'll be giving our report on Dr. Aubrey de Grey. We chose to use one of his earliest TEDTalks instead of a book, so I've included a transcription of that presentation below. If you would prefer to read it in a language other than English, you can find alternative translations here. Just click on "Transcript" under the video, and it will give you the avaliable options. It's also avaliable (in English) for download straight from my Google Drive in the event that you'd prefer to have it saved electronically to consult during our discussion.

If you'd like to go straight to the video on YouTube instead of watching on this site, here's a direct link: "A Roadmap to End Aging".  

We've chosen to include our discussion questions in our PowerPoint to better faciliate conversation in the moment, but if anything in the video inspires you to share, please do so in the comment section and we'll bring it up during our presentation!

Please bring your cell phones with you to class!
Of course, most folks already do, but we will be doing polling via text message during our presentation, and would love for everyone to be able to participate!

We hope you enjoy our topic, and good luck on all of yours!


Kimberly, Kyle, and Vincent

==

Dr. Aubrey de Grey, "A Roadmap to End Aging"



==

English Transcript of "A Roadmap to End Aging"



==

Quiz
  1. What tiny organism allows for genes to be placed (or reverse transcribed rather) into the human genome: bacteria, viruses, archea, or "my friend bob?"
  2. T/F- Metabolic byproducts accumulate over time, eventually causing pathology.
  3. What is the study of Gerontology?
  4. T/F- The "robust mouse rejuvenation procedure" allows for mice typically living an average of 3 years to their 5th birthday. This therapy is adminstered at year two of the mice's life span (tripling their remaining life).
  5. What does "LEV" stand for?
  6. List one ethical concern that comes to your mind personally with regards to the extention of human life.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Reports

We'll sign up in class today for midterm group reports, in groups of 2 or 3. Indicate the topic & text you want to work on, if you have one in mind. If not, just put down your name. We'll take time during class for uncommitteds to get together and discuss topical possibilities. 

Reports will take the form of 15-minute presentations (or longer, if needed), plus discussion (be sure to give us at least a couple of discussion questions) and a quiz over your presentation (and over any material you'd like to assign for us to read in advance). Be relevant, interesting, and provocative. Have fun.

Groups, post 10+ pages of relevant text OR a link thereto, AND a 6+ question quiz on your report, at least a day prior to your designated reporting date; see "Step By Step Instructions to Embed a PDF On Blogger" below.


bonus run to the group that volunteers to go first, a week from today (Feb 8).
  • FEB 22 Kayla Bean, Ana Aponte-Berrios, Ilija Zecevic - euthanasia Thursday, Feb 22nd
  • MAR 1 Alex Knight, Kimberly Warren, Zach Nix- Origin by Dan Brown
  • FEB 20 Chelsea Able, Shay Linell - cryonics - no source yet    
  • MAR 15 Clorissa Campbell, Cameron Oldham, Joseph Churchill- Priorities of Biomedical Ethics by Childress
  • FEB 8 Vincent Lehman, Kimberly Edwards, and Kyle Jameson - Topic: Greatly extending human life.  Source: Finding Aging + a ted talks "A rodemap to end aging".
  • FEB 27 Iman Abdel Khalek, Selwa Kanakrieh, Yazan Musleh-  Topic: Cloning, No sources yet (feb24th)
  • MAR 13 Brittney Davis,Tariq McGruder Oryx and Crake
  • FEB 15 Jonathan Cannon, Logan Eley: Will editing your baby's genes be mandatory? Conor Friedersdorf The Atlantic 
  • MAR 20 Katelyne Tatum: book: Brave New World

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Wear Red Day

As we approach National Wear Red Day, we continue to feature some of our True Blue students who have been impacted by heart conditions.   This morning, we would like to introduce to you Lauren Davis, a current junior in the College of Media and Entertainment.  Lauren shared the following information about the impact of heart health on her life:

“I grew up in a very active household, my mom a marathon runner, my father a football star, my brother golf star, and I, a soccer player. However, things changed drastically for our family when my mom was diagnosed with a heart condition and had to undergo surgery. The major concern among everyone was the possibility of it being a genetic condition. I was tested at the age of 8, and at the time the doctors did not see anything wrong with my heart, but fast forward a few years later, things quickly changed.

I was having difficulty breathing and moments where I simply could not run. My family and I just thought that I could possibly have asthma, but when I went to the doctor, they said otherwise. I was diagnosed with an Atrial Septic Defect, which means that I had a hole in the upper chamber of the heart, and my heart was 2 times larger than it was supposed to be. At the age of 11, I had to undergo open heart surgery. During the surgery, they found I had a pulmonary vein going to the wrong side of my heart which added an extra 2 hours to the already 4-5 hour surgery.”

Come hear about Lauren’s recovery and what she wants other women to know at a brief program this Friday, February 2, at 10:00am in the Science Building Lobby.  Be sure to wear RED and take part in our campus photo opportunity.

A beverage reception will follow.

Thank you for your support of our programs!

