Nanny state and obesity #1: Punishment doesn’t work
Obesity is not determined by the foolish decisions of autonomous individuals. Peter Singer and Daniel Callahan have recently advocated radical approaches to reducing obesity. Singer...
Savulescu – We have a moral obligation to increase the intelligence of our children
Oxford bioethicist Julian Savulescu calls for genetic screening of the unborn for IQ genes. Oxford bioethicist Julian Savulescu has again sparked controversy, this time advocating...
Australian judge warns of psychological effects of commercial surrogacy on children
Australian judge warns of grave psychological effects of commercial surrogacy. An Australian judge recently expressed grave concerns about the effects of international surrogacy arrangements on...
New journal for law and bioethics
A new journal has been launched, Law and the Biosciences.Three top US universities have combined with Oxford University Press (OUP) to start the world’s first...
US Office of Research Integrity shackled by bureaucracy
The head of the US agency for investigating scientific misconduct has just resigned after two years of struggle with a “remarkably dysfunctional” Federal bureaucracy. Quis...
Conscientious objection to “patriarchal norms”
A report from Sweden on how doctors handle hymen restorationInformed consent and conscientious objection are easy to fulminate about, but tricky to discuss with consistency....
The eternal return of the free-will debate: new psychological research
A novel argument against free will from experimental philosophy is that a naïve belief in free will is founded upon a desire to blame and...
A small breach in the personhood barrier
Earlier this month an American animal rights group made a push to gain legal recognition for the personhood of non-animals. Earlier this month an American...
Is there too much conscientious objection in Canada?
The January issue of the journal Bioethics deals with conscientious objection, with an emphasis on the situation in Canada. The January issue of the journal...
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...
Seventh revision of Declaration of Helsinki published
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Helsinki, the benchmark for ethical medical research on subjects. Next year marks the 50th anniversary...
Should bioethicists go ninja?
There is still life in most famous bioethics article of all time, “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” There is still life in most...