January 25, 2007
The Times of London is reporting, Sir Richard Branson will launch his most controversial business to date as he moves into stem-cell storage and the biotech sector. Huh? The stem cells in question come from umbilical cord blood. How in … Read More
January 25, 2007
With the murderer Jack Kevorkian soon to be released from prison on parole, he has to think about earning a living. According to this story, he has decided to go into business as what he calls a circumcision consultant. From … Read More
January 25, 2007
Germany has jailed a man who sold suicide pills over the internet. Good. Next stop: Phillip Nitschke. I would also like to see more enforcement against the suicide assisters among American euthanasia groups.
January 25, 2007
When Proposition 71 was being pushed on the voters, campaign propaganda assured Californians that the money would pour in to state coffers if they only gave scientists the constitutional right to do human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. The … Read More
January 23, 2007
In the current edition of Brave New Bioethics, I discuss the new religion of transhumanism, which fervently believes in a post human eschatology of human immortality and redesign.
January 23, 2007
It just keeps coming: The Telegraph is reporting that a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that stem cells are passed from mothers to unborn children with type 1 diabetes and may help repair … Read More
January 23, 2007
So, the deconstruction of ES cells as the “only hope” for “cures” continues apace. Now, South Korean researchers have been able to grow pancreatic beta cells from stem cells taken from the umbilical cord blood. And, the cells made from … Read More
January 22, 2007
A little while back, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists urged that every pregnant woman be tested to see if her fetus has Down syndrome. I did not comment on it at the time, having written quite a bit … Read More
January 22, 2007
This study is unsurprising to me: A survey of colo-rectal cancer patients finds that they are more willing to take chemotherapy, even with a small potential for extending life at the cost of significant adverse side effects, than doctors thought … Read More
January 21, 2007
I have been traveling and neglecting my blogging duties. Whilst gone, readers alerted me to the pathetic excuse given by the New York Times for not reporting the amniotic fluid stem cell breakthrough. Its reporter, Nicolas Wade, claimed he didn’t … Read More
January 20, 2007
“Can anything good come out of the United Nations,” I ask in the lede of my piece in the current Weekly Standard discussing that new UN treaty, which if followed–always a big if in these kind of things–would substantially protect … Read More
January 19, 2007
My friend Yuval Levin has a piece today in, of all places, the New York Times about President Bush’s ESC funding policy and its moral import. Here are a few key quotes: At its heart, then, when the biology and … Read More
January 19, 2007
This story demonstrates the dangers that are out there in stem cell land for the unwary. A Las Vegas doctor has been treating people with serious illnesses, such as MS, with stem cells from placenta and other non embryonic sources. … Read More
January 18, 2007
ACT, which claimed falsely to have created ES cell lines without actually destroying embryos, has gotten itself in the news again: This time to tout receipt of a $204,000 NIH grant to conduct embryonic stem cell research. As usual, the … Read More
January 18, 2007
Legislation has been introduced in Nebraska to outlaw all human cloning. And guess what? Unlike the deceptive Amendment 2, the legislation defines human cloning in a scientifically accurate manner. Maybe the reporters and editorialists of the Kansas City Star will … Read More
January 18, 2007
The mainstream bioethicists are mightily ticked because National Review’s Ramesh Ponurru (and others) resist their perceived wisdom on ESCR funding and ethics. But in attacking Ponurru, they bit off more than they can chew. In his usual methodical manner, the … Read More
January 18, 2007
I received an e-mail from Lenore Dixon, Andrea Clark’s sister. Readers of Secondhand Smoke will recall that Clark was the woman who was the subject of a fight over the attempt to terminate wanted life-sustaining treatment. Her family was treated … Read More
January 17, 2007
As promised, I have now read “Attenuating Growth in Children with Profound Developmental Disability” in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (2006;160:1013-1017), written by the doctors who kept Ashley a “pillow angel.” (HT Susan Nunes) It is very disturbing. … Read More
January 16, 2007
This was expected: Arizona legislators will introduce an assisted suicide legalization bill. Typically, the media report states that the opponents will be Christians and Catholics. That’s just the tip of the ice berg with disability rights and civil rights organizations … Read More
January 16, 2007
The quest for the blank check to conduct human embryonic stem cell research continues apace, as states trip over each other to throw money at Big Biotech and its business partners in universities. Now, it’s New York, where the new … Read More
January 16, 2007
The inestimable Will Saletan explores “the embryo factory” in Slate and, as is his wont, hits the nail on the head. He is writing about the Abraham Center of Life, which I commented about here at Secondhand Smoke last year. … Read More
January 15, 2007
Doctors are planning to perform the first uterus transplant in a woman desiring the surgery so she can have a baby, not to save her life. This strikes me as moving onto dangerous ground where doctors reduce themselves from professionals … Read More
January 15, 2007
Have you noticed how bitter some advocates for ESCR seem to be about the ongoing and ubiquitous advances in adult stem cell research? Well, here’s another story to raise their dander: Catherine Verfaillie, who first demonstrated that a certain type … Read More
January 15, 2007
George Dvorsky, the radical transhumanist–well, now there’s a redundant phrase–has come up with a long list of terms of which “intellectuals” should be aware. These include: Cosmological Eschatology (aka physical eschatology): CE is the study of how the Universe develops, … Read More
January 14, 2007
Thanks to China’s one child policy, mixed with what I consider to be a eugenics mindset that sees boys as more valuable than girls–certainly based in part on cultural issues and the perceived need of parents to be cared for … Read More
