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To get us closer to an answer to that question, consider this example: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ recent strategy that makes it acceptable for doctors – as a last resort – to refuse to allow families who decline vaccination to be a part of their practice.

The recent self-death by 104-year old scientist David Goodall brings to the fore a key question: Whether to deem deterioration from advanced aging – beyond having an incurable disease – as another reasonable consideration for euthanasia. 

Using patient safety as a bargaining chip, and a tactic of delay, is unseemly at best and immoral at worst. 

OK, folks. Time for a five-question pop quiz, based upon reading Access Imperative by McKinsey and Company. And for you overachievers out there, there's a bonus question for extra credit! Go for it.

Thirty five years after graduating, ACSH President Hank Campbell returned to North Penn-Liberty High School in Pennsylvania to give the commencement speech honoring the Class of 2018. While noting that much has changed since he left, the basic challenges facing young people today have not.

While the recent Pennsylvania decision on surgical consent centers on a physician's responsibility, it did not consider how it emotionally binds the physician to the patient. The ritual of consent has many layers to consider. 

If the goal is guaranteeing the safety of children, as well as protecting the general population being from infectious diseases, then why is the act of shaming playing any role in vaccine compliance?

Breast cancer is more difficu lt to detect in women whose breasts are dense. It is unclear whether there is also underlying behavioral differences in their cancers. Should we treat them as a separate population?

When a gene is copied into a strand of RNA, the DNA in and around the gene must be loosened from its packaged state. Then, Spt6 helps DNA become re-wound when the copying process is completed. It also facilitates RNA degradation. This may lead to ways to understand disease.

Disgust is an emotional cue, and it helps us avoid situations fraught with disease. Are we responding to how infectious diseases are transmitted, or how they appear?

1. In Puget Sound Business Journal, Dr. Alex Berezow takes Seattle to task for engaging in Californication - desiring to play nanny state to the rest of the country while ignoring its problems at home. Like it's runaway homeless drug user population that is driving people and businesses away. You can read it here.

Perhaps Nick Kristof, the New York Times' non-expert on chemical toxicology, was on vacation. But the paper had a backup - Niraj Chokshi - to replace him. Chokshi is a psychology major who interviewed a member of the United States Public Interest Research Group, a bunch of lawyers, about scary chemicals in school supplies which aren't really scary at all. 

With Caesarian sections rising many people question physician decision making. It's always easier to see the correct path after the fact, when you bear no responsibility. A new study looks at some of the concerns being considered in the decision-making process. Spoiler Alert: it is not about the money.

There's concern that our sources of dietary protein are not sustainable and alternatives are sought. Among them: insects. A new report looks at their benefits and risks as a dietary staple. 

The Krebs cycle explains how the body's biochemistry produces energy. It is an intellectual rite of passage that many feel we can eliminate from physician's education. Perhaps so, but in our haste to "eliminate wasteful knowledge and compress time to "create more doctors," what kind of doctors do we create? 

The idea that some people with mental illness lack insight into their condition isn't new. And the condition, which health officials continue to grapple with, can also cause great stress for the loved ones of those afflicted by it.

While the exact reason is elusive, the facts are pointing towards the collaborative efforts of a local healthcare group, Be There San Diego, which in 2011 began aggressive follow-up treatment for at-risk patients. Coincidentally, there was a startling, 22 percent decrease in local heart attack hospitalizations beginning that year and extending through 2016.

A new review from regulatory experts at the National Health Service reveals a workforce shortage crisis. Officials paint a "bleak picture" about the state of the government-run health system.

Clinical trial registries are supposed to hold researchers accountable for publishing all results. But who is responsible when they ignore the rules?

Now, Disney Princesses and films are under attack. We are straying further and further from what most impacts child development, as a source of adult challenges.

Trump officials made a big splash with proposals to curb drug costs. But the benefits may not match the rhetoric from either the administration or Big Pharma. As is often the case, it's a bit more complicated than what we're getting as a first impression.

Kids are more resilient than you think, but are also magical thinkers. In the absence of direct communication from a parent, they will create their own narrative which can foster greater worry.

One of our core missions is to spread the good news about science as far and wide as possible. Obviously, we do plenty of that on the ACSH website, but we also regularly appear in various media outlets across the country. Here's where we appeared recently.

Polio peaks in the summer, measles during the school year, and chickenpox in the spring.

Diabetes + High Deductibles = Delays in Care A study tries to show that this is true, but the evidence is unconvincing