October 22, 2007
Monthly Archives: October 2007
October 22, 2007
Mixing medical and environmental ethics
NYU’s new Center for Bioethics welcomed speakers from universities across the country on Saturday to officially introduce the university’s new bioethics program. (Washington Square News)
October 22, 2007
Op-Ed: The high cost of feeling low
DEPRESSION is, according to a World Health Organisation study, the world’s fourth worst health problem, measured by how many years of good health it causes to be lost. By 2020, it is likely to rank second, behind heart disease. Yet … Read More
October 22, 2007
Scientist sues over opinion piece
A Korean fertility researcher is suing a long-time critic of one of his past studies over an opinion piece the latter wrote for the March 15, 2007 issue of Ob. Gyn. News. (The Scientist)
October 22, 2007
Most Elderly Don’t Get Good Medical Care: Study
The quality of care received by vulnerable elderly Medicare, Medicaid patients is barely acceptable, a team of U.S. researchers report. (HealthDay)
October 22, 2007
Top scientist attacks ban on ‘racerow’ DNA pioneer
A LEADING British scientist has criticised the Science Museum for banning a speech by Dr James Watson, the Nobel prize-winning geneticist, for suggesting that races might differ in intelligence. (Times Online)
October 22, 2007
Stem cell amendment draws dueling lawsuits
An initiative to outlaw a particular stem cell research method drew dueling lawsuits Friday from supporters and opponents who both contend the ballot summary drafted by state officials is unfair. (Belleville News-Democrat)
October 20, 2007
HASTINGS CENTER REPORT Column Validates “Anti-Disabled” Worries About Bioethics Agenda
The Not Dead Yet blog has a post up, byline Stephen Drake, castigating an opinion column published in the Hasting Center Report, byline bioethics consultant Anita J. Tarzian (no link available), that validates all of the worries the disability rights … Read More
October 20, 2007
Watson Out at Cold Spring Harbor
Cold Spring Harbor, the very name should bring chills. It was the home of the notorious Eugenics Record Office, operated for decades in the early 20th Century by the world’s most influential eugenicist Charles Davenport–one of the great villains in … Read More
October 19, 2007
‘Fast-track’ IVF saves time and lowers risks
Fertility patients could save time and money by skipping some recommended steps in treatment and going straight to IVF, according to a new study. This would mean that couples with fertility problems would not lose precious time in conceiving a … Read More
October 19, 2007
Umbilical cord donation helps stem cell research
The stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood and bone marrow have treated dozens of diseases. In 1988, doctors performed the first cord blood transplant from a donor who was a sibling of the patient. Five years later, Dr. Joanne … Read More
October 19, 2007
California: HMOs not meeting national standards in basic areas, report says
Many Californians enrolled in healthcare plans are receiving inadequate preventive care, a government report said Thursday. The eight largest plans in the state fail to ensure that their 12 million members are sufficiently tested and treated to prevent and detect … Read More
October 19, 2007
Redesigning humans
Every evening before bed, 12-year-old Mitchell Greenwood gives himself a shot of human growth hormone. He’s healthy, but at barely four feet tall, he’s below the normal height for his age. (Calgary Herald)
October 19, 2007
Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson
The Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US. Dr Watson has drawn severe criticism over remarks he made in a British newspaper at the weekend. (BBC)
October 19, 2007
Creating life in the laboratory
The race to create life version 2.0 is under way. And rumours abound that closest to the finish line in constructing a lifeform in the laboratory is US genome-entrepreneur Craig Venter’s research team. (BBC)
October 18, 2007
Suing For the Right to Assisted Suicide in Montana
I’ve known this was coming for a long time–a lawsuit in Montana demanding a state constitutional right to assisted suicide. In fact, I predicted it back in 2000 when I wrote in the Weekly Standard: James H. Armstrong, M.D. v. … Read More
October 18, 2007
Yet More Proof of Wagar/KCSTAR Bias in Reporting
Since the KC Star’s Kit Wagar continues refusing to report the stem cell debate accurately or objectively, I thought a few further examples of true scientific definitions are in order–definitions propounded by SCNT supporters, but which Wagar appears to care … Read More
October 18, 2007
Fat Stem Cells Morphed Into Nerve Cells
Adult stem cell research just keeps rolling along. Now, scientists have morphed fat stem cells into nerve cells. From the story: Accident victims could one day have their severed nerves “rewired” with the help of stem cells extracted by liposuction. … Read More
October 18, 2007
NIH Utilizes Correct Cloning Definition: Why Can’t the KC STAR and Kit Wagar?
This is how the term “somatic cell nuclear transfer” is defined on the National Institutes of Health Web site: Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT–A technique that combines an enucleated egg (nucleus removed) and the nucleus of a somatic cell to … Read More
October 18, 2007
U.S. Women’s Health Care Still Falls Short: Report
The report gives the country an overall grade of “unsatisfactory” because it meets only three of 27 benchmarks for women’s health. Those benchmarks are the percentage of women aged 40 and over who get regular mammograms; the percentage of women … Read More
October 18, 2007
Birth Control Allowed at Maine Middle School
The proposal, from the Portland Division of Public Health, calls for the independently operated health care center at King Middle School to provide a variety of services to students, including immunizations and physical checkups in addition to birth-control medications and … Read More
October 18, 2007
Google says working to solve health record dilemma
Google Inc aims to apply Web search technology to a general set of health information problems and remains committed to the market despite slow initial progress, an executive said on Wednesday. (Reuters)
October 18, 2007
‘Bionic’ nerve to repair injured limbs
In a study published in the journal Experimental Neurology, Dr Paul Kingham and his team at the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration in Manchester isolated the stem cells from the fat tissue of adult animals and differentiated them into nerve … Read More
October 18, 2007
Fury at DNA pioneer’s theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners
One of the world’s most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that “equal powers of reason” were shared across racial groups … Read More
October 17, 2007
A Python by the Tail
In June of this year, reptile expert Brady Barr, his partner for the job, and a film crew were in an Indonesian cave, where they found a Giant Python. They were in waist-deep muddy liquid when Barr’s partner, Dr. Mark … Read More
