January 31, 2007
We are now posting the writings of Dr. Nigel Cameron, Director of the Center on Nanotechnology and Society at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and President of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future. Dr. Cameron’s chief interest lies … Read More
January 31, 2007
The latest issue of the hip biz magazine Fast Company offers an insight into the way the world is going: Big Blue have begun to use a Second Life island as a training ground for new hires (if you have … Read More
January 31, 2007
Well, here’s something good that came out of the Hwang cloning fraud. South Korea, apparently, is on the verge of outlawing egg donations for use in biomedical research. Good. No woman should risk her life so that cloning researchers can … Read More
January 31, 2007
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law, lawmakers in Hawaii plan to examine the issue once again. (Star Bulletin)
January 31, 2007
Supporters of a bill to bar discrimination against people because of their genetics have launched a push for congressional passage even as some business leaders oppose it, fearing a flood of frivolous suits. (Reuters)
January 31, 2007
Merck & Co. is helping bankroll efforts to pass state laws requiring girls as young as 11 or 12 to receive the drugmaker’s new vaccine against the sexually transmitted cervical-cancer virus. (MSNBC)
January 31, 2007
The Holy See is preparing a document on new bioethical questions posed by advancing biotechnology, according to the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (Zenit)
January 31, 2007
The government is expected to ban human egg donations late this year, a move apparently motivated by the scandal involving the country’s disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk. (The Korea Times)
January 31, 2007
The debate about chimeras is a dog’s dinner. Make that a hog’s dinner, a hog being a cross between a human being and a dog. Hang on: a hog is a pig, isn’t it? Like I said, this species-mixing business … Read More
January 31, 2007
Let’s give pharmaceutical freedom to our elderly. Elderly Americans should be legally permitted to use any drug their doctor approves of, even if the drug has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (TCS Daily)
January 30, 2007
We are witnessing the beginning of the public normalization of the profound mental illness known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)–also known as “amputee wannabe” because its sufferers become obsessed with losing one or more limbs. This column published in … Read More
January 30, 2007
A product made from natural neonatal pig islet cells encased in capsules is to offer new hope to people with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes. (Scoop)
January 30, 2007
IIT’s Techfest had a special lecturer on Sunday. A lanky Englishman who calls the Terminator a documentary and predicts that a large chunk of the Indian population will consist of cyborgs in a little over thirty years. (Hindustan Times)
January 30, 2007
The telephone calls and e-mail messages started streaming in just hours after the first news articles reported that a uterine transplant might be in the works. One caller was a 25-year-old Alabama woman who was born without a uterus. Another … Read More
January 30, 2007
Australian Greens senator Bob Brown is confident he will receive support for his private member’s bill to legalize euthanasia. (Sydney Morning Herald)
January 30, 2007
Setting up a legislative debate over whether stem-cell research can be realized without the destruction of human embryos, a state lawmaker said Monday she will file a bill to call for increased spending on other less controversial types of the … Read More
January 30, 2007
Ingrid Jansson peers through a vapor of liquid nitrogen at frozen embryos conceived for her in a petri dish four years ago. It’s the first time she’s eyed the surplus from the in vitro fertilization procedure that brought her son … Read More
January 30, 2007
The supply of low-cost generic versions of cancer and AIDS treatments for the developing world could be blocked if Novartis wins a legal challenge to India’s patent law, patients’ rights groups have contended. (New York Times)
January 30, 2007
Recently my sisters and I needed to fill out a terminal-wishes document for our mother, who is now in a nursing home and unable to do it herself. It reflects wishes that she expressed before dementia deprived her of much … Read More
January 29, 2007
This from the Telegraph: “Greedy middle-aged sons and daughters are the people most likely to rob their parents of money, valuables and even their homes, according to a report today. The findings, published by Action on Elder Abuse, are based … Read More
January 29, 2007
Each week, Leslie Gordon reviews the cases of every child in the world known to have progeria, a premature-aging disease. These children almost always die of a heart attack, at an average age of 13. There are only 42 people … Read More
January 29, 2007
Science did a very nasty and, in my view, politically motivated thing before the election: It printed a hit piece by William Neaves and others against David Prentice, essentially accusing him of lying to the public, without giving him a … Read More
January 29, 2007
PA has a big push ongoing to promote advance health directives and, as part of that effort, has passed a law that creates a commission to determine who decides such matters for residents without their own directive. (I will keep … Read More
January 29, 2007
DoveThis ad has been around awhile, but I think it punctures the transhumanists’ naive presumption that the post human future would be wildly individualistic and iconoclastic. I believe the opposite would be true. Just as today we are herded by … Read More
January 29, 2007
We so often hear that physician-assited suicide is about “choice.” The patient’s to die, and the doctors to either facilitate suicide or not. But the new Hawaii bill to legalize assisted suicide requires doctors to participate–either by prescribing poison or … Read More
