March 1, 2013
For a film in which a husband murders his wife, Amour has been shown a lot of love. It was nominated for five Oscars, including best actress for Emmanuelle Riva, and best foreign language film, which it won. (The Guardian)
March 1, 2013
In this interview given the day before a seminar for the creation of a National Bioethics Committee in Trinidad and Tobago, held in Port-of-Spain on 28 February and 1 March 2013, Dr D. Simeon, Director of the Caribbean Health Research … Read More
March 1, 2013
A new issue of Journal of Public Health (Vol 35, No 1, March 2013) is now available online and in print. An editorial “What should public health be doing for disabled people, and why aren’t we?” by Anita Houghton is … Read More
February 25, 2013
Scientists and gamers alike can now play disease detective, through “Solve the Outbreak,†a new iPad app from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
February 19, 2013
In the past, good science has been used for unethical purposes, like eugenics. The concept of culture can protect genetics from a similar fate, an anthropologist argues. (Futurity)
February 18, 2013
Services such as LivesOn and DeadSocial plan to keep your friends and family updated on your Twitter and Facebook pages, even after you have passed away. (The Guardian )
February 7, 2013
The pair behind a new Channel 4 show about a ‘bioinic’ man, say that a future where living flesh and computer chips become one will arrive “sooner” than we expect. (Yahoo News, UK)
February 6, 2013
Facebook has encompassed many things in its nine-year run. From a subtler version of a dating site to a gaming platform and a messaging hub. We’ve seen Facebook and its billion-plus users play a part in influencing politics, the form … Read More
February 1, 2013
FRANCE’S plans to legalise gay marriage have unexpectedly exposed the country’s unease with assisted reproduction. (news.com.au)
February 1, 2013
The Grammy winner reveals she suffered a miscarriage – and slams rumors she used a gestational surrogate – in her upcoming HBO documentary, Life Is But a Dream – slated to air Feb. 16. (People)
January 30, 2013
The Leipzig anatomist Wilhelm His chose a most unusual accessory when he was sculpted in marble in 1900. (The Lancet)
January 24, 2013
A significant High Court ruling means the media can report part of a landmark family law action about whether the genetic parents of two small children born to a surrogate mother may be listed as the children’s parents on their … Read More
January 23, 2013
Arguing that obesity “may be the most difficult and elusive public health problem the United States has ever encountered” and that anti-obesity efforts having made little discernible difference, Daniel Callahan, co-founder and President Emeritus of The Hastings Center, proposes a … Read More
January 21, 2013
Premiering today at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the U.S. documentary competition, “After Tiller†is an intimate and heartfelt look at the four doctors performing third-trimester abortions in the United States, doing so even after the 2009 assassination … Read More
January 17, 2013
As Roe v. Wade turns 40, most Americans under 30 can’t correctly identify the nature of the landmark ruling. (Salon)
January 17, 2013
The thorny issue of assisted suicide doesn’t seem to be fertile, or even appropriate, ground for a television comedy. Not so, says Bob Kushell, a writer for The Simpsons and Anger Management. (BBC)
January 9, 2013
Doug Wolens’s recent documentary takes on the complex, abstract concept of the singularity, which predicts a moment when technology will give rise to intelligence beyond the scope of human imagination. It sounds like sci-fi but, Wolens and others argue, there’s … Read More
December 31, 2012
Celebrities rarely shy away from public peddling of dubious ideas about health and science, and 2012 was no exception. (Reuters)
December 24, 2012
New research examining the role of race and ethnicity in an individual’s decision to become a donor for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) identifies several factors associated with varied participation rates in national donor registries across racial/ethnic groups. (News-Medical.net)
December 19, 2012
The mass murder of 20 children and six adults Friday in Newtown, Conn., has provoked yet another round of recrimination, finger pointing and breast-beating. Was the shooter mentally deranged? If there was more gun control, would this have happened? Did … Read More
December 17, 2012
Director Jeremy Sims describes his latest project as a feel-good film about euthanasia. “It’s a coming-of-age story for a 70-year-old man,” said the filmmaker. (Herald Sun)
December 7, 2012
It’s no longer news that babies have become a status symbol. We’ve gotten used to judging celebs’ bumps and observed the rise of the baby-centric fashion statement. The excitement this week over Kate Middleton’s royal fetus — and the medical … Read More
November 20, 2012
Tesla was hardly alone in believing this. Support for eugenics was one of the few things that people across political lines in the early 20th Century would agree on, from socialists like H.G. Wells to the Supreme Court of the … Read More
September 27, 2012
Celebrities often endorse health causes — think Michael J. Fox and Parkinson’s disease, Montel Williams and multiple sclerosis, Rosie O’Donnell and desmoid tumors. Then think Jenny McCarthy and autism — and her conviction that it is caused by childhood vaccines. … Read More
September 26, 2012
“Good Morning America†cameras were there last week when co-host Robin Roberts underwent a bone marrow transplant. So were her colleagues Diane Sawyer and Sam Champion, wearing surgical masks and singing songs of encouragement. All of it was on the … Read More
