September 16, 2010
American politicians and lawmakers are deeply conflicted about human enhancement technologies (medical interventions that extend the capabilities of the human body). Stem cell research doesn’t qualify as enhancement; rather it is a therapy, which can potentially be used for enhancement … Read More
September 16, 2010
Pythagorean Greeks, early Christian church fathers, Talmudic rabbis, Sunni and Shia scholars, Hindu Brahmin and modern bioethicists have grappled with the fundamental, ultimately unknowable, mystery: At what point in our biological development are we infused with a soul? (NewsOK)
September 16, 2010
In a damning new article in the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine, Dr. Carl Elliott, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Bioethics, argues that the university’s system of clinical research “has been so thoroughly co-opted by … Read More
September 16, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI warned that advances in biotechnology may lead to practices harming human dignity and called for vigilance on the medical application of scientific discoveries. (Times LIVE)
September 16, 2010
A pregnant woman with a five-month-old fetus exposed through her opened uterus is among the preserved human bodies in an exhibition that opens today at Science World in Vancouver. (Vancouver Sun)
September 14, 2010
The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 10, Issue 9, September 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “A Case Study in Unethical Transgressive Bioethics: ‘Letter of Concern from Bioethicists’ About the Prenatal Administration of Dexamethasone” by Laurence B. … Read More
September 14, 2010
Current Challenges in Medical Communication: Diagnosing and Curing Unethical Practices Under the Patronage of: The President of the Polish Academy of Sciences The Minister of Health The Minister of Science and Higher Education Warsaw, Poland. October 8, 2010 Scientists, especially … Read More
September 14, 2010
Converging Roads: Suffering, Healing, and Compassion in Medicine Presented by: CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health Care and Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Center for Children & Families Auditorium, 5th Floor 333 N. Santa Rosa Street San Antonio, … Read More
September 14, 2010
Twenty-five out of 32 highly paid consultants to medical device companies in 2007, or their publishers, failed to reveal the financial connections in journal articles the following year, according to a study released on Monday. (New York Times)
September 14, 2010
Australia has outlawed a television advertisement in favour of euthanasia – the first in many years to challenge a legal ban on the practice. In the advert, a gaunt-looking actor speaks of intolerable suffering and urges the government to listen … Read More
September 14, 2010
As the National Institutes of Health fights in court for permission to resume long-term funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells, some members of Congress are coming to the agency’s defense with a proposal to make President Obama’s stem-cell … Read More
September 14, 2010
In the early 1980s many people both inside and outside Parliament were seeking to prohibit experimentation on human embryos. In response, the government convened a committee of enquiry, aiming to circumvent the possibility of a ban. The Warnock Report duly … Read More
September 14, 2010
The thalidomide disaster led Congress to pass legislation giving the F.D.A. authority to demand that drug makers prove their products safe and effective. Moreover, Dr. Kelsey helped write the rules that now govern nearly every clinical trial in the industrialized … Read More
September 14, 2010
We may disagree about whether a sick or incapacitated person should be helped to end their life if they wish to die, but at least the subject is no longer taboo. Yet most of the half a million people who … Read More
September 13, 2010
The tools used by the commercial industry to detect our thoughts and brain states are very different, and somewhat limited, compared to those used in the research lab. (Scientific American)
September 13, 2010
When researchers first demonstrated in 2007 that human skin cells could be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells that can fully differentiate into other cells, scientists and politicians alike rejoiced. All the potential of embryonic stem cells might be harnessed … Read More
September 13, 2010
A BBC Scotland investigation has found alternative practitioners who admit to giving patients a homeopathic medicine designed to replace the MMR vaccine. One also claimed she could protect against other diseases including Polio, Tetanus and Diptheria. (BBC News)
September 13, 2010
The case for some sort of HPV vaccination is overwhelming. But the strength of that case should not allow the normal safeguards for ensuring appropriate consent to be ignored. (Practical Ethics)
September 13, 2010
In 1995, Oregon passed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide. However, a new study shows a major stakeholder in terminal illness — hospices — rarely participate in physician-assisted suicide. (Los Angeles Times)
September 13, 2010
Kenyan children in acute and chronic pain suffer needlessly because of government policies that restrict access to inexpensive pain medicines, a lack of investment in palliative care services, and inadequately trained health workers, Human Rights Watch said in a report … Read More
September 13, 2010
SHOULD we consider the privacy or reputation of the individual when analysing an Egyptian mummy? The assumption that ancient corpses are fair game for science is beginning to be challenged. (New Scientist)
September 10, 2010
The Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 304, Issue 8, August 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “End of Life Wishes” by Bridget M. Kuehn, 846. “Health Care Reform and Chronic Diseases: Anticipating the Health Consequences” … Read More
September 10, 2010
Reason, Theology and the Genome McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics & Public Life at Oxford University and University of Exeter University of Oxford October 9, 2010 This one-day conference will focus on the work of Habermas and Sandel, bringing together … Read More
September 10, 2010
Scientists have developed a scan that can measure the maturity of the brain, an advance that someday might be useful for testing whether children are maturing normally and for gauging whether teenagers are grown-up enough to be treated as adults. … Read More
September 10, 2010
The state sheriff’s association pushed the idea Tuesday, saying the move would help them make drug arrests and curb a growing problem of prescription drug abuse. But patient advocates say opening up people’s medicine cabinets to law enforcement would deal … Read More
