August 11, 2009
When bees sting, they pump poison into their victims. Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of … Read More
August 11, 2009
A new report has outlined how Germany should move forward in the area of synthetic biology, the de novo creation of novel biological systems (see Nature news report). Whilst some aspects of synthetic biology are highly contentious, for example the … Read More
August 11, 2009
I’m an adviser to the chief medical officer for the agency. I don’t make decisions. Instead, I analyze situations and policies and offer bioethical perspectives on specific problems. NASA does hundreds of research studies. Every astronaut who goes into space … Read More
August 11, 2009
The Colorado Title Board on Wednesday voted in favor of a proposal that would amend the state constitution to extend legal protections to embryos, the AP/Colorado Springs Gazette reports. The proposal’s language fundamentally is the same as that used in … Read More
August 11, 2009
Five-year-old Lucy the Labradoodle’s back limbs have been rendered unusable by rheumatoid arthritis, and she must scoot along the ground with her front paws to grab a bone. Her owners believe that a costly stem-cell treatment is the reason she’s … Read More
August 11, 2009
Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US is a collaborative research project involving researchers from LSE, Chatham House, Environmental Law Institute and The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Its goal is to investigate … Read More
August 11, 2009
The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to … Read More
August 11, 2009
Twenty years ago, when the government began the Human Genome Initiative, researchers believed it would take 10 years, $3 billion and thousands of scientists to determine the sequence of the 3 billion individual deoxyribonucleic acid bases that constitute a single … Read More
August 11, 2009
Some caregivers of critical care patients prefer doctors to keep their opinions on life support decisions to themselves, according to new research that challenges long-held beliefs in the critical care community. (EurekaAlert)
August 11, 2009
In an advance that could help transform embryonic stem cells into a multipurpose medical tool, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have transformed these versatile cells into progenitors of white blood cells and into six types of mature white blood … Read More
August 10, 2009
Bioethics (Volume 23, Issue 7, September 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Bioinformatics and Ethics” by Antonio Marturano, ii-iii. “When Speed Truly Matters, Openness is the Answer” by Antonio Marturano, 385-393. “Outlining Ethical Issues in Nanotechnologies” by … Read More
August 10, 2009
Public Health Ethics (Volume 2, Number 2, July 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Editorial: Political Philosophy and Public Health Ethics” by Angus Dawson, 121-122. “Public Health Ethics and Liberalism” by Lubomira Radoilska, 135-145. “Liberalism, Altruism and Group … Read More
August 10, 2009
The Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (GINA) was made a federal law across the US just over a year ago (see previous news). It prevents insurers from refusing to provide health insurance to healthy people on the sole basis of genetic … Read More
August 10, 2009
About a third of Americans have living wills or advance-care directives expressing their wishes for end-of-life treatment. When seniors who don’t have them arrive in a hospital terminally ill and incapacitated, families and medical workers wrestle with uncertainty — while … Read More
August 10, 2009
First came naming babies after movie stars. Then there were copycats of celebrity outfits, Academy Award dresses and even nose jobs. Now, the celebrity chase is getting genetic. (CNN)
August 10, 2009
Without coming across as too macabre and curmudgeonly, we’ll simply say that with dawn of the internet, the business of death has gotten a lot more complicated these days. Consider that wills once existed for the sole purpose of ceding … Read More
August 10, 2009
One of the great concerns about Oregon is the suggestion that the very existence of the right-to-die law means the state’s health system now has less of an incentive to provide terminally-ill people with proper care. (Mail Online)
August 10, 2009
The promise of cures that could be found through stem cell research are drowning out the inconvenient truth: Yes, there very well may be cures in the future – but not right now. (Medill Reports)
August 10, 2009
Specialized adult cells made ‘immortal’ through the blockade of an antitumour pathway can be turned into stem-like cells quickly and efficiently. The findings — which should make it easier to generate patient-specific cells from any tissue type, including certain diseased … Read More
August 10, 2009
For the past eight years, scientists who wanted to use federal funds for research on human embryonic stem cells had to restrict their studies to 21 cell lines approved by the National Institutes of Health. But an analysis by a … Read More
August 10, 2009
Technology can eliminate many human imperfections, but we risk losing that messy quality that is the essence of our humanness. (Ottawa Citizen)
August 7, 2009
Pandemics. Global warming. Food shortages. No more fossil fuels. What are humans to do? The same thing the species has done before: evolve to meet the challenge. But this time we don’t have to rely on natural evolution to make … Read More
August 7, 2009
Bioethics expert R. Alta Charo is joining the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a senior adviser to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. In an interview Wednesday, Hamburg said that Charo will be involved in many cutting-edge fields. (Science Magazine)
August 7, 2009
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research in Michigan have mobilized to push for guidelines on how the research is carried out, setting up a battle that will play out in the state Legislature. (The Detroit News)
August 7, 2009
Pharmacists’ representatives have claimed that use of private health record services such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault could risk fragmentation of electronic patient records. (E-Health Insider Primary Care)
