Fetishes I Don't Get

Sure, we should protect students from genuinely hostile environments. But "protect" them from challenging class exercises? We can't really hope to protect the vulnerable by giving them all the power.

Ethics and Morality

Judging Souls Versus Acts in Bioethics

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on September 11, 2013

Who gives a damn whether a medical researcher is nice inside? Who cares if he loves science, patients, and babies? We ought to care about whether he shills for a corrupt industry, whether he accurately presents evidence in a case, whether he obtains informed consent. This is what patients and subjects would reasonably care about.

Who gives a damn whether a medical researcher is nice inside? Who cares if he loves science, patients, and babies? We ought to care about whether he shills for a corrupt industry, whether he accurately presents evidence in a case, whether he obtains informed consent. This is what patients and subjects would reasonably care about.

Aging

Why We Tri

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on September 1, 2013

Each year, the last Sunday in August, thousands of everyday athletes participate in triathlons. We are two of them.

Each year, the last Sunday in August, thousands of everyday athletes participate in triathlons. We are two of them.

Ethics and Morality

The Worst of All Possible IRB Worlds

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on March 16, 2013

The Institutional Review Board system treats social scientists unfairly at the front end, and at the back end fails to provide justice when harm comes to people used as medical research subjects. These problems represent two sides of a coin. Here's a suggestion of something small and easy you can do to help.

The Institutional Review Board system treats social scientists unfairly at the front end, and at the back end fails to provide justice when harm comes to people used as medical research subjects. These problems represent two sides of a coin. Here's a suggestion of something small and easy you can do to help.

Career

A Monocular Life, in Perspective

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on November 25, 2012

After years of teaching about why impairments aren't necessarily disabilities, I find myself with a first-person example: my "stereoblind" vision.

After years of teaching about why impairments aren't necessarily disabilities, I find myself with a first-person example: my "stereoblind" vision.

An extraordinary educator relates the story of teaching my TEDx lecture, "Is Anatomy Destiny?", to a group of men in a Washington state minimum security prison.

Transgender

On Losing a Friend (Who Happened to Be Trans)

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on November 20, 2012

Today, November 20, is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Here I remember my good friend Kiira Triea.

Today, November 20, is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Here I remember my good friend Kiira Triea.

Philosophy

The Dex Diaries, Part 10: Taking It Personally

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on November 19, 2012

In what (I think) will be the last "Dex Diary," I take up the question of why some people act, while others sit it out, and talk about the growing movement within academia to engage with socially important issues.

In what (I think) will be the last "Dex Diary," I take up the question of why some people act, while others sit it out, and talk about the growing movement within academia to engage with socially important issues.

Ethics and Morality

The Dex Diaries, Part 9: The Real Silent Majority

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on October 30, 2012

In this entry of the Dex Diaries, Anne Tamar-Mattis, JD, talks about the "silent majority" from whom she often hears in her advocacy work: clinicians troubled by the way medical systems treat children with disorders of sex development. She also talks about how the silence started to lift around prenatal dexamethasone for CAH once we all started to speak out as one.

In this entry of the Dex Diaries, Anne Tamar-Mattis, JD, talks about the "silent majority" from whom she often hears in her advocacy work: clinicians troubled by the way medical systems treat children with disorders of sex development. She also talks about how the silence started to lift around prenatal dexamethasone for CAH once we all started to speak out as one.

This entry of The Dex Diaries features the perspective of Fran Howell, a woman who was exposed to DES in the womb and who now acts as Executive Director of DES Action USA. Howell raises the question: When will we learn the hard lessons of prenatal DES exposure? (And implicitly asks: Why does it take activists to stop these train wrecks? Why can't the FDA be more proactive?

The prenatal dexamethasone ordeal has accidentally taught me the rules of being a successful bioethicist, so—even though I personally suck at this game—I thought I’d share the secrets of winning.

In this Dex Diary, the story of how the American Journal of Bioethics almost drove me off a cliff.

Health

The Dex Diaries, Part 5: Questions I Didn't Ask

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on August 24, 2012

In this installment of the Dex Diaries, Ellen Feder, the corresponding author of our letters of concern, talks about her own experiences accepting prenatal steroids for her babies. In doing so, she works to answers the question: What were the mothers thinking?

In this installment of the Dex Diaries, Ellen Feder, the corresponding author of our letters of concern, talks about her own experiences accepting prenatal steroids for her babies. In doing so, she works to answers the question: What were the mothers thinking?

Pregnant patients and their obstetricians are told an off-label use is "safe and effective" by a researcher who then turns around and tells the NIH she needs funding to see if it is safe and effective. Your tax dollars at work.

This third installment of "The Dex Diaries" explores how the obstetricians prescribing the fetal-engineering intervention appear to have been hung out to dry. Morally, I don't see how they are culpable. But legally? Ugh.

In this second installment of the Dex Diaries, I explain why a group of 32 scholars in bioethics and allied fields called on the federal government to investigate the off-label use of a drug intended to radically alter fetal sex development.

In Part 1 of "The Dex Diaries," one woman's story of what it was like to have her life course forever changed by a medically-sanctioned prenatal drug exposure.

What might have stopped Jonah Lehrer from publishing made-up quotes? And does it really matter if he put a few words in Dylan's mouth?

Relationships

Falling in Love with Calvin Trillin's Wife

Alice Dreger Ph.D. on June 23, 2012

Some people find their romantic psyches shaped by a dramatic novel or film. Mine was shaped by a humorous book about food. Let's eat.

Some people find their romantic psyches shaped by a dramatic novel or film. Mine was shaped by a humorous book about food. Let's eat.

The internet is abuzz with the claim that the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior is refusing to retract an article purporting to evidence the success of "ex-gay" therapy, even though the article's author wants it retracted. Read the real story here.