THE COMPLEXITIES OF ABORTION
Two recent stories in the media reflect the difficulty of taking a consistent ethical stand on abortion rights. Susanne M. Sanchez, of Miami, Florida, wrote...
STEM CELLS — BOTH KINDS — HELP DISEASED MICE
A US study has found that both embryonic and adult stem cells protect mice against a neurogenerative disease. This is the first time, it was...
GENETIC ENGINEERING MAY BE LESS DISCRIMINATORY
A British bioethicist has come up with a novel argument in favour of genetic engineering: it is non-judgemental. Currently parents in the UK are only...
SOUTH CAROLINA’S SOLUTION TO ORGAN SHORTAGE
Legislators in South Carolina are mulling over a creative way of coping with the state's shortage of organ donors. A panel in its Senate has...
AUSTRALIAN EUTHANASIA ACTIVISTS FACE MURDER TRIAL
Two women in Sydney have been granted bail after a week in custody for the mercy killing of a former pilot. Shirley Justins, 58, and...
IN BRIEF: organ trading; medication errors; ADHD; egg donors
Organ trading: After a three year investigation, two California men have been charged with conspiracy and grand theft for stealing body parts from UCLA's cadaver...
SINGAPORE DEBATES ORGAN DONATION
The image of organ donation in Singapore has been tarnished after a hospital used security guards to restrain weeping relatives while it whisked away a...
CALIFORNIA ORGAN DONATION INCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION
Organ donation can go pear-shaped in the US, too, as the recently. According to a report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, early last...
STEM CELL BANKS PROLIFERATE IN US
As American baby boomers move into their 60s, many are taking out "bioinsurance policies" in the form of frozen stem cell samples. It is being...
“FALSE IDOLS OF INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY” DENOUNCED
Writing in the , Peter Singer, doyen of utilitarian bioethicists, recently supported the so-called "Ashley treatment" for a severely retarded girl. In that widely discussed...
MEDICAL ETHICS AND MISSION CREEP
Like an exotic species in a foreign environment, ethics panels designed to monitor biomedical experiments have invaded and overrun the humanities in the US. The...
CONTROVERSY OVER BRAIN-DEAD PATIENT
Back in September, British researchers startled the neuroscience world when they reported in Science that a severely brain-damaged and apparently unresponsive patient had responded to...