Lisa Schrader, MPH, MCHES
Director of Health Promotion
Middle Tennessee State University
Phone: 615-494-8704


National Wear Red Day2

What does it mean to die?

When Jahi McMath was declared brain-dead by the hospital, her family disagreed. Her case challenges the very nature of existence.


Before having her tonsils removed, Jahi McMath, a thirteen-year-old African-American girl from Oakland, California, asked her doctor, Frederick Rosen, about his credentials. “How many times have you done this surgery?” Hundreds of times, Rosen said. “Did you get enough sleep last night?” He’d slept fine, he responded. Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, encouraged Jahi to keep asking questions. “It’s your body,” she said. “Feel free to ask that man whatever you want.”

Jahi had begged not to get the surgery, but her mother promised that it would give her a better life. Jahi had sleep apnea, which left her increasingly fatigued and unable to focus at school. She snored so loudly that she was too embarrassed to go to slumber parties. Nailah had brought up four children on her own, and Jahi, her second, was her most cautious. When she saw news on television about wars in other countries, she would quietly ask, “Is it going to come here?” Her classmates made fun of her for being “chunky,” and she absorbed the insults without protest. A few times, Nailah went to the school and asked the teachers to control the other students.

The operation, at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital, took four hours. When Jahi awoke, at around 7 p.m. on December 9, 2013, the nurses gave her a grape Popsicle to soothe her throat. About an hour later, Jahi began spitting up blood. The nurses told her not to worry and gave her a plastic basin to catch it in. A nurse wrote in her medical records that she encouraged Jahi to “relax and not cough if possible.” By nine that night, the bandages packing Jahi’s nose had become bloody, too. Nailah’s husband, Marvin, a truck driver, repeatedly demanded that a doctor help them. A nurse told him that only one family member was allowed in the room at a time. He agreed to leave.

Nailah, who worked in contractor sales at Home Depot, said, “No one was listening to us, and I can’t prove it, but I really feel in my heart: if Jahi was a little white girl, I feel we would have gotten a little more help and attention.” Crying, she called her mother, Sandra Chatman, who had been a nurse for thirty years and who worked in a surgery clinic at Kaiser Permanente, in Oakland.

Sandra, who is warm and calm and often wears a flower tucked into her hair, arrived at the hospital at ten o’clock. When she saw that Jahi had already filled a two-hundred-millilitre basin with blood, she told a nurse, “I don’t find this to be normal. Do you find this to be normal?” A nurse wrote in her notes that the physicians on duty were “notified several times over course of shift” that Jahi was bleeding. Another nurse wrote that the doctors were “aware of this post op bleeding” but said “there would be no immediate intervention from ENT or Surgery.” Rosen had left the hospital for the day. In his medical records, he had written that Jahi’s right carotid artery appeared abnormally close to the pharynx, a congenital condition that can potentially raise the risk of hemorrhaging. But the nurses responsible for her recovery seemed unaware of the condition and didn’t mention it in their notes. (Rosen’s attorney said that Rosen could not speak about Jahi; the hospital couldn’t comment, either, because of medical-privacy laws, but a lawyer said that the hospital is satisfied that Jahi’s nursing care was appropriate.)

There were twenty-three beds in the intensive-care unit, spread over three rooms. A doctor was standing on the other side of Jahi’s room, and Sandra asked him, “Why aren’t you guys seeing about my granddaughter?” The doctor instructed the nurse on duty not to change Jahi’s hospital gown, so that he could assess how much blood she was losing, and to spray Afrin in her nose. Sandra, who teaches a workshop at Kaiser Permanente on the “four-habits model,” a method for improving empathy with patients, told me she was surprised that the doctor never introduced himself. “He was all frowned up with his arms crossed,” she said. “It was like he thought we were dirt.”

At twelve-thirty in the morning, Sandra saw on Jahi’s monitor that her oxygen-saturation levels had fallen to seventy-nine per cent. She yelled to the medical staff, and several nurses and doctors ran toward Jahi and began working to intubate her. Sandra said that she heard one doctor say, “Oh, shit, her heart stopped.” It took two and a half hours to restore Jahi’s heartbeat and to stabilize her breathing. Sandra said that when she saw Rosen early the next morning he looked as if he’d been crying.


Two days later, Jahi was declared brain-dead. With the help of a ventilator, she was breathing, but her pupils did not react to light, she did not have a gag reflex, and her eyes remained still when ice water was dripped in each ear. She was briefly disconnected from the ventilator, as a test, but her lungs filled with carbon dioxide. On an EEG test, no brain-wave activity could be seen.

Like all states, California follows a version of the 1981 Uniform Determination of Death Act, which says that someone who has sustained the “irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead.” California law requires that hospitals permit “a reasonably brief period of accommodation” before disconnecting a ventilator—long enough to allow family to gather, but not so long that hospitals neglect the “needs of other patients and prospective patients in urgent need of care.”

