Controversy over possible changes to US organ donation
Criteria for organ donation in the US may change radically, if proposals by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which controls the allocation of organs,...
Dementia and euthanasia
I wish there were a handy word for the serendipitous coincidence of complementary news stories. The lead story this week is a minor flare-up over...
Experts comment on sperm donor with 150 offspring
The New York Times recently revealed that one American sperm donor had 150 offspring. This became a major story which prompted much comment. Ten experts...
A kind of death
Pat Robertson, the colourful American televangelist with a gift for making headline opinions, has ventured into a controversial dimension of end-of-life care. In his...
Euthanasia becoming integral part of Dutch medicine
Dutch doctors have a professional obligation to refer patients who request euthanasia to a compliant colleague if they object, says the national doctors association, the...
Can it happen again?
The word bioethics seldom crops up in Google News searches, but this week it was in flashing lights. The US Presidential Commission for the...
Egg freezing now viable option, says British expert
Egg freezing has become a viable option for younger women who want to delay having children, says IVF specialist Gillian Lockwood in the journal Reproductive...
The future of memory-altering drugs
Give memory-altering drugs a chance, argues the editor of the well-regarded Neuroethics & Law blog. Adam Kolber, of Brooklyn Law School, writes in Nature that...
Are desperate Somalis selling their organs?
Allegations of organ trafficking to crop up regularly wherever civilians are caught up in wars. Kosovo’s prime minister stands accused of involvement in trafficking organs...
Meta-analysis challenges abortion policies
The media seems to have ignored a significant study on the effects of abortion which has appeared in latest issue of the British Journal of...
Anthony Trollope and euthanasia
Apart from admiring his prodigious work ethic, I have never really warmed to Anthony Trollope, although his numerous, long and absorbing novels are enjoying a...
A scalpel for the soul
In some countries, there are doctors who doubt whether elective cosmetic surgery is really medicine at all, since it doesn’t heal anything. But not in...