Go gentle?
The drugs used for executing American prisoners and the drugs used for assisting suicide are more or less the same. Do they guarantee that patients...
Will assisted suicide always provide a quick and gentle death?
No, sorry, not alwaysThe gold standard for human experimentation is a randomly-assigned double-blind placebo-controlled study. Unfortunately, organising such a study to assess the effectiveness of...
British man with motor neurone disease loses fight for assisted suicide in UK court
Challenge to Suicide Act 1961 failsA British court has once again supported a ban on assisted suicide. Noel Conway (see here for previous BioEdge stories),...
Religions and embryos
From ensoulment to reincarnationAn special feature in the journal Development lists the attitude of various religions towards human embryos. Author William Neaves writes “How religions...
Bioethics in Nobel for Literature
Kazuo Ishiguro discussed cloning and organ donation in his 2005 novelThe 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to British-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, one...
Sperm bank to add criminal check and thorough psych assessment to screening process
It's about time, some will sayA leading sperm bank, California Cryobank, has become the first in the industry to add a clinical psychological assessment and criminal...
Cosmetic surgery clowning to be discouraged
Sleazy marketing tactics are popular in a competitive fieldThe circus atmosphere of plastic surgeons donning costumes, dancing and juggling breast implants during live surgery videos...
Children can write their own advance care directives in Victoria
As long as they are competent, their requests will be bindingIn a world first, the Australian state of Victoria is allowing children of any age...
Your genes for sale: shouldn’t you get a return?
There are ethical concerns about business practices of genomics companiesPersonalised genetic testing has become increasingly popular with companies such as 23andMe offering a variety of...
Embryo gene-editing in Canada: Ethicists urge caution
Two Canadian ethicists defend a moratorium on embryo gene-editing, arguing that it reflects an international consensus Two Canadian ethicists have defended their country’s moratorium on...
An AI alternative to organised religion
There are several quasi-religious organisations now operational in Silicon ValleyTired of organised religion? Maybe you should join a Silicon Valley religious start-up. Former Uber exec...