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Quizzes Jan 30, Feb 1

BB 3 (but first finish BB 2... and see Radiolab post below)
1. Chapter 3 begins by asking if our bioethical perspective ("vision") is skewed by _____... (a) cultural assumptions, (b) gender bias, (c) religious faith, (d) all of the above

2. What's the leading global cause of death among women of reproductive age?

3. (T/F) The "feminist critique" says bioethics has been dominated by culturally masculine thinking.

4. What ethical perspective did Nel Noddings (supported by Carol Gilligan's research) describe as the "feminine approach"?

5. What's a furor therapeuticus?

6. Does Campbell consider the outlawing of female genital mutilation culturally insensitive?

7. What's allegedly distinctive about "Asian bioethics"?

8. What western ethical preconception is "somewhat alien" in the eastern dharmic traditions?

9. What gives Buddhists and Hindus a "whole new perspective" on bioethical issues?

10. What does Campbell identify as a "tension in the Christian perspectives" on bioethics?

DQs:

  • How do you think your own attitudes and assumptions about gender, religion, etc. influence your Bioethical perspective?
  • What do Plato's Euthyphro and the Biblical story of Abraham & Isaac suggest to you about the place of religion in addressing biotethical issues? (61-2)
  • What is Buddhism's bioethical relevance? (69)
  • How should medical professionals treat and care for children whose parents object to medical intervention on religious grounds?
  • Is it best for caregivers to try and limit their personal knowledge of patients' particular perspectives, beliefs, identities (religious, political, cultural etc.) so as to avoid conscious or unconscious bias in treatment, or does this unduly sacrifice the humane dimension of medical practice?
  • Post your DQs
==
Quiz Feb 1 BB 4 - Clinical Ethics

1. (T/F) Dignity, respect, and confidentiality are among the aspects of the clinical relationship which emphasize the importance of trust. 

2. What (according to most recognized oaths and conventions) must always be the deciding factor guiding professional decisions? 

3. The idea that the doctor always knows best is called what? 

4. Is a diagnosis of mental illness grounds for establishing a patient's lack of capacity to render competent consent to treatment? 

5. What general principle allows breach of confidentiality? 

6. What term expresses the central ethical concern about "designer babies"? What poet implicitly expressed it?

7. Why have organizations like the WHO opposed any form of organ trading?

8. Besides the Kantian objection, what other major ethical issue currently affects regenerative medicine?

9. What does palliative medicine help recover?

10. What would most of us consider an unwelcome consequence of not retaining the acts/omissions distinction with respect to our response to famine (for example)?

DQ


  • How do you generally go about establishing trust in a new relationship? Do such general considerations apply equally to the clinical relationship? How does "professionalism" relate to trust?
  • Considering the "demented professor" (81) and other instances of patients whose expressed "best interests" may conflict with a clinician's therapeutic impulses: how important is the patient's present happiness, in influencing your clinical evaluation?
  • What's wrong, if in fact the doctor does possess more accurate information and more relevant experience, with treating the patient after the analogy of parent and child?
  • What would Dr. House do about patients who make (in his opinion) foolish decisions regarding their care? Would you hire him to work in your hospital?
  • Under what circumstances would you NOT violate confidentiality and inform a patient's partner that they were HIV positive?
  • What concept is more relevant in evaluating the ethical status of abortion: viability, humanity, personhood, maternal rights, or... ?
  • What do you think of Thomson's violinist analogy (91-2)?
  • Can a baby really have five parents (as opposed to five co-progenitors)? How do you define parenthood?
  • Should surrogacy, organ trafficking, and transplant tourism be regulated? How, and by whom? 
  • Do you think our society has a healthy attitude towards mental illness? Is it possible to declare a politically and ideologically neutral standard of sanity?
  • How would you counsel patients who insist they no longer value their "quality of life" and refuse potentially effective treatment and medication?  
  • Can the medical profession ever fully embrace the concept of ars moriendi, the art of dying?
  • Can you imagine ever facilitating a suicide, professionaly or personally?
  • Is there anything wrong with displaying cadavers in a museum exhibit (as in "Bodies: The Exhibition")? What guidelines should be followed?

==
Also of interest:

Drug Shortages Forcing Hard Decisions on Rationing Treatments...In a survey of cancer doctors conducted in 2012 and 2013, 83 percent of respondents who regularly prescribed cancer drugs reported having been unable to provide the preferred chemotherapy agent at least once during the previous six months. More than a third of them said they had to delay treatment “and make difficult choices about which patients to exclude,” according to a letter published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The threat of future shortages in children’s treatments is serious enough that Dr. Peter Adamson, who leads the Children’s Oncology Group, the largest international group of children’s cancer researchers, assigned his organization to set priorities. “We’ve been forced into what we think is a highly unethical corner,” he said in an interview...
==
Scientists create a part-human, part-pig embryo — raising the possibility of interspecies organ transplants
http://wapo.st/2k85Wt3

