This year brought about a number of public debates surrounding not only less-mainstream medical conditions, but also others that were emotionally challenging and ethically complex. Check out which ones made this Top-10 list.
conjoined twins
A case report of 22-month-old conjoined twins evaluated and operated on last year at Massachusetts General Hospital was published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The staff and family faced impossible choices requiring a bioethics committee's input.
Dr. Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was a pioneer in the field of pediatric neurosurgery. He catapulted to world-renowned status in that arena as the principal surgeon in a 22-hour operation separating conjoined twins, who were attached at the head.
Recently a baby boy was born in India with two penises and four legs. How do '"parasitic twins" develop and what causes this? And what conditions prompt duplications in the female anatomy?
All arguments are fair game as for whether Dr. Ben Carson is the right (or wrong) person to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. But don't tell us a brain surgeon only possesses the skills to be a brain surgeon.