January 8, 2019
(Newsweek) – Ascientist in India has claimed that ancient Hindus invented test tube babies and stem cell technology. G. Nageshwar Rao, the vice chancellor of Andhra University in southern India, referred to an ancient Hindu text in which one woman … Read More
January 7, 2019
(CNET) – Would you prefer to be cremated or buried in a casket? Washington might give residents an additional option if it becomes the first US state to legalize an unusual end-of-life practice — composting human remains. “Recomposting” — which … Read More
November 29, 2018
(Quartz) – There were roughly 69,000 more deaths in 2017 than there were in 2016. Heart disease has been the number-one overall killer for many years and still topped the list in 2017. But it doesn’t explain the falling overall … Read More
November 6, 2018
(Knowable Magazine) – Ellen Stroud, an environmental historian at Penn State University, explored the macabre history and legal ambiguities of American bodies in the Annual Review of Law and Social Science. From the one-footed 87-year-old man sold to a medical … Read More
October 12, 2018
(Chicago Tribune) – A revolution in genomics is creeping into economics. It allows us to say something we might have suspected, but could never confirm: money trumps genes.Using one new, genome-based measure, economists found genetic endowments are distributed almost equally … Read More
October 9, 2018
(The Guardian) – People from minority ethnic backgrounds are set to lose out on medical benefits of genetics research due to an overwhelming bias towards studying white European populations, a leading scientist has warned. Prof David Curtis, a geneticist and … Read More
October 5, 2018
(Undark Magazine) – The subject matter was obscure, but the findings were provocative: A genomic analysis of a mysterious skeleton found in Chile’s Atacama Desert revealed that the remains weren’t those of an extraterrestrial, as was wildly speculated, but a … Read More
October 3, 2018
(STAT News) – African-Americans are enrolled in clinical trials that do not require patients to give individual consent at a disproportionately high level, according to a study published Monday. Scientists are allowed to conduct these experiments without obtaining consent from … Read More
September 13, 2018
(The Guardian) – If you watch movies you’ll have seen umpteen deaths, sometimes in a single film. (According to the people who keep a tally of such things, the final Lord of the Rings has cinema’s highest body count, of … Read More
August 29, 2018
(Quartz) – According to the survey from the Children’s Society, which included nearly 11,000 children in the UK, 22% of 14-year-old girls reported harming themselves last year, and almost one in 10 boys of the same age reported doing the … Read More
July 18, 2018
(Medscape) – Black individuals in the United States are three times more likely than whites to be killed by police, but new research suggests it is the killing of unarmed blacks that adversely affects the mental health of this population. … Read More
July 2, 2018
(The Guardian) – A controversial film based on the real-life case of abortion clinic doctor and convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell will now be released in US cinemas, after the conclusion of legal action against it by the judge involved in … Read More
June 14, 2018
(The Atlantic) – These cities are among the most extreme examples of a national phenomenon: Across the United States, black people suffer disproportionately from some of the most devastating health problems, from cancer deaths and diabetes to maternal mortality and … Read More
April 26, 2018
(Science) – Recent scientific developments have drawn renewed attention to the complex relationships among Indigenous peoples, the scientific community, settler colonial governments, and ancient human remains. Increasingly, DNA testing of ancestral remains uncovered in the America s is being used … Read More
April 26, 2018
(The Atlantic) – Race is a concept defined by society, not by genes. It’s true that people around the world differ genetically due to their ancestry, and that people’s racial identity may be statistically correlated with their ancestry, albeit unreliably. … Read More
March 29, 2018
(The Washington Post) – A Planned Parenthood branch ventured into the intersection between Disney princess memes and abortion politics on Tuesday — briefly — before deciding that, on second thought, those two things probably shouldn’t intersect and deleted its tweet. … Read More
March 23, 2018
(Smithsonian) – Iris’ participation in the World War II effort made her part of a celebrated time in U.S. history, when economic opportunities opened up for women and youth of color. However, before joining the shipyards, Iris was entangled in … Read More
March 1, 2018
(The Irish Times) – In the late 18th century, it paid to be different. Or more precisely, people would pay to get a look at you. Exhibition of “the Irish Giant” is still raising questions of medical ethics even 200 … Read More
February 28, 2018
(News.com.au) – IT’S the Nordic island known for it’s stunning scenery and Game of Thrones strongmen. But Iceland is making headlines over controversial medical guidelines that have sparked fears among religious groups and advocates. The country’s leaders are considering a law … Read More
January 17, 2018
(Vice News) – The question of consciousness is at the heart of what he does just as it is at the heart of much science fiction. From the replicants of Blade Runner to the digital clones of Black Mirror, we … Read More
January 11, 2018
(Science) – Of course no such proposal ever went to bioethicists at the University of Ingolstadt, where the fictional Frankenstein created his monster. In 1790, even a real Frankenstein would have faced no ethical reviews. But the proposal does exist … Read More
December 20, 2017
(The Atlantic) – Now, a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper explores how Americans also perceive and report pain differently from people in other countries. In other words, not only are our doctors more trigger-happy when it comes to … Read More
December 12, 2017
(NPR) – The life expectancy of Native Americans in some states is 20 years shorter than the national average. There are many reasons why. Among them, health programs for American Indians are chronically underfunded by Congress. And, about a quarter … Read More
October 20, 2017
Christian Bioethics (vol. 23, no. 2, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “The Scandal of Secular Bioethics: What Happens When the Culture Acts as if there is No God?” by Mark J. Cherry “A God’s-Eye Perspective after Onto-Theology: … Read More
August 21, 2017
(Quartz) – Marjorie Prime uses emerging technology as a window into our desire to self-select the past. Directed and co-written by Michael Almereyda and based on a play by Jordan Harrison, the movie’s focus is on a timeless question that … Read More