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/science/chimera-stemcells-organs.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
Human stem cells could be implanted in an early pig embryo, making a chimera with human organs suitable for transplant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/opinion/mr-trumps-gag-rule-will-harm-global-health.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
The president has greatly expanded a policy restricting federal aid to health organizations abroad that talk to women about abortion.
==
The Struggle to Conceive With Frozen Eggs
Brigitte Adams caused a sensation four years ago when she appeared on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek under the headline, “Freeze your eggs, Free your career.” She was single and blond, a Vassar graduate who spoke fluent Italian, and was working in tech marketing for a number of prestigious companies. Her story was one of empowerment, how a new fertility procedure was giving women more choices, as the magazine noted provocatively, “in the quest to have it all.” (continues, WaPo)
==
Does living forever sound ideal? These 5 new books will change your mind.Aside from Betty White, the examples of immortality are not encouraging. The ancient Greeks — who, by the way, are all dead now — sang a particularly harrowing tale of Tithonus. He was that prince who got to live forever but kept aging, which is why you should try to stay out of the sun as much as possible when you are young. Centuries later, Christianity promised everybody eternal life, but where and how you might be spending it was a matter of fiery debate. (continues, WaPo)==
The Men Who Want to Live Forever by Dara Horn

Would you like to live forever? Some billionaires, already invincible in every other way, have decided that they also deserve not to die. Today several biotech companies, fueled by Silicon Valley fortunes, are devoted to “life extension” — or as some put it, to solving “the problem of death.”

It’s a cause championed by the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, the TED Talk darling Aubrey de Gray, Google’s billion-dollar Calico longevity lab and investment by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. The National Academy of Medicine, an independent group, recently dedicated funding to “end aging forever.”

As the longevity entrepreneur Arram Sabeti told The New Yorker: “The proposition that we can live forever is obvious. It doesn’t violate the laws of physics, so we can achieve it.” Of all the slightly creepy aspects to this trend, the strangest is the least noticed: The people publicly championing life extension are mainly men.

Not all of them, of course. In 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn received the Nobel Prize for her work on telomeres, protein caps on chromosomes that may be a key to understanding aging. Cynthia Kenyon, the vice president for aging research at Calico, studied life extension long before it was cool; her former protégée, Laura Deming, now runs a venture capital fund for the cause. But these women are focused on curbing age-related pathology, a concept about as controversial as cancer research. They do not appear thirsty for the Fountain of Youth.

Professor Blackburn’s new book on telomeres couldn’t be clearer. “Does our research show that by maintaining your telomeres you will live into your hundreds?” it says. “No. Everyone’s cells become old and eventually we die.” Ms. Kenyon once described her research’s goal as “to just have a healthy life and then turn out the lights.” Even Ms. Deming, a 23-year-old prodigy who worked in Ms. Kenyon’s lab at age 12, points out that “aging is innately important to us.”

Few of these experts come close to matching the gaudy statements of the longevity investor and “biohacker” Dave Asprey, who has told journalists, “I decided that I was just not going to die.” Or those of Brian Hanley, a microbiologist who has tested an anti-aging gene therapy he developed on himself, who claimed: “There’s a bunch of things that will need to be done to achieve life spans into at least hundreds of years. But we’ll get there.” Or of the 74-year-old fashion mogul Peter Nygard, who during a promotional clip receives injections of his own stem cells to reverse his aging while declaring: “Ponce de León had the right idea. He was just too early. That was then. This is now.”

I came across Mr. Nygard’s ode to human endurance three years ago while beginning research on a novel about a woman who can’t die, and watching that video allowed me to experience something close to life extension. As Mr. Nygard compared himself to Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin while dancing with a bevy of models — or as a voice-over explained, “living a life most can only dream of” — nine minutes of YouTube expanded into a vapid eternity, where time melted into a vortex of solipsism.

At that time I was immersed in caring for my four young children, and this paean to everlasting youth seemed especially stupid. I recall thinking that if this was eternal life, death didn’t seem that bad.

But now, as powerful men have begun falling like dominoes under accusations of sexual assault, that video with its young women clustered around an elderly multimillionaire has haunted me anew. As I recall my discomfort with the proclamations of longevity-driven men who hope to achieve “escape velocity,” I think of the astonishing hubris of the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, those who saw young women’s bodies as theirs for the taking.

Much has been said about why we allowed such behavior to go unchecked. What has remained unsaid, because it is so obvious, is what would make someone so shameless in the first place: These people believed they were invincible. They saw their own bodies as entirely theirs and other people’s bodies as at their disposal; apparently nothing in their lives led them to believe otherwise.

Historically, this is a mistake that few women would make, because until very recently, the physical experience of being a woman entailed exactly the opposite — and not only because women have to hold their keys in self-defense while walking through parking lots at night. It’s only very recently that women have widely participated in public life, but it’s even more recently that men have been welcome, or even expected, to provide physical care for vulnerable people.

