April 19, 2016
Wendell Wallach, Angels and Demons of A.I.
Bioethicist Wendell Wallach talks about the moral challenges of Artificial Intelligence. http://www.thirteen.org/openmind/science/angels-and-demons-of-a-i/5395/
People
March 21, 2016
By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead
(Toronto Life) – I created an underground assisted death service that offered innovative non-medical methods of dying to Society members. My partner was Evelyn Martens, a retired office worker who’d watched her brother die in agony from bone cancer (she … Read More
March 8, 2016
Nancy Reagan: A ‘True Champion’ of Alzheimer’s Disease and Stem-Cell Research
(STAT News) – Reagan, who died Sunday at age 94, had a greater impact on public health than most Americans might recall. Despite opposition from many Republican Party leaders, Reagan pushed for stem-cell research, established an Alzheimer’s research institute, and, … Read More
March 3, 2016
Sherri Shepherd Denied Appeal in Surrogacy Case
(UPI) – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Sherri Shepherd’s appeal in her surrogacy case Tuesday, declaring her the legal mother of an 18-month-old boy who was born to a surrogate. The 48-year-old television personality, who was a co-host on The … Read More
February 17, 2016
Shaping Tomorrow’s Smart Machines: Q&A with Bioethicist Wendell Wallach
(Yale News) – As intelligent machines continue to make their way into all sectors of society, a growing number of scientists, ethicists, policymakers, and business executives are converging on the idea that more thought must be given to underlying issues … Read More
February 17, 2016
Howard Hughes’s Next President: ‘Promote Under-Represented Groups in Science’
(Nature) – Erin O’Shea, a biochemist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will from September this year become the sixth president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Maryland — one of the richest biomedical research organizations … Read More
January 27, 2016
Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88
(New York Times) – Marvin Minsky, who combined a scientist’s thirst for knowledge with a philosopher’s quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, work that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet, died … Read More
January 18, 2016
Thousands of Older People Exploring ‘Rational Suicide’: Nitschke
(Sydney Morning Herald) – Thousands of older people are investigating peaceful methods to end their own lives because they want to control the nature and timing of their death, says controversial euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke. The former doctor said there was … Read More
January 11, 2016
Genetic Testing Is a Responsibility if You’re Having Children
(The Guardian) – For people who want to be proactive about their health there is a lot of information that we can provide. If you are going to have children I think you have a responsibility to know if you … Read More
January 5, 2016
Seize the World: Yamanaka: Prioritize Patients above Papers
(The Japan Times) – Regenerative medicine is expected to be one of the ultimate treatments to help patients who suffer from intractable diseases and chronic conditions arising in a progressively aging society. With that in mind, The Japan News conducted … Read More
December 29, 2015
Philip Nitschke: I Don’t Judge People at All if They Want to Die
(The Guardian) – It took 25 years for the medical authorities to silence euthanasia advocate and former doctor Philip Nitschke. But his withdrawal from media commentary and promotion of voluntary euthanasia was short-lived, lasting just four weeks. Last month, in … Read More
December 17, 2015
Shkreli, CEO Reviled for Drug Price Gouging, Arrested on Securities Fraud Charges
(Bloomberg) – Martin Shkreli, the boyish drug company entrepreneur, who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested by federal agents at his Manhattan home early Thursday morning on securities … Read More
December 16, 2015
A Change of Mind
(MIT Technology Review) – A framed letter from Lejeune hangs outside the office of Diana Bianchi, who is arguably America’s best-known neonatal geneticist. She is celebrated because of the role she’s played in introducing noninvasive prenatal testing and documenting its … Read More
December 14, 2015
Philip Nitschke Announces Conference on ‘Rational Suicide’ in Melbourne
(The Guardian) – Voluntary euthanasia advocate and former medical doctor Philip Nitschke plans to hold Australia’s first conference on rational suicide – the idea that people do not have to be terminally ill or depressed to want to die – … Read More
November 30, 2015
Philip Nitschke Burns Medical Certificate and Says He Will Promote Euthanasia
(The Guardian) – The euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke has burned his medical practising certificate, and will continue to advise terminally ill patients about how to take their lives. Nitschke has been embroiled in a fight with the Medical Board … Read More
November 24, 2015
Stem Cell Biologist Dies
(The Scientist) – Paolo Bianco, a stem cell biologist who fought against overhyped and understudied stem cell therapies, passed away November 7. He was 60. “Paolo made great contributions both in the science of stem cells itself and also in … Read More
November 19, 2015
Kavorkian Papers Available to the Public at Bentley Historical Museum
(Michigan Radio) – He became known to the world as “Dr. Death.” His first so-called “medicide” happened in the Detroit area in 1990. From that point, Michigan pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian became the best-known face of the right-to-die movement. He … Read More
November 6, 2015
Doctor Who Championed Right to Die Ends His Life
(USA Today) – Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a national advocate for legalizing physician aid in dying, died Tuesday with the help of Oregon’s Death with Dignity law, his family said. Rasmussen, 70, was an oncologist who was passionate about caring for … Read More
October 30, 2015
Doctor Who Helped Launch Modern Paramedic System Dies at 98
(Medical Xpress) – As a cardiologist in Los Angeles during the 1960s, Dr. Walter S. Graf became alarmed by the number of heart attack sufferers who died while en route to hospitals. Inspired by an Irish physician who sent hospital … Read More
October 27, 2015
Philip Nitschke Agrees to Stop Providing Advice on Assisted Suicide
(Herald Sun) – EUTHANASIA campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke has agreed to stop providing advice on assisted suicide or spruik his controversial end-of-life handbook, ending a 15-month legal dispute with medical boards. Dr Nitschke will be allowed to keep his medical … Read More
October 15, 2015
Meet the Millennial Who Infiltrated the Guarded World of Abortion Providers
(Washington Post) – The slim young man with the Clark Kent glasses mingled easily at the conference of abortion providers. By day, he sat quietly in his company’s booth, under a sign festooned with a burbling lab flask. By night, he … Read More
October 14, 2015
Assisted-Suicide Advocate Kevorkian’s Papers Open to Public
(ABC News) – A University of Michigan library announced Tuesday that is has acquired the papers of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and is making them publicly available as part of an effort to help people better understand the assisted-suicide advocate and … Read More
October 8, 2015
New Brittany Maynard Video Released Nearly 1 Year after Her Death
(Yahoo!) – Death-with-dignity advocate Brittany Maynard speaks out about her cause in a new video released nearly a year after her death — and just one day after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s End of Life Option Act … Read More
October 7, 2015
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, and Aziz Sancar for DNA Studies
(The New York Times) – Dr. Lindahl, of the Francis Crick Institute in London, was honored for his discoveries on base excision repair — the cellular mechanism that repairs damaged DNA during the cell cycle. Dr. Modrich, of the Howard … Read More
October 5, 2015
3 Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Medicine for Parasite-Fighting Therapies
(New York Times) – William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won for developing a new drug, Avermectin. A derivative of that drug, Ivermectin, has nearly eradicated river blindness and radically reduced the incidence of filariasis, which causes the disfiguring swelling … Read More
