Question

Why is approval of a "Helsinki Committee" needed before applying for a research grant?
What is "Wakefield Effect", and how is it affecting attitudes to immunization?
Why is assisted death permitted in some jurisdiction, and what steps are needed to ensure this is solely based on the patient's wishes?
Discuss the ethics of requiring children to be fully immunized before they can start school
How should practicing doctors and public health explain mandatory chlorination, and fluoridation of community water supplies?

Answer 1

Answer;

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The Committee's work is based accordance with the Public Health Regulations (Clinical Experiments on Humans, 5741-1980, including revisions and amendments (1999), and implements the principles of the Helsinki Statement.

The Committee reviews research proposals for clinical experiments on humans, and is charged with providing their approval in accordance with standard guidelines.  

The Helsinki Committee of Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya, hereby undertakes that it acts in accordance with Ministry of Health regulations and in accordance with the ICH-GCP. The list of documents needed for submitting applications to Helsinki Committee can be found in the hospital's Regulations Library.

The Helsinki Committee also acts as the hospital's Helsinki Subcommittee, and deals with approving research not defined as medical experiments on humans.

The Committee reviews social sciences research grants (psychology, social medicine, and applications which include question surveys), which requires the extraction of data from medical, nursing, psychological, social and other paramedical records of patients, without patient involvement.  

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Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born 1957)s a discredited British ex-physician who became an anti-vaccine activist. As a gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, he published a 1998 paper in The Lancet claiming a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. Other researchers were unable to reproduce Wakefield's findings,^[3][4] and a 2004 investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer identified undisclosed financial conflicts of interest on Wakefield's part.

This attribute affect the immunization;

He then encountered other families in a similar position who claim their child had first shown signs of the developmental disabilities after receiving the childhood immunisation for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).

The three-in-one jab had been introduced in 1988, replacing the single jabs for each disease that had been given previously, two forms of the MMR jab were withdrawn in 1992 after signs they caused mild mumps meningitis.

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Medical ethics establishes the duties of physicians to patients and society, sometimes to a greater extent than the law . Physicians have duties to patients on the basis of the ethical principles of beneficence (that is, acting in the patient's best interest), nonmaleficence (avoiding or minimizing harm), respect for patient autonomy, and promotion of fairness and social justice .Medical ethics and the law strongly support a patient's right to refuse treatment, including life-sustaining treatment. The intent is to avoid or withdraw treatment that the patient judges to be inconsistent with his or her goals and preferences. Death follows naturally, after the refusal, as a result of the underlying disease.

Ethical arguments in support of physician-assisted suicide highlight the principle of respect for patient autonomy and a broad interpretation of a physician's duty to relieve suffering .Proponents view physician-assisted suicide as an act of compassion that respects patient choice and fulfills an obligation of nonabandonment . Opponents maintain that the profession's most consistent ethical traditions emphasize care and comfort, that physicians should not participate in intentionally ending a person's life, and that physician-assisted suicide requires physicians to breach specific prohibitions as well as the general duties of beneficence and nonmaleficence. Such breaches are viewed as inconsistent with the physician's role as healer and comforter .

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Vaccine ethics can be conceptualized as a set of issues at the intersection of public health policy, clinical ethics, and professional ethics. The ethical implications concerning vaccine-related public health policy are numerous and at the forefront of much recent discussion—for example, mandating vaccines for school entry and excluding unvaccinated children from schools in the case of outbreaks. Worth noting is that US vaccine policy decisions can have ethical implications for other countries. For example, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices withdrew recommendations to give the rotavirus vaccine to 2-, 4-, and 6-month-old children in 1999 in response to rare intussusception cases,36 it became difficult to distribute the vaccine in developing countries where rotavirus had much higher morbidity and mortality rates.

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Water chlorination is the process of adding chlorine or chlorine compounds such as sodium hypochlorite to water. This method is used to kill certain bacteria and other microbes in tap water as chlorine is highly toxic. In particular, chlorination is used to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid.

The addition of chlorine or chlorine compounds to drinking water is called chlorination. Chlorine compounds may be applied in liquid and solid forms—for instance, liquid sodium hypochlorite or calcium hypochlorite in tablet or granular form. However, the direct application of gaseous chlorine from pressurized steel containers is usually the most economical method for disinfecting large volumes of water.

5 Reasons Why Fluoride in Water is Good for Communities

1. Prevents tooth decay. Fluoride in water is the most efficient way to prevent one of the most common childhood diseases – tooth decay. An estimated 51 million school hours and 164 million work hours are lost each year due to dental-related illness. Community water fluoridation is so effective at preventing tooth decay that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named it one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.
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3. Protects all ages against cavities. Studies show that fluoride in community water systems prevents at least 25 percent of tooth decay in children and adults, even in an era with widespread availability of fluoride from other sources, such as fluoride toothpaste.
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5. Safe and effective. For 70 years, the best available scientific evidence consistently indicates that community water fluoridation is safe and effective. It has been endorsed by numerous U.S. Surgeons General, and more than 100 health organizations recognize the health benefits of water fluoridation for preventing dental decay, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, the American Dental Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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7. Saves money. The average lifetime cost per person to fluoridate a water supply is less than the cost of one dental filling. For most cities, every $1 invested in water fluoridation saves $38 in dental treatment costs.
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9. It’s natural. Fluoride is naturally present in groundwater and the oceans. Water fluoridation is the adjustment of fluoride to a recommended level for preventing tooth decay. It’s similar to fortifying other foods and beverages, like fortifying salt with iodine, milk with vitamin D, orange juice with calcium and bread with folic acid