Only for a nanosecond of human history have men even slightly shared what was once exclusively a woman’s burden: the relentless daily labor of caring for another person’s body, the life-preserving work of cleaning feces and vomit, the constant cycle of cooking and feeding and blanketing and bathing, whether for the young, the ill or the old. For nearly as long as there have been humans, being a female human has meant a daily nonoptional immersion in the fragility of human life and the endless effort required to sustain it.

Obviously not everyone who provides care for others is a saint. But engaging in that daily devotion, or even living with its expectation, has enormous potential to change a person. It forces one to constantly imagine the world from someone else’s point of view: Is he hungry? Maybe she’s tired. Is his back hurting him? What is she trying to say?

The most obvious cure for today’s gender inequities is to put more women in power. But if we really hope to create an equal society, we will also need more men to care for the powerless — more women in the boardroom, but also more men at the nurses’ station and the changing table, immersed in daily physical empathy. If that sounds like an evolutionary impossibility, well, it doesn’t violate the laws of physics, so we can achieve it. It is surely worth at least as much investment as defeating death.

Perhaps it takes the promise of immortality to inspire the self-absorbed to invest in unsexy work like Alzheimer’s research. If so, we may all one day bless the inane death-defiance as a means to a worthy end.

But men who hope to live forever might pause on their eternal journey to consider the frightening void at invincibility’s core. Death is the ultimate vulnerability. It is the moment when all of us must confront exactly what so many women have known all too well: You are a body, only a body, and nothing more.

Dara Horn is the author, most recently, of the novel “Eternal Life.”
==
An old post-
Bioethics today is about the ways our vision of issues and outcomes may be occluded, blurred, or otherwise compromised by our respective points of view or perspectives. Of course this is not unique to bioethics, all human comprehension is subject to bias by the attenuation of culture, gender, religion, ideology, experience, the absence of experience, greed, egoism, and on our list could go. It is in our nature to see what we've seen, to see what we want to see, to see through a glass darkly. Without corrected vision the people perish.

Our native tendency to frame experience incorrectly, conformable to our own pre-vision and hence occlusive of other ways of seeing and clinically intervening, is a constant challenge to the fair-minded ethicist. Bioethical philosophers across the perspectival spectrum presume to prescribe corrective frames, but inattention to the varieties of sight is a constant hazard. Here's a link to a good little essay on the subject, from esteemed bioethicist Arthur Caplan: "When Religion Trumps Medicine."

We should play with this metaphor. As a lifetime wearer of framed corrective lenses, I can attest to the temporary excitement of a new prescription, or even just a stylish new frame to house the old set of lenses. The trick is always to find frames that hold up through every season of wear, that don't grow tiresome, and that justify the expense of change. (My wife returned from Costco one day reporting that the same frames she'd found at the Eye Doc's were $100s cheaper there.) Sometimes new lenses in the old frame suffice, sometimes you just need a new look.

So, some of the perspectives we'll try to focus and reframe today: attitudes and assumptions around HIV/AIDS, especially as occluded by miseducation; violence as a public health issue; "feminist critiques" of contingently-drawn, historically-conditioned categories of masculinity and femininity, locked into patriarchal institutions and practices that discriminate against women; misogyny; marginalization; advocacy; embodiment; empowerment; relational autonomy; metaphysical dualism; care; furor therapeuticus; female genital mutilation; "Asian bioethics"; Plato's Euthyphro; Abraham & Isaac; Buddhism; and more.

How do you get that "new look"? I always like to suggest trying the John Rawls Original Position/Veil of Ignorance frames. Some of us can wear them.

One more indulgence, before discussion: the snarly TV doc Gregory House was suggested by a student last semester as a good example of how some practitioners seem driven less by the patient's best care than by their own egoism. But, getting the diagnosis and treatment right regardless of motive and ego still seems the most important thing. Doesn't it? Maybe you can find & share links to other YouTube moments illustrative of good and bad medical-ethical practice.

Also of interest:
HHS nominee skirts questions about impact of Drumpf’s executive order on ACA

President Drumpf’s choice for health secretary declined Tuesday to promise that no Americans would be worse off under Drumpf’s executive order to ease provisions of the Affordable Care Act — and distanced himself from the president’s claim to have an almost-
finished plan to replace the law.

At a testy Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) sought to play down the influence he would have on reshaping the health-care system along conservative lines, while attempting to deflect accusations from Democrats about his ethics.

He repeatedly flashed his long-standing distaste for federal insurance standards and other government strategies to guide medical care. And although he embraced certain policies popular within the GOP, such as special insurance pools for patients with preexisting medical conditions, he steered clear of other ideas he has supported, including the transformation of Medicaid from an entitlement program for lower-income people to a set of block grants to states.

By the time the hearing ended after four hours, the Senate Finance Committee’s partisan divisions appeared as bitter as they had at the beginning, with the Republicans aligned solidly behind the nominee despite sharp Democratic attacks on his investment and legislative practices.

Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) praised Price as a singularly qualified nominee and took broad swipes at Senate Democrats, saying they were tearing at the fabric of the chamber as an institution with their attempts to undercut Drumpf’s Cabinet ­choices.

