Is the biotech revolution a myth?
One of scientists' main selling points to gain government support for stem cell research has been its dramatic potential for rapid progress. The new field...
Scientists and bioethicists puzzled by new stem cell options
The head of the US President's Council on Bioethics, Dr Leon Kass, says that he supports further study of two ethically puzzling alternatives to conventional...
Eggs divide without sperm
Welsh researchers may have found yet another way of producing embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos. The process uses an enzyme, PLC-zeta, normally produced by...
Therapeutic cloning off the boil
Scientists no longer describe therapeutic cloning as essential for "miracle cures" from embryonic stem cells. According to a report in the web magazine Wired, "if...
Stem cells could cure incontinence
Austrian scientists have used muscle stem cells as a treatment for urinary incontinence in women. Stress incontinence affects 15 million people, mostly women, around the...
Adult stem cells fail to spark heart
After several encouraging reports that adult stem cells had repaired damaged heart tissue, the latest research pours cold water on the idea. A study in...
France passes euthanasia law
France is edging closer to legalising some forms of euthanasia. On November 30 the National Assembly passed a law which attempts to clarify the situation...
Dutch euthanasia for children surfaces in the media
News that a hospital in the Netherlands has been euthanasing children prompted cries of alarm around the world this week -- even though the story...
Another British suicide tourist dies in Zurich
A British woman has killed herself in a Swiss suicide clinic after a judge lifted an injunction which had banned her husband from accompanying her...
Israel forms national bioethics council
Israel's new national bioethics council has been stacked with a small, yet dominant, group of lecturers and researcher who tend to favour minimal regulation and...
Is the commitment of dermatology to medicine only skin-deep?
To the disgust of some dermatologists, their specialty is in danger of becoming a branch of beauty therapy, according to a report in Business Week....
Britain considers electronic chaperone for doctors
In an effort to combat abuses by predatory doctors and false accusations by patients, Britain's National Health Service may force doctors to have a nurse...