December 19, 2006
One of my pet peeves about Oregon is that it rations health care to the poor in its Medicaid program. I believe that rationing is merely a polite term for discriminating against the people who need health care the most. … Read More
December 19, 2006
Maureen Condic is a sterling scientist at the University of Utah, who advocates on behalf of ethical approaches to biotechnology. She bases her points in evidence and science, and in this piece in the current First Things, demolishes most of … Read More
December 18, 2006
This isn’t good: Irina Bogomolova, the head investigator seeking to track down whether newborn infants were really killed and harvested for their stem cells and organs, was removed from the case after demanding that the investigation be expanded. The Telegraph … Read More
December 16, 2006
Take the stem cell quiz. Impress your friends! Embarrass those who think they are smarter than you! Readers of bioethics.com will pass with flying colors. Readers of the MSM will have to go to stem cell remedial education classes. (One … Read More
December 15, 2006
As my readers know, I disagree with the mainstream bioethics movement, animal liberationists, the philosophical beliefs of Darwinist materialism, transhumanists, and deep ecologists, and disagree with them profoundly. But there is one thing that I think it is fair to … Read More
December 15, 2006
This is an article from Exit International’s news letter, a very pro euthanasia group from Down Under. It describes the making of the so-called “peaceful pill” suicide concoction. For those who don’t know: Philip Nitschke was in charge of this … Read More
December 15, 2006
Here are few stories I saw today that are worth noticing. 1. Canadian scientists have cured mice with Type 1 diabetes using a substance that counteracted malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. This is the second experiment in recent years … Read More
December 14, 2006
The news reports about Jack Kevorkian’s “career” as an assisted suicide faclitator, what he would call an “obitiatrist,” are so sanitized or inaccurate that I had to respond. Here it is, at the Daily Standard. The media reports, beyond being … Read More
December 14, 2006
Regarding the AP’s erroneous reporting of Jack Kevorkian assisting the “terminally ill,” in yesterday’s report about K’s pending parole. Stephen Drake of Not Dead Yet was on the case and seems to have gotten the AP to change the story. … Read More
December 14, 2006
Now found in hair follicles. Positive early tests in mice for the potential treatment of spinal cord injury. Amazing.
December 14, 2006
Now found in hair follicles. Positive early tests in mice for the potential treatment of spinal cord injury. Amazing.
December 13, 2006
The murderer Jack Kevorkian is going to be paroled in June. He promises not to assist any more suicides. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be lionized in the press. The media love outlaws of a certain kind. I am … Read More
December 13, 2006
The Italian Supreme Court is going to hear a case about whether a patient should have the right to refuse unwanted life-sustaining medical treatment (a matter already settled in the United States). This isn’t euthanasia, as currently understood, which involves … Read More
December 13, 2006
The newest edition of my podcast Brave New Bioethics is now up. Using my earlier First Thing blog entry as my script, I compare the love of a father whose son has Down syndrome with the infanticide permissiveness of bioethicist … Read More
December 12, 2006
I was interviewed for an hour by Derek Gilbert yesterday on KSSZ about transhumanism, post humanity, and genetic enhancement of our progeny. We discuss transhumanism as religion, its obsession with control, and its threat to human exceptionalism. I quote James … Read More
December 12, 2006
The BBC has a very disturbing report that newborn infants may be being killed in the Ukraine to harvest their stem cells. This follows hard on the heels of another story that women in the Ukraine are paid $200 to … Read More
December 11, 2006
What were the operators of Hope Hospice of Southwest Florida thinking? A few weeks ago, they applied for a license to operate a funeral home. This was wrong on so many levels. But, at least for now, the attempt to … Read More
December 10, 2006
Does it matter morally that a “being” is human? And what does it mean exactly, to be human? The jihad aside, these may be the most important questions facing us in the 21st Century. Which is why we spend so … Read More
December 7, 2006
The discussion about selecting embryos to have a disability reminded me of a column I have in my files written by the syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman in January 1980. It is a good reminder of how if we are willing … Read More
December 7, 2006
I have my pronounced differences with University of Pennsylvania bioethicist and media commentator, Art Caplan, particularly regarding the Schiavo case and ESCR/SCNT. But he is right about this: Over at the AJOB blog, Caplan calls the drive to legalize eugenic … Read More
December 6, 2006
I don’t get it. Rick Weiss of the Washington Post has written that people remain wary of eating genetically altered food. Many want nothing to do with meat or milk from cloned animals. Yet, majorities of people would willingly have … Read More
December 6, 2006
The woman in the UK who was ordered to receive a sleeping medication to see if she would awaken, didn’t. The UK courts have now allowed her family remove all life support, which I presume includes tube-supplied sustenance. Alas.
December 6, 2006
Australia has voted to end its former complete ban on human cloning. What is interesting is that this change wasn’t made because of new breakthroughs in the science. There haven’t been any–except with adult and umbilical cord blood stem cells. … Read More
December 5, 2006
I am glad to see that I am not the only one noticing the ludicrousness of every government entity this side of the dog catcher tripping over themselves to throw money at Big Biotech. Business Investors Daily has an excellent … Read More
December 5, 2006
The social forces set in motion by those who believe it is proper to manipulate the genetic traits of our children, are becoming increasingly apparent. Now, as reported in a column by Dr. Darshak M. Sanghavi in the New York … Read More
