September 30, 2007
Nanotechnology Issue 1(2) August 2007 is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Nanotechnology – Steps Towards Understanding Human Beings as Technology?” by Armin Grunwald and Yannick Julliard, 77-87. “Social and Ethical Interactions with Nano: Mapping the Early Literature” by … Read More
September 30, 2007
File this in the “talk about Chutzpah!” folder: Two Stanford bioethicists, Mildred Cho and David Magnus, have written a column in Nature Reports Stem Cells bemoaning the hype and exaggeration that may have led people to have unreasonable expectations for … Read More
September 29, 2007
Next year, Washington voters may decide whether to legalize assisted suicide. Already, the argument has begun. Here’s a good piece published in the Olympian by Joelle Brouner, a member of paper’s Diversity Panel and a disability rights activist, arguing why … Read More
September 28, 2007
In a report due to be released Friday, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, Daniel R. Levinson, said federal health officials did not know how many clinical trials were being conducted, audited fewer than 1 … Read More
September 28, 2007
Most orthopedic implants–artificial devices like hip and knee joints–last from ten to fifteen years, which means that many patients require several surgeries to replace the parts during their lifetime. Now scientists at Brown University have started working on superior implants … Read More
September 28, 2007
Six patients at Frenchay Hospital are being injected with their own stem cells in the hope that they will repair damage to the brain. (BBC)
September 28, 2007
The technique involves inserting stem cells into the damaged organ so that it is encouraged to repair itself and create new tissue. (Telegraph)
September 28, 2007
Hospices are emerging as a new setting for drug trials as demand rises for medicines to address the needs of dying patients. Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc., the small Tarrytown, N.Y. company seeking approval of methylnaltrexone, recently tested it among 287 patients, … Read More
September 28, 2007
The Jewish doctors intend to convert the house into an international centre to analyse and debate medical ethics. The plan is to cooperate with the Bar-Ilan university in Israel and the Israeli Medical Association. Young doctors would be offered courses, … Read More
September 27, 2007
The media will continue to squawk about how embryonic stem cells may years from now treat MS, but adult stem cells are already moving forward into human trials in the UK. (As I previously reported, adult stem cells have stopped … Read More
September 27, 2007
The “scientific study” has become the modern-day equivalent to Biblical scripture: They can be made to support whatever result the “studier” desires. Case in point: A just released study by Margarette P. Battin of the University of Utah, claiming that … Read More
September 27, 2007
The city-state has spent more than $3 billion in a bid to transform its economy into a knowledge-based one that relies less on manufacturing of products like cell phones and modems and more on fields such as research. (Bloomberg)
September 27, 2007
The science of life is undergoing changes so jolting that even its top researchers are feeling something akin to shell-shock. Just four years after scientists finished mapping the human genome – the full sequence of 3 billion DNA “letters” folded … Read More
September 27, 2007
Seven of the largest pharmaceutical companies have formed a group to develop genetic tests to determine which patients would be at risk from dangerous drug side effects. (New York Times)
September 27, 2007
Legalised “physician-assisted death” has not been used to kill people who may be “a burden to society”, US research suggests. (BBC)
September 27, 2007
Limited scientific research on somatic cell nuclear transfers for possible cures of fatal diseases will be permitted following a revision of the relevant law. The law will prescribe the bounds of the research, as well as ban human ova trading. … Read More
September 27, 2007
Three hundred and fifty years ago, while pioneering the use of microscopes, the British scientist Robert Hooke foresaw that science would eventually create artificial organs and implantable devices to enhance sight, hearing and memory. He wrote “By the addition of … Read More
September 27, 2007
Right-to-die group Dignitas has been barred from its premises in a Zurich suburb after neighbors objected to the use of the apartment for assisted suicides, the local council said Wednesday. It was the second blow for the non-profit association this … Read More
September 26, 2007
Dignitas, the assisted suicide facilitating organization from Switzerland is extending its tentacles into Germany. Just as the Swiss neighbors of the group’s suicide safe house objected to all of the corpses being carried out, so too now, have Germans: ZURICH … Read More
September 26, 2007
by Neil Levy Abstract The extended mind thesis is the claim that mental states extend beyond the skulls of the agents whose states they are. This seemingly obscure and bizarre claim has far-reaching implications for neuroethics, I argue. In the … Read More
September 26, 2007
Scientists have developed a new way to treat liver failure by dampening the immune response using stem cells taken from the bone marrow. (BBC)
September 26, 2007
The pendulum swings back and forth about what ails the regulation of drug development. Thirty years ago, the concerns were primarily about “drug lag” – indolent reviews and approvals by the FDA that put Americans at disadvantage to consumers in … Read More
September 26, 2007
The House on Tuesday passed a bill providing health insurance to more than 10 million children, but supporters of the measure fell short of the two-thirds majority they would need to override a veto repeatedly threatened by President Bush. (New … Read More
September 26, 2007
New research suggests that genetic testing could quickly distinguish which smokers would benefit from bupropion. The findings add to a growing number of studies linking genetics to nicotine addiction and the ability to quit, and raise the possibility that quitting … Read More
September 26, 2007
The House and Senate compromise on the reauthorization and expansion of a children’s health insurance program would open the federally funded program to illegal immigrants, according to Republicans who oppose the measure. (CNSNews)