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), countered that Price, if confirmed, would “take America back to the dark days when health care was for the healthy and the wealthy.” Focusing on the private investments in health-care companies that could have benefited from bills Price sponsored, Wyden said that “it is hard to see this as anything but a conflict of interest and an abuse of position.”

[Who is Tom Price?]

A fresh allegation Tuesday was that Price underreported to the committee and the Office of Government Ethics the value of shares he holds in an Australian company, Innate Immunotherapeutics. Price, who purchased some of that stock through a discounted, private offering, attributed the under­reporting to “a clerical error” and a misunderstanding of the question.

“The reality is that everything that I did was ethical, above­board, legal and transparent,” Price said — a message Republicans sought to reinforce throughout the hearing.


Democrats targeted most of their questioning on the direction that Price, if confirmed, would try to take the health-care system. Price demurred repeatedly.

For instance, he sidestepped a series of questions about the effects of the sweeping order Drumpf issued just hours after his ­swearing-in that directed agencies to lift or soften federal rules implementing aspects of the ACA. Price declined to commit that no one would be harmed, that no one would lose insurance coverage or that the regulations would be rewritten only after a plan exists to replace the 2010 health-care law.

He similarly deflected a question about whether the new administration would try to stop enforcement of the ACA’s individual insurance requirement prior to a replacement plan.

See how your coverage could be impacted by four prominent plans proposed by RepublicansVIEW GRAPHIC

“I commit to working with you,” Price finally told Wyden after reiterating that his goal is to ensure all Americans have an opportunity for access to health insurance. The ACA’s goal is universal coverage.

“We didn’t get an answer,” Wyden retorted.

Price also skirted questions by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) about Drumpf’s statements the weekend before his inauguration that the health-care plan he was completing would provide “insurance for everybody.”

Brown asked: “President Drumpf said he’s working with you on a replacement plan for the ACA, which is nearly finished and will be revealed after your confirmation. Is that true?”

Price replied: “It’s true that he said that, yes.”

The packed hearing room broke into laughter.

Brown persisted: “Did the president lie about this, that he’s not working with you?”

The nominee gave an oblique answer, saying, “I’ve had conversations with the president about health care.”

[HHS nominee’s mix of investments, donations, legislations keeps raising questions]

Tuesday’s hearing was the more significant of two appearances Price has made in the past week on Capitol Hill because the Finance Committee has jurisdiction to vote on his nomination. A date has not been set.

Democrats’ numerous attacks on Price in the past week prompted Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who officially introduced Price to his Finance Committee colleagues, to say, “I feel like I’ve been asked to be a character witness in a felony trial in the sentencing phase of a conviction.” WaPo
==
Faith-Based Decisions: Parents Who Refuse Appropriate Care for Their Children
Adam Lovell*, an active 2 ½ -year-old boy, was healthy until the day his parents took him to the local emergency department for vomiting and a suspected case of acute gastroenteritis. To the physicians, Adam appeared lethargic and was responsive only to painful stimulus. A blood culture was obtained, and other laboratory tests were performed. The blood culture later grew a meningococcus. Within hours "purple splotches" appeared on his face, legs, and trunk. Adam was diagnosed with meningococcemia and was started on appropriate antibiotics and steroids administered intravenously. Adam was intubated to stabilize his airway and transported to the County Memorial Hospital. On arrival, his perfusion was poor and blood pressure low. The tips of all his digits were dark blue; purpura (purple splotches) were present over most of his trunk, feet, and hands in a "stocking-glove" distribution. Intravenous fluid boluses and vasoactive drug infusions were administered. Adam's parents consented to multiple blood component therapy to treat a coagulopathy. Adam was also treated for respiratory failure related to meningococcal sepsis with both conventional and high frequency mechanical ventilation for the first 11 days of hospitalization.

At 10 days, Adam had well demarcated patches of dry, devitalized tissue (dry gangrene) on both of his feet, his left hand, and the fingers of his right hand. An eschar was present on the posterior surface of his right thigh. Ulcerated areas of skin were present in the perineal region. Consulting surgeons talked to his parents about the risks, benefits, and alternatives of amputation and debridement of portions of both of Adam's feet, his left hand, and the fingers of his right hand. The Lovells consented to the debridement and surgical treatment and signed the consent form. Shortly thereafter the family's minister came to the hospital and prayed with Adam's parents for God to restore life to the devitalized tissues. Soon afterward, the Lovells rescinded consent to surgical treatment and communicated that they wished to allow time to elapse so that God could heal Adam's dead and injured tissues. When the physician and the surgeon told Adam's parents that infection and sepsis would be inevitable without treatment, they agreed verbally that, in the event of sepsis, amputation should be performed.

