View a partial list of
Lainie Ross’s publications through the National Library of Medicine's PubMed online database
Areas of research include ethical and policy issues related to genetics and emerging technologies; pediatric research; and living donor organ transplantation. Current projects are:
Project #1
Genetic Testing and Screening of Children
The goal of this project is to explore the wide array of ethical and policy issues raised by pediatric genetic testing and screening; and to offer a case-based normative analysis of the controversies that pediatric genetic testing and screening policies have and can generate. The project is based on work from a recently completed grant: Newborn Genetic Screening: For Whose Benefit? funded by the NICHD.
Project #2: Ethical and Policy Issues raised by Organ Transplantation.
The main focus of my work is on living donor issues. However, my current project seeks to determine a more equitable allocation of deceased donor organs. Collaborators: J. Richard Thistlethwaite, Jr (transplant surgeon, University of Chicago) and Stefanos Zenios (Stanford Graduate School of Business).
Project #3:
Pediatric Biobanks.
Drs. Steve Goldstein and Kenan Onel have been working to set up a pediatric biobank at the University of Chicago. The issue of biobanking samples with medical records for future non-described research raises many interesting ethical issues, particularly when the samples are from children. There is also the practical question: will parents enroll their children? And if not, why not? And if so, what do they think will be done with these samples? Surveys of post-partum women whose infants are in the well-baby nursery are being collected. Collaborator: Alon Neidich (student in the University of Chicago College).
Project #4:
Do as I say; Not as I Do
Two new vaccines have been licensed in the US: one for rotavirus to be given to young children; the other for HPV (human papilloma virus) for girls between the ages of 9 and 26 years. At a recent meeting on ethical issues in immunizations, it became clear that physicians do not always follow ACIP and AAP recommendations about vaccinations for their own children. This project investigates how physicians plan to respond to these new vaccines for their own children and in their practices. This follows up on work previously done by me and my colleagues which shows that pediatricians’ support for newborn screening policies are less influenced by their specialty training and more influenced by how they would treat their own children. Whether physician religiosity influences their decisions, particularly about the HPV vaccine, will be explored. Collaborators: Kenneth Alexander (Pediatric Infectious Disease, University of Chicago); Farr Curlin (General Internal Medicine, MacLean Center, University of Chicago); and Kimiko Ishibashi (MacLean Fellow, University of Chicago).
Books
Lainie Friedman Ross, Children, Families and Health Care Decision Making. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, (Clarendon Press), 1998.
Lainie Friedman Ross, Children in Medical Research: Access versus Protection. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 2006.
