August 5, 2013
Aquinas on the Beginning and Ending of Human Life is a close look at how St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the foremost theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages, grappled with the issue of when human life begins. (Forbes)
August 2, 2013
Superbaby was born around the turn of this century, in Berlin, emerging in a fit of twitches and shudders. Epilepsy, the doctors first thought, until one noticed that although Superbaby was roughly the size of any other newborn, his biceps … Read More
July 8, 2013
[Dyer’s] story is one of many told in a new book, ‘‘Against Their Will,’’ the result of five years of gathering data from medical and university libraries and archives, medical journals and records from many of the now-shuttered state hospitals … Read More
July 8, 2013
Review of In Search of the Good: A Life in Bioethics by Callahan Daniel Moral philosopher and bioethicist Daniel Callahan begins his part autobiography, part history of American bioethics, and part summary of his own writings, by noting that bioethics … Read More
June 27, 2013
In the new e-book “A World of Hurt: Fixing Pain Medicine’s Biggest Mistake,†the New York Times reporter Barry Meier explores the murky world of prescription pain medicine. (New York Times)
June 24, 2013
Three books examine the painful birth of the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – and the flaws behind it. (New Scientist)
June 24, 2013
Robert P. George is one of the most prominent conservative backstagers. The McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton, a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, author of myriad books and articles, he is embraced in social conservative circles … Read More
June 24, 2013
Written by Max Brooks and published in 2006 under the same title, the novel begins in China, where the initial patient to be infected with the zombie virus is said to be a young boy from a remote Chinese village. … Read More
June 18, 2013
In her new book, “What Doctors Feel,†Dr. Danielle Ofri tells the unforgettable story of a pediatrician she interviewed, a woman she calls Eva. In taut, vivid prose, Dr. Ofri describes a tragic event that occurred during Eva’s residency. She … Read More
May 21, 2013
With this as my background, I am hardly a disinterested reviewer of a new anthology of essays by 21 nurses. It is beautifully wrought, but more significantly a reminder that these “semi-invisible†people, as Lee Gutkind calls them in this … Read More
May 15, 2013
The villain in “Inferno,†Brown’s sixth novel, follows a movement called transhumanism. Brown, 48, who spent more than two years in Florence researching the book, has been interested in the controversial concept of transhumanism for years. (Today)
May 7, 2013
“Imaging what the world might be like if we were really good at making things—better things—cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale.…The global prospect would be, not scarcity, but unprecedented abundance—radical, transformative, and sustainable abundance. We would be able to … Read More
May 6, 2013
Genetic engineering provides the backdrop for the sci-fi thriller “Errors of the Human Body” (opening May 3 at Reading Gaslamp Stadium Theaters for late night screenings only on Friday and Saturday). (KPBS)
May 1, 2013
The Healing Cell, just out from Hachette Press, deals with promising stem cell therapies from the patient perspective– and that’s a good thing. (Forbes)
April 22, 2013
Tales from the Organ Trade is a fascinating film which takes a chilling look at the characters in the international black market in organs. (BioEdge)
April 1, 2013
The field of synthetic biology is hugely exciting but it’s provoked fears of bioterrorism and man-made plagues – so do the benefits really outweigh the risks? (Yahoo News, UK)
March 22, 2013
Is transhumanism—the possibility of enhancing human intellectual, physical and psychological capacities through biotechnology —a brave new world that we should welcome with open arms? (Forbes)
March 6, 2013
It has been 10 years since we carried out a systematic search of the literature on birth defect risk in infants born following assisted reproductive technology (ART) compared with non-ART infants. Because of changes to ART practice since that review … Read More
March 5, 2013
It is the “first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking, according to the editors, and the anthology includes a roster of leaders in transhumanist thought. (Kurtzweil)
March 4, 2013
The past few years have seen rapid advancements in vector-mediated gene transfer to the nervous system and modest successes in human gene therapy trials. The purpose of this review is to describe commonly-used viral gene transfer vectors and recent advancements … Read More
January 21, 2013
Premiering today at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the U.S. documentary competition, “After Tiller†is an intimate and heartfelt look at the four doctors performing third-trimester abortions in the United States, doing so even after the 2009 assassination … Read More
January 9, 2013
Doug Wolens’s recent documentary takes on the complex, abstract concept of the singularity, which predicts a moment when technology will give rise to intelligence beyond the scope of human imagination. It sounds like sci-fi but, Wolens and others argue, there’s … Read More
January 3, 2013
In the face of such uncertainty, what we need most is to understand better—issue by issue—what is happening on the ground in the country; and a terrific new book Governing Health in Contemporary China by my CFR colleague and renowned … Read More
December 3, 2012
Dr. Ricki Lewis knows a thing or two about genetics after decades in genetic counseling and multiple books and academic papers. Her latest book, a narrative nonfiction title The Forever Fix has been in her head since gene therapy began … Read More
November 16, 2012
Time magazine recently featured Kurzweil on it cover, and Fortune described him as “a legendary inventor with a history of mind-blowing ideas.” And now he has a new book, with a subtitle that suggests he has found another such idea: … Read More
