September 4, 2017
(The Guardian) – Scientific pioneer, superstar surgeon, miracle worker – that’s how Paolo Macchiarini was known for several years. Dressed in a white lab coat or in surgical scrubs, with his broad, handsome face and easy charm, he certainly looked … Read More
August 9, 2017
(Korea Herald) – On Monday, Moon appointed Park Ky-young to lead the Science, Technology and Innovation Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, triggering searing criticism from scientists, politicians and civic groups that called her unfit for the post … Read More
August 8, 2017
(STAT News) – Early this year, seeking a way to grow human organs for transplant, his group announced it had created pig-human chimeras — fetal pigs with human cells mixed in. His Salk Institute lab has discovered two new kinds … Read More
August 4, 2017
(Science) – Knoepfler, though housed in the Shriners Hospitals for Children here, isn’t a physician. And his University of California (UC), Davis, lab doesn’t study arthritis or eye disease, nor does he have any experience developing a stem cell therapy. … Read More
August 4, 2017
Studies in Christian Ethics (vol. 30, no. 2, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Ethics, Human Oocytes and the Teleology of the Body: An Appreciation of Gilbert Meilaender’s Work” by Paul Lauritzen “Gilbert Meilaender and the Tragedy … Read More
August 3, 2017
(San Diego Union-Tribune) – Doudna said she wasn’t cognizant of the ethical issues when she and collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier began exploring CRISPR. Beyond the call for society to grapple with the ramifications of germline editing, Doudna said, it’s difficult to … Read More
July 10, 2017
(The Scientist) – John Robertson, a bioethicist at the University of Texas School of Law, passed away yesterday (July 5) at age 74. His work focused on reproductive technologies, and he served as chair of the ethics committee of the … Read More
June 23, 2017
(BBC) – The idea of palliative or end-of-life care, to support people in the last months or years of their life, was well established in other countries. But in Mongolia, home of the conqueror Genghis Khan, where nomads have lived … Read More
May 23, 2017
(Nature) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has its first head to hail from Africa. Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will take up the post of the agency’s director-general from 1 July – succeeding Margaret Chan – after winning a 23 … Read More
May 22, 2017
(Wired) – For $150, you can buy a Crispr kit online and use it to engineer heartier gut bacteria in your kitchen. That’s thrilling, but the technology is giving Jennifer Doudna, an inventor of the gene-editing method, nightmares. Easy genetic … Read More
April 21, 2017
(U.S. News & World Report) – A federal appeals court judge who wrote a key ruling on doctor-assisted suicide has died. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Senior Judge John T. Noonan died on Monday at the age … Read More
March 15, 2017
(NPR) – Should the Irish Giant be allowed to rest in peace? That’s the question swirling around the bones of Charles Byrne, a literal giant from Ireland who was an 18th century celebrity. His enormous skeleton is on public display … Read More
March 7, 2017
(NPR) – Thomas Starzl, the doctor who pioneered liver transplant surgery, has died at the age of 90. In an announcement on its website, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said Starzl died peacefully at his home on Saturday. “His … Read More
February 24, 2017
(STAT News) – Jeantine Lunshof insists she is not the “ethics police.” It says so on the door to her closet-sized office at Harvard. She doesn’t find reasons to reflexively shut down experiments. She doesn’t snoop around for deviations from … Read More
February 22, 2017
Studies in Christian Ethics has a new article available online by subscription only. “Ethics, Human Oocytes and the Teleology of the Body: An Appreciation of Gilbert Meilaender’s Work” by Paul Lauritzen
February 20, 2017
(The Guardian) – Norma McCorvey, who was just 22 years old when she became better known as Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 supreme court case Roe v Wade, has died aged 69 in her home state of Texas. Her … Read More
February 8, 2017
(Nature) – Oliver Smithies had a habit of inventing ways to do the experiments he wanted to do, and crafted tools that are now used widely in biology. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 for … Read More
February 6, 2017
(The Atlantic) – Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, is deeply interested in matters of life and death. His most lasting legacy from his time on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals is likely Hobby Lobby … Read More
January 30, 2017
(The Australian) – Mackay-Sim has done very valuable work on the use of nasal stem cells in spinal cord injury. He was the pioneer in this country in the use of adult stem cells and proved that they were safe … Read More
January 17, 2017
(New York Times) – The breakthrough sidestepped the embryo controversy, offering researchers an unlimited supply of stem cells. Dr. Yamanaka shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for reprogramming mature cells into what are now called induced pluripotent … Read More
January 5, 2017
(NPR) – Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s former Anglican archbishop and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recently celebrated his 85th birthday with an interesting message: He wants the option of an assisted death. Tutu has largely retired from public life, but … Read More
December 5, 2016
(The Guardian) – The voluntary euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke has launched a “militant” campaign to push for unrestricted adult access to a peaceful death. Nitschke announced the launch of Exit Action on Sunday morning, describing the new organisation as a … Read More
October 27, 2016
(JAMA) – As part of his 1984 doctoral thesis, Church developed and described the first direct DNA sequencing method that became the precursor to modern-day next-generation sequencing approaches. Church was involved in launching the Human Genome Project and received 1 … Read More
October 10, 2016
(The Washington Post) – Now, as I turn 85 Friday, with my life closer to its end than its beginning, I wish to help give people dignity in dying. Just as I have argued firmly for compassion and fairness in … Read More
October 4, 2016
(Voices in Bioethics) – Tom Beauchamp, PhD, has been a principle pioneer in the field of bioethics. As a young philosophy professor at Georgetown, he created the first applied ethics program in the United States. In 1975, he was recruited … Read More
