The Top 5 Most Controversial Health Issues for 2015

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The year 2015 has been filled with various health news and controversies that were subject to debate. From breast cancer, rape cases, Martin Shkreli and the Plant Parenthood fiasco, we list down five of the hotly talked about news that made it to the front page in 2015, per Medical Daily.

5. New Breast Cancer Screen Guidelines Lead to Confusion

When the American Cancer Society (ACS) released new recommendations for breast cancer detection, pushing the starting age of a woman to get a mammogram from 40 to 45 years old, medical professionals and the public were confused and asked what if something was detected earlier than the recommended age.

4. "Yes Means Yes" Law in California

California was put on a hot seat when they were the first to enact the "Yes Means Yes" Law, which, according to NPR, "requires colleges that receive state funding to have policies covering more than a dozen situations that can arise in sexual assault or domestic violence cases." The said law is an effort to control and handle accusations of rape and sexual molestations. It also specifies that "consent" from a victim can be given even if the victim is asleep, on drugs or has consumed alcohol.

However, the law elicited a lot of public outrage. According to Time, "Having the government dictate how people should behave in sexual encounters is a terrible idea."

3. Martin Shkreli's Price Hike on Prescription Drugs

Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was criticized when he decided to raise the price of one of their prescription drugs for toxoplasmosis (parasitic infections), Darapin, at over 5,000 percent in just one night from $13.50 to $750.

“This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business. This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world. It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this," said Shrekli to The New York Times.

2. Planned Parenthood Funding and Its Controversial Videos

Last July, Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life organization, secretly recorded a disturbing video where a physician from Plant Parenthood was discussing how they can sell aborted fetuses. The video led to investigations and the government threatening to withhold funds for Planned Parenthood.

Texas Governor Rick Perry even tagged the video as "a disturbing reminder" of "the organization’s penchant for profiting off the tragedy of a destroyed human life," per a separate Medical Daily report.

1. Worldwide Climate Change Agreement

Recently, news broke when various nations finally signed an agreement to take actions for climate change. According to Time, the agreement marks "the beginning of the end of more than 100 years of fossil fuels serving as the primary engine of economic growth."

However, some are apprehensive of the news and considers it as "too weak." Gawker noted that the agreement did not discuss or even include carbon tax.