May 14, 2008
A survey of the victims, er ah, the patients served by the NHS in the UK reveals that they know very well how bad things have become. From the story: A big variation in the performance of NHS trusts across … Read More
May 13, 2008
The story of the first supposedly genetically altered human embryo is making headlines around the world. From the story: The study appears to be the first report of genetically modifying a human embryo. It was presented last fall at a … Read More
May 12, 2008
There is a column in The Gurdian that illustrates vividly the ugly reality of assisted suicide. The writer Jon Ronson followed some suicide facilitators around, and found that their “compassion” leaves much to be desired. For example, Susan (a pseudonym), … Read More
May 12, 2008
Ryan T. Anderson has an interesting entry over at the First Things blog about an ethics conference he attended at Princeton. It makes for sobering reading. He begins with a quote from Princeton philosophy professor Elizabeth Harmon. From his column: … Read More
May 9, 2008
An intrepid reader sent me this on-line syllabus from a bioethics course at the University of Washington Medical School. I checked on the link protocol and the author Nancy Jecker, Ph.D presumes that the right to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment … Read More
May 9, 2008
Biological colonialism (as I call it) is a real and growing international problem, in which rich Westerners pay destitute people for kidneys, the use of their wombs, and potentially coming soon to a poor country in Asia or Africa, for … Read More
May 8, 2008
Why is assisted suicide always treated as if life were lived in a vacuum? Case in point: The suicide statistics in Washington are, according to a newspaper report “terrifying,” and yet, many newspapers editorially support legalizing assisted suicide–which at the … Read More
May 7, 2008
When the creators of Proposition 71 spent tens of millions buying a constitutional amendment in California to permit human cloning research, they promised CURES! CURES! CURES! And what are people spending hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money on? … Read More
May 6, 2008
I just did an entry on a new Texas futile care lawsuit involving a girl named Sabrina Murray who was apparently threatened with a futile care termination by a Houston hospital, resulting now in litigation. But I had to reserve … Read More
May 6, 2008
Texas is ground zero for Futile Care Theory because of its pernicious law that permits ethics committees to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment over patient/family objections. Readers of SHS will recall that when such a decision is rendered, families have a … Read More
May 5, 2008
When assisted suicide advocates try to sell the public on assisted suicide, they usually describe an eminently dying patient whose suffering cannot be palliated. But once it passes, we soon see that assisted suicide is used by people who have … Read More
May 5, 2008
Doctors and bioethicists have been mulling how to triage care if the deep ecologists receive the deepest yearning of their hearts and the human race is stricken with a deadly pandemic. In such a case, priorities of care will have … Read More
April 11, 2008
Nature is supposed to be a science journal. But in a new editorial, it strays into promoting radical individualistic and transhumanistic philosophy–although it doesn’t use the name–which would unleash scientists to “play god” and intelligently design the natural world into … Read More
April 9, 2008
A few days ago I posted an entry here at SHS about a heart transplant recipient who fell in love with his donor’s wife and ultimately committed suicide in the same manner as the donor. I also quoted the story … Read More
April 9, 2008
For the last ten years, “the scientists,” in order to win the political debates over ESCR and SCNT, often wildly hyped the potential for CURES! CURES! CURES! In the process, they convinced Californians–now facing a $16 billion budget deficit and … Read More
April 8, 2008
April 7, 2008
Now this is a very sad story that would seem to be science fiction, but isn’t. Sonny Graham received the heart of a suicide victim named Terry Cottle. Afterwards, he seems to have assimilated something of the dead man’s essence … Read More
April 7, 2008
There is an interesting story in the New York Times today that illustrates the difficulties of reforming our health care system to provide universal access. Massachusetts recently required universal coverage through private or public means. The consequence has been greater … Read More
April 6, 2008
Will Saletan, with whom I often disagree but whose journalism and pondering in the area of biotechnology is top notch, has an article out in Slate about how sex selection is coming to America. From his column: Two days ago, … Read More
April 6, 2008
Parkinson’s Patients who received fetal cadaver tissue grafts and whose brains were studied after they died, showed that the disease continued to affect healthy tissue and thus cell grafts may not function long term. From the story: “These findings give … Read More
April 6, 2008
I was speaking in beautiful Eugene, Oregon yesterday–and so was Hillary Clinton. (For some reason she made the front page of the Register Guard instead of me.) During the Q and A session, she was asked about Oregon’s assisted suicide … Read More
April 3, 2008
In the wake of their loss, the Schindler family created the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation to stand up for the intrinsic equal dignity of profoundly disabled people and to hold the line against bioethical agendas such as assisted suicide and … Read More
April 3, 2008
I have had some buzz today that a new futile care case may have come to the fore after an Illinois nursing home, the North Logan Healthcare Center in Danville, was fined for violating a patient’s advance directive declaring that … Read More
April 2, 2008
Charlie Brown is elected President of the United States and calls for sacrifice. The American people respond:
April 1, 2008
Scientists in the UK claim to have made embryos using cow eggs and human DNA through SCNT. Although the work has yet to be verified via peer review, Newcastle scientists told the press that the embryos lasted three days. From … Read More
