December 18, 2013
A Philadelphia doctor already serving life in prison for performing rogue abortions has been sentenced to a concurrent 30 years for illegally distributing painkillers, including many later sold on the street by addicts and drug dealers. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, … Read More
December 17, 2013
One of Britain’s most eminent authorities on end-of-life law has issued a warning against “tinkering†with assisted suicide on the eve of a landmark Supreme Court challenge. Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former President of the High Court Family Division, argued that … Read More
December 6, 2013
Freedom fighter, prisoner, moral compass and South Africa’s symbol of the struggle against racial oppression. That was Nelson Mandela, who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid. He died Thursday night at … Read More
November 26, 2013
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, wrote a dark blog post about how he hoped his terminally ill father would die soon and how he wanted to inflict pain on the people who have voted against doctor-assisted … Read More
November 25, 2013
Adrienne Asch, an internationally known bioethicist who opposed the use of prenatal testing and abortion to select children free of disabilities, a stance informed partly by her own experience of blindness, died on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan. She … Read More
November 22, 2013
Dr. Thomas D. Rees, an innovative New York plastic surgeon who helped found the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa, a charity that employs a fleet of small planes to provide medical care and save lives deep in the African … Read More
November 20, 2013
Fred Sanger, a double Nobel Prize-winning British biochemist who pioneered research into the human genome, has died at the age of 95, the University of Cambridge said on Wednesday. Sanger, who once described himself as “just a chap who messed … Read More
November 15, 2013
Stephen Hawking may not be in the far corners of the universe, but he seems to be everywhere else these days: On the bookshelves with a new memoir, My Brief History; in a documentary, Hawking; and as the host of … Read More
November 12, 2013
Dr. Herzenberg, who died on Oct. 27 at 81 in Stanford, Calif., created a device that can pick out individual cells from a mass of trillions of them and then capture, sort and count them so they can be analyzed … Read More
November 12, 2013
IF DNA is destiny, then Anne Wojcicki is in the right business. She is the co-founder and chief executive of 23andMe, a Silicon Valley start-up that offers a $99 DNA test, as easy as spitting into a tube, that provides … Read More
October 31, 2013
Elena Cattaneo, a leading stem cell researcher in Italy, has been selected 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year by the Knoepfler Lab at University of California, Davis. (Forbes)
October 30, 2013
Augusto Odone surely was one of the best fathers of all time. Along with his wife, Michaela, Mr. Odone defied and then amazed the medical profession when he devised an apparent treatment for his son Lorenzo’s incurable neurological disease. The … Read More
October 28, 2013
Five million babies have been born thanks to IVF. But few people talk of the many more times the treatment doesn’t work, says Lisa Jardine, the departing chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Modern medicine can achieve extraordinary … Read More
October 28, 2013
In his latest book, genetic guru J. Craig Venter envisions a brave new world where DNA can be teleported between planets and where custom-made bacteria produce drugs, food and biofuel — but he also worries that do-it-yourself biohackers could spoil … Read More
October 22, 2013
An article to be published in the American Journal of Public Health recommends changing the federal regulations that govern oversight of human subjects research (“the Common Rule”) to address continued underrepresentation of minorities in research studies. (Science Daily)
October 18, 2013
In 2007 J. Craig Venter and his team sequenced an entire human genome—Venter’s own—making scientific history. Three years later his team became the first to successfully create “synthetic life,” and won a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Leadership Award. In his newest … Read More
October 9, 2013
Reigning Miss Universe Olivia Frances Culpo on Saturday said the sensitive subject of surrogacy needs to be looked from the Indian context and maintaining privacy of both the donor and the surrogate mother through a third party agency is also … Read More
October 8, 2013
Three scientists who explained the inner workings of a ‘cellular postal service’ shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Their work pinpointed how cells shuttle proteins and other biomolecules from one location to another — a process that … Read More
October 7, 2013
One detail omitted from the obituaries published around the world was that Edwards was a member in good standing of the Eugenics Society in Britain for much of his career. (Scientific American)
September 30, 2013
But if you had to pick one philanthropic enterprise to be Allen’s jewel in the crown, that would be the brain science institute he founded 10 years ago: $400 million of his estimated $15.8 billion fortune has gone toward the … Read More
September 17, 2013
British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has backed the right for people who are terminally ill to choose to end their lives and to receive help to do so as long as safeguards are in place. (Reuters)
September 16, 2013
The Death-with-Dignity movement suffered a great loss with the passing of former chairman of the Compassion & Choices board of directors, member and dedicated friend, Paul Spiers. Paul died Wednesday in Danvers, Massachusetts. He was 62. Our movement took great … Read More
September 9, 2013
NFL quarterback Peyton Manning turned in a record performance yesterday against the Super Bowl champion team the Baltimore Ravens. And he may have stem cell therapy to thank. (The Washington Times)
September 6, 2013
“Valerie Harper is facing a devastating diagnosis: terminal brain cancer,” a People cover story from March started. “Her doctors say she has as little as three months left to live.” Then in August, the actress’ doctor told the “Today” show … Read More
September 5, 2013
Dr. William Glasser, a psychiatrist who published more than two dozen books promoting his view that mental health is mostly a matter of personal choice, a precept that found a vast popular audience and influenced teachers, drug counselors and personal … Read More
