Humanities & Society

In 2014, so called “Right to Try” laws, which gave terminally ill patients access to investigational medications, were enacted in five states. More state legislatures are now considering such laws. While time will tell whether these investigational drugs have any significant impact on quality of life or longevity, the legislative debate over such laws must be more informed than it has been, argues Rebecca Dresser, JD, expert in biomedical ethics and law at Washington University in St. Louis.

For Americans, the likelihood of experiencing relative poverty at least once in their lifetime is surprisingly high, finds a new study from noted poverty expert Mark Rank, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

​Costas Azariadis, PhD, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis, is currently in Greece. A native of Athens, Azariadis emailed his observations and insights into the turmoil and what might be next.​

As floodwaters surge along major rivers in the midwestern United States, a new study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests federal agencies are underestimating historic 100-year flood levels on these rivers by as much as five feet, a miscalculation that has serious implications for future flood risks, flood insurance, and business development in an expanding floodplain.

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to announce its decision in a lawsuit that threatens federal health insurance subsidies for more than 6 million Americans, health care economist Timothy D. McBride, PhD, professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is confident the high court will side with the Obama administration. If the court decides otherwise, low-income residents in many states will have little access to affordable healthcare, he warns.

Does a recently upheld Texas abortion law impose an “undue burden” if it forces some women to drive as much as 600 miles to obtain an abortion at a state-approved clinic? That’s a question the U.S. Supreme Court may be asked to decide, suggests legal experts at Washington University in St. Louis.

An analysis of Twitter hashtag use on the subject of diabetes provides new insights about spreading health information through social media. The study, led by Jenine Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, looked at the hashtag #diabetes and its interaction with two Twitter measures of engagement, retweeting and favoriting. The study found retweeting and favoriting was significantly lower for tweets about the number or percentage of people with diabetes, while favoriting was higher for tweets about health problems associated with diabetes.

The Syrian civil war began in 2011. Its spread since that time has caused refugees to spill across its borders and created a fertile environment for the rise of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). How can the international community get a handle on a conflict that already has claimed some 220,000 lives? One possible solution is to refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court, says Leila Sadat, PhD, an expert in international criminal law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Affordable Care Act has great potential to improve health and health care for people with diabetes, finds a new study led by Derek Brown, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Caitlyn Jenner’s first public appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair has sparked quite a stir. The Twitter account for Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, reached 1 million followers in just over four hours. Her story reminds us that even the most personal decisions are linked to broader social conditions, says an expert on later-in-life gender transitions at Washington University in St. Louis.