Background Approximately 90 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with little or no access to cardiac surgery. Initiation of a surgical program results in a large influx of patients, of whom only a small proportion can be selected for surgical intervention. In addition, at times program development goals may conflict with patient care goals. When surgery cannot be provided to all...

What we do is determined by the way we "view" a complex issue and what sample of issues or events we choose to deal with. In this paper, a model based on a communal, cultural, or people-centered worldview, informed by a subjective epistemology and a holistic ontology, is considered. Definitions and interpretations of sustainable agriculture are reviewed. Common elements in published definitions...

The expenditures for hospital drugs are continuously increasing, and grow much faster than the global hospital budgets do. This explosive growth is caused mainly by a few so-called 'expensive drugs' of which the oncolytics form the main part. The global budgets should stimulate more effective provision of care ('technical efficiency'), however the room for technical efficiency is decreasing. Ho...

hESC research is an ethically acceptable use of human embryos that are in excess of those needed to meet the fertility goals of patients. The ethical basis for this view and issues to be considered during the informed consent process for the donation of embryos are developed in this document. This report replaces the Committee's 2009 report, "Donating spare embryos for stem cell research" (Fert...

Embryonic stem cell research is an ethically acceptable use of human embryos that are in excess of those needed to meet the fertility goals of patients. The ethical basis for this view and issues to be considered during the informed consent process for the donation of spare embryos are developed in this document. This 2008 report replaces the Committee’s 2002 report, Donating Spare Embryos for ...

This case of platelet transfusion in palliative care illustrates a common dilemma in transfusion medicine: approval of the use of a scarce, yet potentially life-saving, resource. As in this case, these decisions often involve seriously ill patients with acute needs and evolving goals of care. The use of resources to treat the patient at hand must be balanced against maintaining adequate resourc...

Human-environment research in the 21st century will need to change in major ways. It will need to integrate the natural and the social sciences; it will need to engage stakeholders and citizens in the design of research and in the delivery of science for the benefit of society; it will need to address ethical and democratic goals; and it will need to address a myriad of important theoretical an...