Thousand dying in Yemen of cholera
One unfortunate consequence of the omphalocentric state of American politics is that cries for help from the rest of the world are a mosquito’s buzz...
Recovering a universal bio-ethic
Bioethics, the ethics of life, has bifurcated into medical ethics and environmental ethics. Can we reunite them?Etymologically, the word “bioethics” means the ethics of life....
Dancing with the star: suicide enthusiasts celebrate Nitschke’s 70th birthday
... not long after a triple suicide inspired by Exit International, his organisationAustralian euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke has a knack for public relations. To celebrate...
Psychiatrists versus Trump
President Donald Trump was elected because he promised to break moulds and drain swamps. “And now for something completely different” was basically the platform on...
China rushes into embryo selection
Very little ethical push-back existsGene-editing with CRISPR has been in the headlines over the past month and touted as a way of eliminating genetic diseases....
Can genetics refute white supremacist theories?
Unfortunately, the answer seems to be NoThis week’s headlines were filled with news from Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white supremacist drove his car into a...
Dutch couple choose euthanasia together
It's an increasingly common practice in the Netherlands, it seemsThe latest husband-and-wife euthanasia in the Netherlands took place on July 4. Nic and Trees Elderhorst,...
Pope demands that Belgian Catholic hospitals stop euthanasia
Warning shot across the bow of Catholic dissidentsEarlier this year a group of Catholic hospitals and clinics for the mentally ill in Belgium announced that...
Iceland: nearly 100% of Down syndrome babies terminated
"Heavy-handed genetic counseling" to blame, says leading local geneticistNearly 100% of Down syndrome babies are aborted in Iceland, according to a CBS News special report...
The hidden stories of medical experimentation on Caribbean slave plantations
Doctors used slaves to test primitive cures for tropical diseases‘The Plantation,’ oil on wood, ca. 1825. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC BY In the natural course...
Towards Belmont 2.0
In a recent article in the American Journal of Bioethics, bioethicist Art Caplan and three colleagues call for a complete overhaul of the venerable Belmont...
Has the venerable Belmont Report passed its use-by date?
Art Caplan calls for a complete overhaulThe 1979 Belmont Report by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research...