Over the ensuing 2 ½ weeks, physicians met with the Lovells and vigorously attempted to persuade them to proceed with Adam's amputation and debridement of dead tissues. Mr. and Mrs. Lovell remained adamant that an expectant approach be maintained. During this time neither sepsis nor wet gangrene, which would have offered absolute indication for surgical intervention, occurred. Despite the best efforts of the family and staff, many hours elapsed where Adam remained quiet and alone in his bed. He would cry and appeared to be sad. At times he cried out "hand" while gazing at his outstretched and mummified hands. During visits, the Lovells read the Bible to Adam and assured him that God would direct his hands and feet to re-grow. The Lovells asserted to the staff that Jesus had arisen from the dead and shown himself to believers, and that God would revitalize Adam's dead tissues. Both family-associated and hospital-based clergy were regularly present to expand opportunities for mutual understanding of religious and medical issues. Adam's parents were repeatedly confronted with the ever-present and increasingly imminent reality that Adam needed amputations to prevent new onset of sepsis and to avoid possible death from sepsis.

After almost a month in the pediatric intensive care unit, Adam began to experience fevers and his white blood cell counts increased; both signs were indicative of developing infection. Therapy with topical and systemic antibiotics was continued and modified. His parents were informed of the changes and of the increasing need to consent to surgical therapy. In an effort to reinforce the inescapable need for surgical therapy, the physicians consulted with a burn surgeon at a neighboring institution by telemedicine. The surgeon confirmed that amputation was unavoidable. These communications were shared with the Lovells, who nevertheless, were not dissuaded from insisting upon further observation. Despite considerable effort to understand and support the parents by their own family members, by the medical staff, by social service, by psychology and by clergy (hospital and family), a clear impasse had been reached. The Division of Social Services (DSS) was engaged to evaluate the case for a possible claim of medical neglect against Adam's parents. With the possibility of the child's custody being assumed by DSS, the parents signed consent for amputation and debridement. The mother signed consent because "only death would take my baby from me." The family requested that a "hands-on" surgical evaluation be performed at another medical facility. This request was granted. Expedited transfer was made, surgical intervention was deemed necessary by the receiving surgeon and amputation and debridement followed within 2 days.
(continues)
==
Letting them die: parents refuse medical help for children in the name of Christ
The Followers of Christ is a religious sect that preaches faith healing in states such as Idaho, which offers a faith-based shield for felony crimes – despite alarming child mortality rates among these groups
Mariah Walton’s voice is quiet – her lungs have been wrecked by her illness, and her respirator doesn’t help. But her tone is resolute.

“Yes, I would like to see my parents prosecuted.”

Why?

“They deserve it.” She pauses. “And it might stop others.”

Mariah is 20 but she’s frail and permanently disabled. She has pulmonary hypertension and when she’s not bedridden, she has to carry an oxygen tank that allows her to breathe. At times, she has had screws in her bones to anchor her breathing device. She may soon have no option for a cure except a heart and lung transplant – an extremely risky procedure.

All this could have been prevented in her infancy by closing a small congenital hole in her heart. It could even have been successfully treated in later years, before irreversible damage was done. But Mariah’s parents were fundamentalist Mormons who went off the grid in northern Idaho in the 1990s and refused to take their children to doctors, believing that illnesses could be healed through faith and the power of prayer.

As she grew sicker and sicker, Mariah’s parents would pray over her and use alternative medicine. Until she finally left home two years ago, she did not have a social security number or a birth certificate.

Had they been in neighboring Oregon, her parents could have been booked for medical neglect. In Mariah’s case, as in scores of others of instances of preventible death among children in Idaho since the 1970s, laws exempt dogmatic faith healers from prosecution, and she and her sister recently took part in a panel discussion with lawmakers at the state capitol about the issue. Idaho is one of only six states that offer a faith-based shield for felony crimes such as manslaughter.

Some of those enjoying legal protection are fringe Mormon families like Mariah’s, many of whom live in the state’s north. But a large number of children have died in southern Idaho, near Boise, in families belonging to a reclusive, Pentecostal faith-healing sect called the Followers of Christ... (continues)

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Introductions

We begin with an invitation: tell us who you are, and why you're here. We'll introduce ourselves in class and online (hit "comments" below). I'll start.

I'm the prof for this course, PHIL 3345, Bioethics. I hold degrees from the University of Missouri and Vanderbilt, and I'm here because the ethics of life and death is at the very heart of what philosophy, defined as the love of (and quest for) wisdom, is about. I'm still here in middle Tennessee, after relocating for Grad School, because I met my wife here and decided to stay.

I also teach courses on Atheism, Environmental Ethics, and Happiness, among others.

Enough about me.

Who are you? Why are you here? (Bear in mind, as you reply, that this is an open site. There's nothing preventing the world from reading what we post here, except of course the world's own distraction.)

Monday, January 8, 2018

"This was not the good death we were promised"

When my father was dying of pancreatic cancer last summer, I often curled up with him in the adjustable hospital bed set up in his bedroom. As we watched episodes of “The Great British Baking Show,” I’d think about all the things I couldn’t promise him.

