Hug your neighbourhood bioethicist
Hi there, Sometimes, I must confess, bioethical debates can become tedious and in my darker moods I wonder whether the whole shebang is worthwhile. It’s...
Belgian Senate approves child euthanasia
The outcome was expected, but overseas observers were astonished at the margin of victory. By a vote of 50 to 17, the Belgian Senate has...
Campaign for ‘fertility equality’ begins in Israel
On Wednesday Israeli Health minister Yael German announced her plans to liberalize her country’s fertility law. Amongst her sweeping reforms, German wants to allow same-sex...
Patient sues US Catholic Bishop’s Conference
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the US Catholic Bishops Conference (USCBC) for hampering the care of a pregnant woman in one of...
Scrap “luxury journal” system, says Nobel Prize winner
One of the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine has used it as a platform for a blistering attack on the whole system...
Calls for Virginia to compensate sterilization victims
Pressure is mounting on legislators in Virginia to compensate victims of its forced sterilization policy in the early years of the last century. Pressure is...
New details surface in UK forced delivery case
A number of important facts have come to light in the case of Alessandra Pacchieri, an Italian woman subject to a forced caesarean when visiting...
The tragedy of the lobotomized GIs
Sometimes it’s good to remind yourself that bioethicists are good guys to have around if your doctor is thinking about using you as a guinea...
Provocative new series in Journal of Medical Ethics
The Journal of Medical Ethics is constantly innovating in the selection and presentation of its material. The latest feature is “Author Meets Critics”, a series...
Govt bioethics commission releases report on incidental findings
A genetic test for breast cancer shows that a patient is not at risk. But the results also reveal that there is an elevated risk...
Anthropologist honoured for alerting world to organ trafficking
Anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes, of the University of California Berkeley, has been honored by the American Anthropological Association with its first ever Anthropology in Public Policy...