Research Library

A study comparing the community benefit expenditures of two sets of Houston hospitals leads the authors to propose strategies that can better justify the tax exemptions the institutions enjoy.

To what lengths should we go to preserve human life? Doctors from Italy and China plan to provide a Russian volunteer with a new body. But is this ethical? Should they proceed? Nonresident scholar Ana S. Iltis explores these issues in a post on the Baker Institute Blog.

The Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act proposes a national database that would serve as a centralized source of information on children with medically complex conditions. The aim is to improve treatment and care coordination. The authors of this brief argue, however, that the database could put children and their families at risk of discrimination by making their health information public, and therefore accessible to employers and health insurers.

Is President Trump's April 2017 executive order calling for a review of the H-1B visa program bad news for foreign workers?

The "molecular autopsy," or the collection of blood and tissue for DNA analysis, is an increasingly pervasive tool in investigating sudden death in the young. The authors offer recommendations that address ethical and policy issues that arise when molecular autopsies are conducted as part of a death investigation by medical examiner or coroner offices.

This study assesses the attitudes of women in Jordanian maternity clinics with regard to CB banking and transplantation.

State "right to try" laws can give terminally ill patients early access to experimental drugs and medical devices — but they arguably make safety and efficacy secondary to speedy access.

This journal article examines the risks patients face in seeking experimental stem cell-based interventions from clinics outside the United States. The authors advocate for new public policies that encourage patients to remain in clinical trials in the U.S.

In this commentary, the authors examine the roots of the United States’ reluctance to embrace universal health care, concluding that it "is neither sound nor ethical in a nation that promulgates fairness and equal opportunity" to deny coverage.

While the Food and Drug Administration currently regulates storage and use of cord blood (CB) in the United States, other state and federal guidelines on CB education, awareness and ethical considerations remain variable, and no mandatory international guidelines exist. To help organize and coordinate efforts across the United States and other nations, policymakers should implement regulations for high quality standards for both private and public CB banks.