Ethics of Cancer Care and Research
Ongoing advances in cancer treatment and research have brought hope and help to patients—and introduced almost as many ethical quandaries as cures. The January 2007 issue examines those dilemmas. A women with breast cancer and a genetic mutation that confers greater risk of cancer wants her young daughters tested for the mutation; a man with late stage colon cancer asks his physician’s advice about participating in a phase 1 trial of an experimental drug. Other articles explore the fair pricing of life-saving cancer drugs, insurance coverage of experimental treatment, and the association between type of insurance and cancer survival. On the public health side, we ask, “Is it ethical for a company to fire employees who smoke?”