December 3, 2008
Doctors have used a revolutionary stem cell treatment to restore the power of speech for a stroke victim. Walter Bast also regained the use of his right arm after the operation to place a ‘teabag’ of drug-producing stem cells in … Read More
December 3, 2008
Luxembourg’s government plans to strip Grand Duke Henri’s power to sanction laws after he signaled he would not sign a bill legalizing euthanasia. (Reuters)
December 3, 2008
They have discovered a way to extract, grow in the laboratory and then graft on a patient’s own muscle-building cells which then can be used to patch up the heart and increase its pumping power. (Telegraph)
December 3, 2008
Are you the kind of parent who will spare no expense to give your child every possible competitive advantage? Well, step right up! A company in Colorado offers a $149 genetic test to see if your little Jacob or Emily … Read More
December 3, 2008
Physician assisted suicide has been legal for a decade in the US state of Oregon. But palliative care specialist David Jeffrey says there are grave questions about whether people are being helped to die, when treatment for depression could be … Read More
December 3, 2008
Divorcing couples have always fought over property, income and custody of children. But technology has added an even more contentious item to the list: the frozen embryos the couple created during happier times. (PhysOrg)
December 3, 2008
there is a debate that surrounds Einstein’s brain, and that is the manner in which it wound up in the pathologist’s laboratory. Thomas Harvey, who conducted the autopsy, it seems, never received clear permission from anyone in Einstein’s family to … Read More
December 3, 2008
Though Dolly the sheep was the first clone to be shoved into the limelight, in 1996, the process of human-directed cloning has existed since 1952. In that year, American researchers Robert Briggs and Thomas King successfully removed the nucleus of … Read More
December 2, 2008
Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix, President and Scientific Director, Children’s Memorial Research At no other time in history have we been this close to translating basic scientific discoveries into novel therapeutic strategies to benefit humankind. However, the traditional missions of academic institutions … Read More
December 2, 2008
A disturbing column in today’s LA Times has a woman wanting to “let” her Dad go by removing his feeding tube–which would really be to make him go, since there could only be one outcome from such a decision. Dad … Read More
December 2, 2008
Call for Abstracts: End of Life Decisions, Ethics in clinical practice, research and policy XI Annual Swedish Symposium on Biomedicine, Ethics and Society Seglarhotellet, Sandhamn June 8-9th, 2009 Clinical ethics is a multi-disciplinary and multi-professional field. We invite scholars and … Read More
December 2, 2008
The Bush administration plans a new ‘right of conscience’ rule that would allow more workers to refuse more procedures. Critics say it could apply to artificial insemination and birth control. (Los Angeles Times)
December 2, 2008
US doctors propose expanding the use of HIV tests to slow the spread of infection. (Nature)
December 2, 2008
The eyes of modern radiology are so trained on high-tech images of arteries, organs and bones that actual patients can become abstract concepts, rarely encountered in the flesh. But a study out of Israel found that including photographs of patients … Read More
December 2, 2008
Western pharmaceutical companies are facing intensifying scrutiny over the conduct of clinical trials in developing countries — an increasingly important source of patients to test new drugs and get them to the market. (Wall Street Journal)
December 2, 2008
Aubrey de Grey begins by pointing out that all three panel members are advocates for physical enhancement and questions whether the discussion will really be a debate at all, then lays down his case, arguing that being against the concept … Read More
December 2, 2008
We all have an image in our minds of the role of scientists in Nazi Germany: sinister, lab-coated figures who spent half their time conducting gruesome – and largely pointless – experiments on concentration‑camp inmates to gratify their own cruel … Read More
December 1, 2008
One of the great difficulties we have in debating important cultural and ethical issues is the lack of a common frame of reference. Or to put it another way, when language is used very sloppily–whether negligently or intentionally–it becomes almost … Read More
December 1, 2008
Now the pursuit of “personalized medicine” is expected to get a major push from the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama. As a senator, Obama introduced legislation to coordinate the sometimes conflicting policies of government agencies and provide more support … Read More
December 1, 2008
In downtown Winston-Salem, researchers are using a modified Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer to “print” human cells, one layer at a time, to build tissues and organs. This unlikely process has produced tiny, two-chambered hearts within 40 minutes. When stimulated with electrical … Read More
December 1, 2008
The document was designed to examine ethical issues in biological research and health care that have emerged in recent years. When members of the doctrinal congregation met in a plenary session last January, U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, the congregation … Read More
December 1, 2008
France’s Biomedicine Agency (Agence de la Biomédecine) has submitted evidence to the French government which is undertaking an inquiry into the 2004 Bioethics Act. As part of this evidence, the agency has called for better guidance on how genetic information … Read More
December 1, 2008
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office on November 27 rejected the WARF/Thomson stem cell patent application, ruling effectively that European patent law prohibits the patenting of human stem cell cultures whose preparation involves the destruction of … Read More
December 1, 2008
IN THE not too distant future, a person in need of a heart transplant could be offered a pig’s organ. That’s the hope of a group that met in China last week to agree global guidelines for the first clinical … Read More
December 1, 2008
Individual mouse embryonic stem cell lines likely encompass more genetic variety than researchers can control for. A recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that mouse embryonic stem cells accumulate gains and losses of millions … Read More