I couldn’t promise that the book he’d been working on would ever be published. I couldn’t promise he would get to see his childhood friends from England one more time. I couldn’t even promise he’d find out who won the baking show that season.

But what I could promise — or I thought I could — was that he would not be in pain at the end of his life.

That’s because after hearing for years about the unnecessary medicalization of most hospital deaths, I had called an in-home hospice agency to usher him “off this mortal coil,” as my literary father still liked to say at 83.

When a doctor said my father had about six months to live, I invited a hospice representative to my parents’ kitchen table. She went over their Medicare-funded services, including weekly check-ins from a nurse and 24/7 emergency oversight by a doctor. Most comfortingly, she told us if a final “crisis” came, such as severe pain or agitation, a registered nurse would stay in his room around the clock to treat him. (continues)
==
Resolutions of a Cancer Doctor

My mom was given a diagnosis of lung cancer this past year. And whether I liked it or not, almost midway through my career, it put me squarely in the position of being re-educated about cancer from the other end of the biopsy needle. It also gave me the opportunity to approach my patients with a new resolve in the coming year.

My mother lives in Rhode Island, and I live in Ohio. It took weeks for her to get her diagnosis, and I quickly found, as family members of my own patients have told me countless times, how difficult it is to coordinate the care of your loved one from a distance. Fortunately, my mom’s cancer was caught at an early stage, and I convinced her to come to Cleveland for surgery at the hospital where I work. She was discharged from the hospital following removal of the mass to my house, where she spent the entire month of May recovering.

For anyone who has never played the role of assisted living facility for a septuagenarian who has undergone a major medical intervention, it isn’t easy, either for the patient or her host. Our expectations for participation in physical and respiratory therapy diverged wildly. I had been raised in an era in which regular exercise was approached with near religious conviction. She came of age at a time when people joked about exercise: “Can’t you pay somebody to do that for you?” And it turns out that mothers do not want to be told what to do by their sons.

Even when they have medical degrees. And specialize in cancer. And are taller than she is.

And sons don’t like to see their mothers sick with cancer. Not surprisingly, it is nearly impossible to separate that emotional reaction from calm, clearheaded guidance to your own mother... (continues)
==
‘Forget About the Stigma’: Male Nurses Explain Why Nursing Is a Job of the Future for Men

For Doctors, Age May Be More Than a Number

Medical Research? Congress Cheers. Medical Care? Congress Brawls

Saturday, January 6, 2018

"How to Counter the Circus of Pseudoscience"

Maybe one day, once I have decades of experience as a doctor and further training in my area of specialization, I will be able to speak about health matters with the tone of authority of the average naturopath.

That was the thought that crossed my mind recently while I waded through the online world of alternative-health practitioners, wellness bloggers, whole-food chefs and Gwyneth Paltrow.

I did not seek it out at first; it came to me through a social-media algorithm. Facebook offered up a video advertisement from a “female hormonal health specialist” with her own “practice.” Not an endocrinologist but a naturopath. She lectured with confidence on thyroid testing, though much of what she said was wrong. And down the internet rabbit hole I went.

One traditional view of the medical profession is that doctors are commanding and authoritarian, even arrogant. Though some individuals fit that description, in fact, the profession is built on doubt.

Most doctors, especially the good ones, are acutely aware of the limits of their knowledge. I have learned from those much more experienced and qualified than me that humility is something to be cultivated over time, not lost.

Our field is built around trying to prove ourselves wrong. In hospitals we hold morbidity and mortality meetings trying to show where we have failed, what we need to change, how we can do better. Our hospital work is audited to identify where we fell short of our ideals. Through scientific research we try to disprove the effectiveness of treatments. Our failings are exposed from the inside.

The nature of evidence-based health care is that practices change as new evidence emerges.

That is also the case for other health professionals whose practice is based on science, like qualified dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychologists. Guidelines are revised, advice is reversed — on blood pressure, diet, hormone replacement, opioid prescribing. This can be immensely frustrating for patients, even though it is what we must do to provide the best possible treatment...

(Lisa Pryor, continues)

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

"My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion"

His systems were failing. The challenge was

to understand what had sustained them for so long.

The call came at three in the morning. My mother, in New Delhi, was in tears. My father, she said, had fallen again, and he was speaking nonsense. She turned the handset toward him. He was muttering a slow, meaningless string of words in an unrecognizable high-pitched nasal tone. He kept repeating his nickname, Shibu, and the name of his childhood village, Dehergoti. He sounded as if he were reading his own last rites.

“Take him to the hospital,” I urged her, from New York. “I’ll catch the next flight home.”

“No, no, just wait,” my mother said. “He might get better on his own.” In her day, buying an international ticket on short notice was an unforgivable act of extravagance, reserved for transcontinental gangsters and film stars. No one that she knew had arrived “early” for a parent’s death. The frugality of her generation had congealed into frank superstition: if I caught a flight now, I might dare the disaster into being...

(Siddhartha Mukherjee, continues)
==
This Cat Sensed Death. What if Computers Could, Too?