May 24, 2007
Children in 11 major cities who suffer life-threatening seizures will, for the first time, be enrolled in a drug study without their parents’ consent, the National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday. The trial, which will test how two well-established drugs … Read More
May 24, 2007
This past month the world’s leading transplant experts gathered in San Francisco to share important advances and discoveries at two major conferences, the annual American Transplant Congress 2007 (ATC) and the World Heart and Lung Transplantation Congress. (The Epoch Times)
May 24, 2007
Making decisions about end-of-life care is often an exercise in abstraction, because it’s hard to envision a hypothetical scenario. A novel approach using a short videotape of a patient with advanced dementia significantly altered adults’ preferences for aggressive care — … Read More
May 24, 2007
Sometimes what is unsaid is more important than what is said. Such is the case with Michael Wynn’s April 27 guest opinion supporting House Bill 2801, the embryonic-stem-cell and human-cloning research bill. Like many proponents, Wynn leaves out some important … Read More
May 23, 2007
It has been more than ten years since Dolly was cloned. Yet, for all of the animal cloning that has gone on, apparently the science of somatic cell nuclear transfer has not progressed very far. An article in Science by … Read More
May 23, 2007
U.S. scientists have discovered a nanocomposite particle that can be constructed to kill cancer cells with the help of a laser. (ScienceDaily)
May 23, 2007
A novel medical technique that smuggles an electrical charge into the brain through the vagus nerve is proving at least as effective as medication in controlling severe depression, psychiatrists say. (Wired)
May 23, 2007
You’re in a car crash, unconscious and bleeding profusely. Without your consent, you are injected with an experimental blood substitute being randomly tested on victims of car crashes, shootings and other trauma. That’s exactly what happened to nine trauma patients … Read More
May 23, 2007
China’s new bioethics regulations will protect human subjects while allowing biomedicine and biotechnologies to develop, argues Qiu Renzong. (SciDev.Net)
May 23, 2007
Researchers have designed a new type of DNA computer that works in human cells, perhaps paving the way for a distant technology capable of picking out diseased cells from otherwise healthy tissue. (Scientific American)
May 23, 2007
Dreaming of a global bioethics? The day when bioethics will bequeath to the world a universally applicable set of moral norms that will transcend cultural and religious diversity and lead to fair, rational resolutions to bioethical dilemmas everywhere? Dream on, … Read More
May 23, 2007
Catmy Bui of Union City thought from the moment she knew she was pregnant, that she was going to have a little girl. But all her friends and relatives insisted it would be a boy. They said it was just … Read More
May 23, 2007
Google has taken a stake in a biotech company co-founded by the wife of one of the search engine giant’s bosses. In a statement, 23andMe said Google, which invested $3.9m (£1.97m), was one of a number of firms that had … Read More
May 23, 2007
As the nation ages, an estimated 44 million Americans, including at least half of those ages 50 and older, are at risk for osteoporosis, making their bones fragile and vulnerable to serious fractures. (FSU News)
May 23, 2007
In England, it now seems, a baby can be aborted for not being pretty enough. Maybe this was inevitable as genetic screening and techniques such as ultrasound advanced. (Washington Times)
May 23, 2007
With 22 percent of New York City residents uninsured, expanding health insurance coverage is without question an urgent matter. However, if our real objective is to ensure that New Yorkers get the kind of care they need when they need … Read More
May 22, 2007
It took 15 years to get the right gene, to neutralize a virus that could carry it, and to prove — first in test tubes and then in live animals — that the procedure was safe enough for humans. Finally … Read More
May 22, 2007
When Kevorkian wanted out of prison, his lawyer repeatedly pleaded for mercy because, he said, Kevorkian’s was so ill with hepatitis and other ailments that he was on the verge of death’s door. For example, in this Court TV report … Read More
May 22, 2007
May 22, 2007
An implanted device that detects seizure activity in the brain and shocks it away before it spreads could bring new hope to epilepsy patients. The device is part of a growing trend to treat neurological diseases resistant to traditional medication … Read More
May 22, 2007
Doctors on Monday described a new way to treat urinary incontinence, an increasingly common problem that afflicts up to half of older women. Instead of traditional surgery, scientists are exploring tissue engineering — using patients’ own stem cells to grow … Read More
May 22, 2007
Treating skin wounds with a gel made from a patient’s own blood platelets speeded healing, researchers said in a study showing how doctors may be able to harness the body’s innate healing ability. (MSNBC)
May 22, 2007
MOST people will be aware of the Human Genome Project, but how many fully appreciate what a landmark event it represents? A book by Peter Glasner and Harry Rothman, in the Cardiff Papers in Qualitative Research series, Splicing Life? The … Read More
May 22, 2007
Technology, almost all Americans would agree, is a good thing. It makes life easier, faster, safer, more efficient – in short, better. But technology has a sinister, subversive side that becomes ever more prominent. In fact, our cult-like submission to … Read More
May 22, 2007
In the past, eugenicists emphasized the “burden” of disability. Holmes wrote that individuals with disabilities “sap the strength of the State.” In recent years, Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, has said, “It does not seem quite … Read More
