February 26, 2010
Over the past decade, Ludwig Minelli has helped more than 1,000 people kill themselves and has turned Zurich into the undisputed world capital of assisted suicide. Minelli sees himself as a crusader for what he calls “the last human rightâ€â€”and … Read More
February 26, 2010
New guidelines published Thursday offer people in England and Wales broad hints about how to help a gravely ill loved one end their life with minimal fear of prosecution. Assisted suicide remains illegal, but Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer … Read More
February 26, 2010
Professor Stephen Wilkinson, of the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele University in Staffordshire, argues that unless there is a serious sex imbalance in the population (e.g. many more boys than girls) or the decision is motivated by sexist attitudes … Read More
February 26, 2010
Stanford researcher finds that experiences with avatars, including personalized images of ourselves, can change our view of reality and the way we act in the real world. (PhysOrg)
February 26, 2010
Competing in the Olympics comes with many obvious perks, like the honor of representing one’s country on the international stage and lucrative endorsements. But when elite athletes enter the health-insurance market, they face the same byzantine system the rest of … Read More
February 26, 2010
Recommendations in a new report include restructuring financing to attract physicians and other health care professionals to the specialty. (American Medical News)
February 25, 2010
The advances in biotechnology have given rise to a discussion concerning the strong emotional reaction expressed by the public towards biotechnological innovations. This reaction has been named the ‘Yuck-factor’ by several theorists of bioethics. Leon Kass, the former chairman of … Read More
February 25, 2010
In the early days of bioethics, the dominant paradigm was about finding ways to slow down the application and use of emerging technologies. While some still tenaciously cling to this paradigm, the ethics of information technologies applied to biobanks and … Read More
February 25, 2010
Distaste for science is sometimes a function of its findings: it doesn’t always tell us what we want to hear. So it is with free will. Many would like to believe that our powers of conscious choice transcend cause and … Read More
February 25, 2010
In what doctors described Wednesday as a world first, a Danish woman has given birth to two children after her fertility was restored using ovarian tissue that was removed, frozen, thawed and then reimplanted after cancer treatment. (PhysOrg)
February 25, 2010
Thousands of preserved human embryos will be disposed of next week following the implementation of a federal law that bars fertility clinics from conducting this medical procedure on religious grounds. (Khaleej Times)
February 25, 2010
Clinics that offer to “bank” stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborns for use later in life when illness strikes are fraudsters, a top US scientist said here Saturday. (PhysOrg)
February 24, 2010
In the United States and around the world, demand for organs for transplantation exceeds the number of organs available (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2006; Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2009; Rhee et al., 2009; Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, 2010; … Read More
February 24, 2010
When Nikolas Evans was assaulted in a fight last year outside a bar in Austin, Texas, his mother’s dreams for her 21-year-old son — a college student with “a good head on his shoulders” — evaporated. Returning from a night … Read More
February 24, 2010
The official definition of human embryonic stem (HES) cells in US National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines is to be broadened from those ‘derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst stage human embryo’ (ie. from embryos that have reached … Read More
February 24, 2010
We should think very carefully before we start routinely taking drugs such as Modafinil to boost cognitive function. (Guardian)
February 24, 2010
In 2004, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors put forward a fundamental truth: “The case against selective reporting is particularly compelling for research that tests interventions that could enter mainstream clinical practice.”1 There is perhaps no arena in medical … Read More
February 24, 2010
The Vatican’s top bioethics official on Monday dismissed calls for his resignation following an uproar over his defense of doctors who aborted the twin fetuses of a 9-year-old child who was raped by her stepfather. (Seattle PI)
February 23, 2010
Children born from assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization are generally as healthy as naturally conceived children but tend to be lower in birth weight and have slightly more genetic differences, according to researchers who spoke Monday at the … Read More
February 23, 2010
When state health officials were sued last year for storing infant blood samples without parental consent, they said it was for medical research into birth defects, childhood cancer and environmental toxins. They never said they were turning over hundreds of … Read More
February 23, 2010
Last year a five-month-old boy in Turkey stopped gaining weight and became dehydrated despite getting plenty of liquids. Specialists in Istanbul suspected Bartter’s syndrome, a potentially fatal kidney disorder that afflicts one in 100,000 babies, causing dangerously low levels of … Read More
February 23, 2010
IT IS one of the most delicate situations which many medics have to deal with. Within hours of a patient dying, they find themselves in a private room with the grieving, emotionally raw relatives, looking for a way to broach … Read More
February 23, 2010
Aggressive treatment at the end of life — frantic CPR for a brain-dead accident victim, inserting a feeding tube in a dying Alzheimer’s patient — has become a staple of the health care debate. Critics argue that vast resources are … Read More
February 23, 2010
The 7th Annual John Harvey Collins Lecture Hosted by the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Wednesday March 24, 2010 7:00 pm Leavey Center, Salon H, Georgetown University Daniel Callahan, PhD will present “Aging and Medical Progress: Caring or … Read More
February 23, 2010
JAMA (Vol. 303; No. 7; February 17, 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Dynamics of Obesity and Chronic Health Conditions Amongh Children and Youth” by Jeanne Van Cleave, Steven L. Gortmaker, and James M. Perrin; 623-630. “Heritable … Read More
