December 5, 2006
Researchers have discovered that cats get Alzheimer’s disease, and it is very similar to the human variety. This opens up tremendous possibilities for researchers to learn about the disease and study potential treatments. Don’t tell me we don’t need animals … Read More
December 5, 2006
Remember the play Little Shop of Horrors and the alien plant keeps demanding, “Feed me!” This is now the mantra of Big Biotech. In country after country, state after state,and locality after locality, lobbyists for the biotech industry, their research … Read More
December 4, 2006
While reading the story in The Economist about the neural stem cell research success, which I just blogged, I also noticed this important description of the research process, which, notwithstanding the assertions of animal liberationist ideologues, illustrates the acute need … Read More
December 4, 2006
I consider The Economist to be the world’s best weekly news magazine. I often disagree with its perspective, but its journalism is usually top notch. (For example, it was one of the only news outlets to report the great Advanced … Read More
December 4, 2006
It is interesting that Peter Singer’s approval of a monkey brain experiment is big news in the UK, but virtually ignored here. In this piece, the Independent points out (correctly) that Singer’s approval of the monkey experiment is not really … Read More
December 4, 2006
The human cloners want thousands and thousands of eggs to try and win the Nobel Prize by becoming the first scientists to successfully clone a human embryo and derive embryonic stem cell lines. (Remember, Wu-suk Hwang used more than 2000 … Read More
December 3, 2006
I love it when those who think they are smarter than the great unwashed, who at least believe in something rather than nothing, presume to talk down their noses–but are the ones who actually get it wrong. Atheist crusader, Sam … Read More
December 3, 2006
I love it when those who think they are smarter than the great unwashed, who at least believe in something rather than nothing, presume to talk down their noses–but are the ones who actually get it wrong. Atheist crusader, Sam … Read More
December 2, 2006
A broad based coalition of disability rights activists, pro lifers, and family members of ill patients are planning to pressure the Texas Legislature to change its ridiculous futile care law that permits hospital ethics committees to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment. … Read More
December 2, 2006
Human exceptionalism seems so self evident to me that I am somewhat nonplussed that it is even considered debatable. Yet, a growing chorus adamantly deny that humans are entitled to a special status. But many would-be exceptionalism debunkers seem to … Read More
December 1, 2006
A reader of my recent article in National Review Online about Peter Singer’s approval of research conducted on monkeys, misunderstood me as perhaps not caring about cruelty to animals. I care very much about such matters, of course, and mentioned … Read More
December 1, 2006
And those advances keep coming in from all directions: The BBC is reporting that within three years or so, a patient’s own adult stem cells may be able to relieve back pain caused by damage to intervertebral discs (IVDs, a … Read More
November 30, 2006
Animal rights law professor and vegan activist Gary Francione has now weighed in at some length in his Blog about Peter Singer and his support for invasive brain research using monkeys. It is very hard hitting, and, it seems to … Read More
November 30, 2006
I thought it was pretty significant that Peter Singer endorsed research on monkeys, and very invasive research at that–brain experiments. But the American media ignored the story, so I decided to kick up a little dust. I was quite impressed … Read More
November 29, 2006
Oxford professor Nick Bostrom, one of the leading lights of the transhumanist movement, has a new paper out (“In Defense of Post Human Dignity”) in which he argues that there is no need to fear the post human future if … Read More
November 29, 2006
This is wonderful news and demonstrates the great potential for morally uncontentious stem cell research. But don’t expect the media or politicians to notice. There is campaign money in them thar embryonic stem cell hills. Big Biotech has spent many … Read More
November 28, 2006
A Genetic Bill of Rights–From Lori Andrews, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, who chaired the federal ethics advisory committee to the Human Genome Project. * You should have the right to refuse genetic testing and not to disclose … Read More
November 28, 2006
My new podcast is now available. In it, I discuss the dangers of personhood theory and its potential lethal consequences. If you are of a mind, check it out.
November 28, 2006
Apparently the first patient to receive a “face transplant” is doing well. Good. I never understood what all the fuss was about anyway. If we can transplant livers and kidneys from cadavers, why not facial flesh?
November 28, 2006
There was a wonderful article published in the Times of London by a father and the parenting of a child with Down syndrome. I thought of writing about it here, but thought the best place for it would be over … Read More
November 27, 2006
We have seen this before in the UK, and now in Australia: Humans exhibited in zoos as if we were merely another animal in the forest. But we are not mere animals. We are the exceptional species, human beings, unlike … Read More
November 27, 2006
One of the great and terrible jokes about assisted suicide/euthanasia is the old platitude that “guidelines” will protect against abuse. They don’t, of course. They are not even there to effectively constrain assisted suicide. Rather, in my view, they primarily … Read More
November 27, 2006
James Kelly, as you may know, is paralyzed from an auto accident and has become one of the nation’s foremost and dedicated activist promoting stem cell research: Adult stem cell research. Kelly has researched the matter quite thoroughly. As reported … Read More
November 27, 2006
I am sure he would rather use humans with profound cognitive capacities, but at least Peter Singer has acknowledged that great good can come from medical research using animals–and monkeys, no less. (The experiments involved surgical procedures to help Parkinson’s … Read More
November 26, 2006
The Alliance for Medical Research, which has loose affiliations with Baylor College of Medicine, put out a video, “Regenerative Medicine: Pathway to Cures,” which I demonstrated conclusively is thoroughly mendacious, propagandistic, and permeated with junk biology. Here is how the … Read More
