October 31, 2012
Nanotechnology is helping to revolutionise many technology and industry sectors, such as environmental science, energy, medicine, food safety and transportation. For teaching and research I often have to recommend a text that introduces risk assessment to graduate students who are … Read More
October 29, 2012
A dystopian society supported by genetically modified clone workers stands out among the six stories that make up the sprawling film “Cloud Atlas.” The idea may seem far-fetched because of political opposition to human cloning and genetic modification in today’s … Read More
October 17, 2012
Those issues are at the heart of Cohen’s new book, “Patients with Passports: Medical Tourism, Law, and Ethics.†The focus of his year as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the book examines three categories of medical … Read More
October 12, 2012
In “Regenesis,” a book exploring the science of synthetic biology, George Church and Ed Regis imagine a world where micro-organisms are capable of producing clean petroleum or detecting arsenic in drinking water, where people sport genetic modifications that render their … Read More
October 4, 2012
In the future, genetically modified organisms could be making our medicines, our fuel, our housewares, our houses — and they could even help us remake ourselves. All that may sound like science-fiction, but the future is already arriving, in the … Read More
September 20, 2012
Artificial wombs, lifelong fertility – it seems the stuff of dystopian sci-fi, but an author says it will happen. (Salon)
September 20, 2012
Who’s watching the health care professionals? A Johns Hopkins surgeon calls for a major paradigm shift. (The Atlantic)
September 6, 2012
A 2009 right-to-die case that deeply split public opinion in Catholic Italy is at the center of a new film exploring the themes of euthanasia, suicide and religious faith that is vying for top prize at the Venice festival. (Reuters)
March 25, 2011
Silver Sling, an 11-minute film by director Tze Chun, is another cinematic gem from the Future States series that Biopolitical Times blogged on last week. The film presents a future scenario in which affluent couples hire young women, some of … Read More
March 18, 2011
More recently, drugs like Adderall have enjoyed a half-shadowy vogue among writers. The dream of a pharmaceutical solution to literary paralysis provides a wisp of a real-world premise for “Limitless,†an energetic, enjoyably preposterous compound — it’s a paranoid thriller … Read More
March 11, 2011
David Goodstein has a unique perspective on scientific fraud, having pursued a successful career in research physics before becoming the provost of Caltech, one of the world’s premier research institutions. As an administrator, he helped formulate Caltech’s first policy for … Read More
March 11, 2011
Nicholas Agar’s new book explores the ethical implications of the use of present and future technologies to enhance human minds, bodies, and experiences. Agar raises enormous and never-finally-answerable questions about the end—or perhaps, better, ends—of human beings. (Science Progress)
March 9, 2011
Nancey Murphy of Fuller Theological Seminary has an interesting and challenging essay in a recent book called “Neuroethics.†She argues that the dominant conception of a soul, a spiritual essence separable from the body, is the result of a mistranslation. … Read More
March 8, 2011
Back in the 1940s, the early IT pioneer Claude Shannon fell in love with a computer called Betty, and no one raised an eyebrow. At the time, “computer” was simply the term for a person who performed routine calculations for … Read More
February 4, 2011
The present text, Progress in bioethics is part of the Basic bioethics series and is a compilation of papers relating to progressive bioethics in America. The collection of works, edited together by Jonathan Moreno and Sam Berger, are squarely rooted … Read More
January 29, 2011
Insightful and poignant, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks takes an unflinching look at the history of the first “immortal” human cell line, the scientists involved in its discovery, the woman whose cells were used, and the impact it has … Read More
January 21, 2011
The New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 363, Issue 25, December 16, 2010) is now available on-line and by subscription only. Articles include: “Health Care Reform — What Went Wrong on the Way to the Courthouse” Mark A. Hall, J.D., … Read More
January 4, 2011
In his recent book, NIH Director Francis Collins refers to DNA and the new science of genomics as “the language of life.†Thanks to the mapping of the human genome, says Collins, virtually all biomedical researchers agree “that their approach … Read More
December 9, 2010
The anthology, Feminist Bioethics, edited by Jackie Leach Scully, Laurel E. Baldwin-Ragaven, and Petya Fitzpatrick, examines how feminist bioethics theoretically and methodologically challenges dominant bioethics, and whether feminist ethical approaches are useful for exploring difference in other contexts. It offers … Read More
December 1, 2010
Humanity’s End is motivated by the conviction that the debate about human enhancement must move beyond the binary “yes, I love it; no, it’s evil†dialectic that has tended to dominate philosophical discussion up till now. When we focus on … Read More
November 3, 2010
I enjoy reading political histories, especially those spiced with intrigue and gossip. But this is the first time I have read a political history on a subject about which I have been intimately acquainted; covering issues with which I have … Read More
September 17, 2010
Is it a plot spoiler to reveal that the new film “Never Let Me Go†is about cloning? Sorry. But the beautiful novel has become a reasonably good film, according to the critics. (BioEdge)
September 7, 2010
In Western countries, respect for patient autonomy is recognized as one of the most dominant ethical principles in healthcare ethics, and obtaining informed consent from the patient for healthcare treatment is understood as standard practice. Accordingly, we assume that the … Read More
August 31, 2010
During the Nuremberg trials, convened at the end of World War II, lawyers for the German defendants, politicians accused of crimes against humanity, and physicians accused of euthanasia and barbaric medical experimentation offered the rationale of “kriegsraison†to exculpate their … Read More
August 31, 2010
On the Origins of Cognitive Science is an excellent review of early twentieth century cognitive science. It stands out amongst other reviews of cognitive science by taking a broad perspective over the ideas that were alive during the cybernetic era … Read More
