January 19, 2008
This is the first posting of a series on the bioarts, a relatively new field in which artists are using living tissue and organisms to create their works. This article addresses the question, What is Bioart? In future postings I … Read More
January 18, 2008
Harvard Medical School researchers have identified a class of cells that initiates skin-cancer melanomas; they are also developing a therapy that specifically targets these cells. In a major study, the researchers characterized these cells and linked them to disease progression … Read More
January 18, 2008
A mother who provoked an ethical row when she claimed she had persuaded doctors to remove her disabled daughter’s womb said yesterday that the backlash had made the hospital change its mind. (Telegraph)
January 18, 2008
The long-running issue of whether to allow production of the embryos – using human DNA implanted into animal eggs – has in the past prompted sensational headlines about “Frankenbunnies”. A government white paper published in December 2006 after public consultation … Read More
January 17, 2008
Readers of SHS will remember the controversial case of Ashley, the profoundly disabled girl whose uterus and breast buds were removed, and who was given hormones to keep her from growing to normal size. Ashley’s parents became proselytizers of sorts, … Read More
January 17, 2008
No surprise here: The UK’s “we never say no” Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has okayed the attempt to create cloned human embryos using cow eggs. The reason for this approach is the dearth of human eggs, the reasons … Read More
January 17, 2008
A bioethics group, consulted by the European Commission, has voiced strong doubts about the use of meat and milk from cloned animals, in comments published Thursday. (AFP)
January 17, 2008
A California company said on Thursday it used cloning technology to make five human embryos, with the eventual hope of making matched stem cells for patients. (Reuters)
January 17, 2008
Pioneering transplants to restore the sight of people affected by the leading cause of blindness in the Western world could start in three years, after successful human cell implants in pigs. (Telegraph)
January 17, 2008
Former Indonesian dictator Suharto’s care during his two-week hospitalization has sparked quiet debate on end-of-life issues in this predominantly Muslim nation. (The Associated Press)
January 17, 2008
Regulators have given scientists the green light to create human-animal embryos for research. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority granted permission after a consultation showed the public were “at ease” with the idea. (BBC)
January 17, 2008
Under what circumstances can a patient in an emergency room be forced to submit to a procedure that doctors deem to be medically necessary? That question — and the notion of informed consent — is at the heart of a … Read More
January 17, 2008
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has a new leader, and he’s about to face the first huge challenge in that post: doling out $263 million for construction of new stem cell labs around the Golden State. (Wired)
January 17, 2008
Delivery of health care is a triangulation dominated by big business. It is a three-party relationship — managed care organizations, doctors and patients — where managed care organizations urge doctors to see more patients in less time; doctors are responsible … Read More
January 16, 2008
Pediatric Transplanation (OnlineEarly Articles) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Umbilical cord-blood transplantations from unrelated donors in patients with inherited metabolic diseases: Single-institute experience” by Sadao Tokimasa, Hideaki Ohta, Sachiko Takizawa, Shigenori Kusuki, Yoshiko Hashii, Norio Sakai, Masako … Read More
January 16, 2008
Well, apparently the people of the United Kingdom weren’t too comfortable with their bodies being deemed organ sources unless they explicitly opted out of being a “donor.” How else explain PM Gordon Brown’s walk-back of his support for presumed consent? … Read More
January 16, 2008
A European advisory group, including senior Christian theologians, will on Wednesday deliver its report on the ethical and moral issues surrounding the use of cloned animals and their offspring for food and milk. (Financial Times)
January 16, 2008
Ministers face a doctors’ rebellion over plans to deny failed asylum-seekers the right to free health care while they are in Britain. In an unprecedented move, 275 GPs have said they will defy any new law by carrying on freely … Read More
January 16, 2008
The author alludes to an increasingly critical climate in which big pharmaceuticals market their products to medical practitioners and to the public. Weber says most Americans are persuaded that profits, not the health and welfare of people, is the prime … Read More
January 16, 2008
The Supreme Court yesterday declined to consider whether dying patients have a right to be treated with experimental drugs not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Washington Post)
January 16, 2008
When George J. Mitchell was appointed to investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball nearly two years ago, amphetamines were not part of his mandate. The substances had been around baseball for decades, were sometimes winked at and were … Read More
January 16, 2008
The U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday asked U.S. farmers to keep their cloned animals off the market indefinitely even as Food and Drug Administration officials announced that food from cloned livestock is safe to eat. (Washington Post)
January 15, 2008
Sociology of Health & Illness (OnlineEarly Articles) is now available Articles include: “‘Taking charge of your health’: discourses of responsibility in English-Canadian women’s magazines” by Stephannie C. Roy, 11-Jan-2008 “Redefining a technology: public and private genetic testing in Aotearoa New … Read More
January 15, 2008
Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 299 No. 1, pp. 9-128, January 2, 2008) is now available by subscription only Articles include: “Ensuring Effective Pain Treatment: A National and Global Perspective” by Allyn L. Taylor; Lawrence O. Gostin; Katrina … Read More
January 15, 2008
Top medical officials from around New Jersey plan to meet next month for talks that could profoundly change the way doctors and hospitals in the state treat dying patients. Many New Jerseyans at the end of life receive futile medical … Read More
