December 26, 2014
(Medical Xpress) – Researchers could be closing in on a “fountain of youth” drug that can delay the effects of aging and improve the health of older adults, a new study suggests. Seniors received a significant boost to their immune … Read More
December 25, 2014
Neuroethics (Volume 7, No. 3, December 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “What to Enhance: Behaviour, Emotion or Disposition?” by Karim Jebari “Defining Moral Enhancement: A Clarificatory Taxonomy” by Kasper Raus, et al “Moral Enhancement and Self Subversion … Read More
December 12, 2014
(Science Daily) – Researchers have devised a way to replace the knee’s protective lining, called the meniscus, using a personalized 3D-printed implant, or scaffold, infused with human growth factors that prompt the body to regenerate the lining on its own. … Read More
December 4, 2014
(Wired) – Friday nights in the fall mean high school football. But that wholesome slice of Americana also contains a dark undercurrent–a marked rise in the use of human growth hormone by high school aged students. In a recent survey of … Read More
December 2, 2014
(Vox) – In the past, much of military research has focused on building tools to make soldiers more effective on the battlefield: more powerful guns, better communications, stronger armor. But there is also research underway to improve the human body … Read More
November 26, 2014
(Phys.org) – What do pacemakers, prosthetic limbs, Iron Man and flu vaccines all have in common? They are examples of an old idea that’s been gaining in significance in the last several decades: transhumanism. The word denotes a set of … Read More
November 20, 2014
(New York Times) – Understanding the process of aging and developing treatments that might slow the rate at which people grow old could help doctors keep patients healthy longer. We won’t be able to stop or reverse aging, but researchers … Read More
November 12, 2014
(Vox) – Scientists have been making amazing advances in bionic technology in recent years: robotic exoskeletons that help people walk, artificial eyes that help blind people see. Some of these technologies are meant as medical aids to help people regain function. … Read More
November 12, 2014
(National Journal) – Super strong mechanical appendages and brain implants are common fixtures of a science-fictional future. More and more, American veterans are arriving at that future before the rest of us. As a result of military-funded programs, vets are … Read More
November 7, 2014
The Journal for Medical Ethics (Vol. 40, No. 11, November 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “In vitro eugenics” by Robert Sparrow “Some doubts about in vitro eugenics as a human enhancement technology” by Andrew W. Siegel … Read More
November 6, 2014
(BBC) – Minor cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections and dermal fillers are very safe when carried out by trained professionals, say researchers. A large US study that looked at 20,000 minimally invasive procedures done by dermatologists found few complications … Read More
November 6, 2014
Bioethics (Vol. 28, No. 9, November 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “When Intuition is Not Enough. Why the Principle of Procreative Beneficence Must Work Much Harder to Justify Its Eugenic Vision” by Rebecca Bennett “Reciprocity-Based Reasons … Read More
October 31, 2014
Erkenntnis (Vol. 79, No. 5 Supplement, June 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Financial conflicts of interest and criteria for research credibility” by Kevin C. Elliot “Human enhancement: making the debate more productive” by Janet A. Kourany … Read More
October 31, 2014
(HR Magazine) – Performance-enhancing drugs may be banned in many competitive sports – but not in our increasingly competitive and performance-focused workplaces. The current trend for research programmes exploring the potential for ‘human enhancement technologies (HETs) seems to mark something … Read More
October 29, 2014
The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (Volume 39, No. 5, October 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Flouting the demands of justice? physician participation in executions” by Adam Kadlac “Love as a regulative ideal in surrogate decision making” … Read More
October 23, 2014
(Scientific American) – Imagine a medical device that is so simple to build and cheap to acquire that anyone with an Internet connection and a local Radio Shack can use it tweak their brains—to become smarter, more focused, calmer, or … Read More
October 23, 2014
(Business Insider) – Modern science fiction fans are not the only ones enthralled by the prospect of intelligent machines; the idea of intelligent robots has been a part of human culture since ancient times, going back to Greek mythology, and … Read More
October 21, 2014
(The Telegraph) – A growing cadre of innovators is taking things further, using replacement organs, robotic prosthetics and implants not to restore bodily functions but to alter or enhance them. When he lost his right eye in a shotgun accident … Read More
October 9, 2014
Public Understanding of Science (Vol. 23, No. 7, October 2014) is now available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Faith in Science in Globalization: Implications for Transhumanism” by John H. Evans “Religious Beliefs, Knowledge about Science and Attitudes toward Medical Genetics” by … Read More
October 8, 2014
(New York Times) – Last summer, Chand, India’s 100-meter champion in the 18-and-under category, was barred from competing against women. She has a condition called hyperandrogenism, and her body produces natural levels of testosterone so high that they place her … Read More
October 6, 2014
(National Post) – A key problem, as McGill genetic ethicist Bartha Knoppers said this week, is that medical ethics is ill-equipped to contain or thwart the rise of these “luxury” applications of stem cell science, which already loom in the … Read More
September 29, 2014
(Washington Post) – It sounds like the dark plot of a vampire movie. Next month, people with Alzheimer’s disease will be given the blood of young people in the hope that it will reverse some of the damage caused by … Read More
September 26, 2014
(Bloomberg) – Already one of world’s ten most visited cities, Dubai is counting on more people like Ivanova to mix their holidays with high-end treatments for a luxurious form of medical tourism, rivaling Thailand and India. Now, it’s trying to … Read More
September 26, 2014
(BBC) – There’s a big gulf between the fantasy vision of cyborgs, and the current reality of being dependent on an implant or a prosthetic in day-to-day life. If we’re to separate the two, we ought to pay close attention … Read More
September 18, 2014
(Herald Sun) – Oxford University Prof Julian Savulescu said AFL footballers should be allowed to take “safe levels’’ of performance enhancing drugs such as steroids, growth hormones and Erythropoietin (EPO) to help endurance and injury recovery. The leading international medical … Read More
