March 28, 2007
Recently, the biotech company LifeCell Corp. announced its financial results for 2006. LifeCell’s revenues – $140.6 million for the year, a 51 percent increase over 2005 – are testament to its remarkable technologies, including a revolutionary skin graft for burn … Read More
March 28, 2007
Last week, well-known L.A. writer Cathy Seipp died after a five-year battle with lung cancer. (LA Daily News)
March 27, 2007
This is good news indeed: Dr. Catherine Campisi, former director of the California Department of Rehabilitation has joined the effort against legalizing assisted suicide in California. From the press release: Assisted suicide is a direct threat to anyone that is … Read More
March 27, 2007
On the campus of a Catholic university like Boston College, issues such as stem cell research, birth control, and assisted suicide often generate contentious debate. Conflict between Catholic values and the more liberal viewpoints often held by members of university … Read More
March 27, 2007
There are only a few basic ways to fight viruses. A vaccine can prime the immune system to attack them as soon as they invade the body. If a virus manages to establish itself, a doctor may be able to … Read More
March 27, 2007
Plureon Corp.’s efforts in stem cell research are going to receive a boost, worth up to $4 million, from the National Institutes of Health. (WRAL)
March 27, 2007
n her first public speech since announcing last Thursday that her breast cancer had returned, Elizabeth Edwards appealed Monday for more federal funding for health research of all kinds, including stem-cell research. (CNN)
March 27, 2007
The past, it seems, is no longer another country. Anyone with an ancestor who behaved in a manner not in accord with today’s moral climate inherits a stain of guilt and must grovel before the court of history: bad news … Read More
March 27, 2007
In The Island of Dr Moreau, H G Wells took us through an incredible and tragic story of an eccentric researcher who tries his hand at creating human-animal hybrids through vivisection. Dr Moreau’s mission — going against the laws of … Read More
March 26, 2007
If this were not about adult stem cells, it would be a much bigger story. But get this: Liver cancer patients whose liver was too far gone to have surgery, were able to have sufficient liver generated with the help … Read More
March 26, 2007
Well, what do you know: Two reporters have connected a few dots about the assisted suicide issue. In this story, byline John Simerman and Cassandra Braun of the Contra Costa Times, note that while California is debating assisted suicide, we … Read More
March 26, 2007
The Eureka Journal reported that the California Association of Physicians Groups supports the assisted suicide legalization bill A.B. 374. As I noted here at the time, that organization is a lobbying group representing the business and political interests of group … Read More
March 26, 2007
A new study presented at a cardiology conference yesterday might allay some fears about the safety of Johnson & Johnson’s controversial heart drug, Natrecor, but the results also showed the drug did not work in the population studied. (New York … Read More
March 26, 2007
It was nearly a decade ago that Jose Cibelli plugged his own DNA into a cow’s egg in a novel cloning attempt that was condemned as unethical by President Clinton and landed the Michigan State University researcher in a mess … Read More
March 26, 2007
Mary Rose Derks was a 65-year-old widow in 1990, when she began preparing for the day she could no longer care for herself. Every month, out of her grocery fund, she scrimped together about $100 for an insurance policy that … Read More
March 26, 2007
The spread of cancer and the effect of drugs to combat it could be closely monitored using tiny implants. US researchers are perfecting a way to use microscopic particles which stick to chemicals in cancer cells and show up during … Read More
March 26, 2007
Tissue engineering has emerged as a promising alternative for the reconstitution of lost or damaged organs and tissues, circumventing the complications associated with traditional transplants. (ScienceDaily)
March 26, 2007
Some 40 years after the release of the classic science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, researchers in the NanoRobotics Laboratory of École Polytechnique Montréal’s Department of Computer Engineering and Institute of Biomedical Engineering have achieved a major technological breakthrough in the … Read More
March 26, 2007
Physician requirements Oregon: The patient’s doctor must orally inform the patient of the feasible alternatives, including comfort and hospice care, as well as pain control. California: The patient’s attending physician would have to provide the patient, in writing, with alternatives. … Read More
March 26, 2007
Medical technology moves forward whether humans are prepared for the implications or not. We can keep coma patients alive for decades, hunt down genes that show a predisposition to disease, and swap out organs. But should we keep that coma … Read More
March 26, 2007
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Orin Hatch have just introduced Senate Bill 812, which explicitly legalizes human cloning and–since a shortage of human eggs is currently impeding human cloning research (one egg is needed for each attempt at cloning)–the bill also … Read More
March 25, 2007
I can disagree with people about political, social, and moral issues and still respect them. But when they resort to the kind of deceptions that permeate S. 812, the Feinstein/Hatch bill to legalize human cloning and pay women to procure … Read More
March 23, 2007
This is an awful story: A man needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life, and the only suitable donor is his sister. But she won’t do it. Now, he will almost surely die. The law can’t force anyone … Read More
March 23, 2007
I think that the hue and cry against non heart beating cadaver donor protocols–what I have called “heart death”— is misguided. And it reflects a misconception about the concept of “brain death,” a popular term for death by neurological criteria–which … Read More
March 23, 2007
The low level of public attention being focused on the prospect of pandemic flu continues to surprise, though it meshes with the ambivalence with which various government entities have been seeking to catch our interest. The latest report on likely … Read More
