Just in time for the holiday season (when most of our waistlines are expanding), the pages of AJOB this month we are discussing the ethical issues of shrinking our waistlines using bariatric surgery. Hofmann’s article stresses many, as yet, unaddressed issues with this increasingly popular and unfortunately increasingly necessary procedure while a number of commentator’s address broader social, political, and cultural issues surrounding the use of this procedure.

The December issues other Target Article discusses what has (and has not) changed in the abortion debate in the last 30+ years. Manninen in her article explores which legal and ethical arguments still are relevant today, and which have (or ought to have) faded into obscurity.

Check out both of these Target Articles, as well as an editorial by yours truly, in this month’s issue of AJOB. Many more issues and articles to come soon in 2011!

Summer McGee, PhD