Our dying health-care system

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Health care videos

Breaking down the reform bill
Dec. 1: Former DNC Chairman Dr. Howard Dean explains his assessment that health care reform without a public option is worthless.

Diagnosing the Senate bill

Can the public option survive the Senate?

Public option hangs in balance

Final push for health reform

INTERACTIVE

Dose of reality
Do health care reform headlines leave you saying “huh?” Visit msnbc.com's guide to health reform and send us claims you'd like fact-checked.

What went right
Now for some ethical good news. A 55-year-old woman helped her daughter have triplets using in vitro fertilization. Californians ended the debate about embryonic stem cell research by passing a referendum that put more money into this area than anyone could reasonably have hoped it might attract from any presidential administration. The United Nations wisely backed off passing a ban on all forms of cloning when some of the member states realized that they did not know exactly what they were being asked to ban. And the media, some attorneys general, some politicians and the public began to wonder how to fix the corrupt system of marketing that has been allowed to flourish for far too long between doctors, academic health centers and private pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

OK critics, you can still e-mail me if you somehow find fault with these selections.

Lastly, what would this exercise in the traditional trite New Year’s journalistic format be without a prediction or two for the year ahead?

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Here are mine: the first face transplant will be attempted this year from a cadaver to a living person; prescription drug cards will be declared a disaster before the year is out; and the pharmaceutical industry will offer voluntary guidelines for reigning in direct-to-consumer advertising on television and radio.

Write 'em down and, as Cubs fans are wont to exclaim, wait until next year!

Arthur Caplan is director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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