October 17, 2018
(Newsweek) – Before his death in March of this year, Stephen Hawking warned that genetic engineering could lead to the rise of a superhuman species, with disastrous consequences for the rest of humanity. The stark message is just one of … Read More
October 9, 2018
(The Washington Post) – Johns Hopkins University announced it will name a new research building on campus in honor of Henrietta Lacks, whose “immortal cells” led to the development of the polio vaccine, studies of leukemia and AIDS, chemotherapy 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 4, 2018
(The Atlantic) – This controversy is the latest chapter in an ongoing debate around “dual-use research of concern”—research that could clearly be applied for both good and ill. More than that, it reflects a vulnerability at the heart of modern … Read More
October 3, 2018
The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (vol. 43, no. 3, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “A Practice-Oriented Review of Health Concepts” by >Beatrijs Haverkamp, Bernice Bovenkerk, and Marcel F Verweij “A New Approach to Defining Disease” … Read More
October 1, 2018
(Yahoo! News) – Two immunologists, James Allison of the US and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, won the 2018 Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how the body’s natural defences can fight cancer, the jury said on Monday. Unlike more traditional … Read More
October 1, 2018
BMC Medical Ethics has new articles available online. Articles include: “A Reflection on the Challenge of Protecting Confidentiality of Participants while Disseminating Research Results Locally ” by Anne-Marie Turcotte-Tremblay and Esther Mc Sween-Cadieux “In Pursuit of Goodness in Bioethics: Analysis … Read More
September 28, 2018
(Science Daily) – In 2014, the first child to have been gestated in a donated uterus was born. Although research into uterus transplantation is still in an early phase, many see the donations as a success. Researchers have now studied … Read More
September 25, 2018
(Reuters) – Lesbian couples and single women who want to bear children should have access to medically assisted reproductive treatments such as in-vitro fertilization, France’s highest bioethics body said on Tuesday. The topic has stirred political debate in France, which … Read More
September 21, 2018
(ABC News) – Terminally ill people should have the right to a “dignified assisted death,” former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu said Friday, following a murder charge against a local campaigner for the legalization of euthanasia. Lawmakers “should engage, enable … Read More
September 5, 2018
(STAT News) – The once-heralded blood-testing startup Theranos is shutting down, according to a new report. Theranos was unable to sell itself and is now looking to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash of about $5 million in the upcoming … Read More
August 29, 2018
(Chemical & Engineering News) – In 2015, Jennifer Doudna, codeveloper of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology, convened a meeting in Napa, Calif., aimed at setting the parameters for ethical use of the groundbreaking genomic technique. Her template for the proceedings was … Read More
August 27, 2018
(STAT News) – About 14,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common form of adult brain cancer, every year. It will kill all but 15 percent within five years. Barely half live 18 months. Of two dozen … Read More
August 24, 2018
(CNN) – Sen. John McCain has decided to stop treatment for the brain cancer he has been battling for over a year, his family said Friday in an announcement that precipitated a rare moment of bipartisan empathy in honor of … Read More
August 8, 2018
(TIME) – When Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s position on the death penalty from permitting it in very rare circumstances to now deeming it completely “inadmissible” and violative of the “dignity of the person,” it reflected and reinforced a … Read More
August 7, 2018
(Vox) – What is death, really? Turns out there’s no true consensus among doctors, bioethicists, and philosophers. The way death is determined can even change as you cross state lines. Is it when our brains completely shut down? Is it … Read More
August 6, 2018
(American Medical Association) – Conflicts of interest, social media use, concerns about colleagues’ competence, and accepting gifts from patients are among the areas named as ethical situations that medical students need to learn how to handle. These were highlighted in … Read More
August 2, 2018
(The Economist) – Jennifer Doudna, one of those scientists, was not the first to edit genes or genetically modify an organism. But the tool that her team discovered made a previously painstaking and expensive process simpler and usable by almost … Read More
July 31, 2018
(The Atlantic) – But if studying medicine is good training for literature, could studying literature also be good training for medicine? A new paper in Literature and Medicine, “Showing That Medical Ethics Cases Can Miss the Point,” argues yes. In … Read More
July 26, 2018
(Nature) – In the midst of growing public concern over artificial intelligence (AI), privacy and the use of data, Brent Hecht has a controversial proposal: the computer-science community should change its peer-review process to ensure that researchers disclose any possible … Read More
July 23, 2018
(STAT News) – Human Longevity’s complaint accuses Venter of taking with him trade secrets on his company-issued laptop when he left the company in late May and using them to try to set up a competing business. It also accuses … Read More
July 18, 2018
Developing World Bioethics (vol. 18, no. 2, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Power Difference and Risk Perception: Mapping Vulnerability within the Decision Process of Pregnant Women towards Clinical Trial Participation in an Urban Middle-Income Setting” by Geerte … Read More
July 12, 2018
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (vol. 21, no. 2, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Public Trust and ‘Ethics Review’ as a Commodity: The Case of Genomics England Limited and the UK’s 100,000 Genomes Project” by Gabrielle Natalie Samuel and … Read More
July 11, 2018
(NBC News) – After refusing for more than four years to accept California doctors’ conclusion that her comatose daughter was brain-dead, Nailah Winkfield forcefully told mourners at her daughter’s funeral service last week to stop letting doctors “pull the plug … Read More
July 10, 2018
Medical Law Review (vol. 26, no. 2, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “The Emergence and Development of Bioethics in the UK” by Ruth Chadwick and Duncan Wilson “The Transmutation of Deference in Medicine: An Ethico-Legal Perspective” by Sarah Devaney … Read More
