Accidents do happen in legal assisted suicide
What happens if you attend your buddy’s assisted suicide end-of-life celebration and have an exploratory sip of his lethal prescription? Well, you might die. A...
Danish ethicists advise their government not to legalise euthanasia
The Danish Council on Ethics has advised Denmark’s parliament against legalising euthanasia. A report endorsed by 16 of the council’s 17 members concluded that it...
Italy is cracking down on surrogacy
The Italian government is cracking down on both commercial and altruistic surrogacy, dismaying many gay couples. According to a feature in the Wall Street Journal,...
Plato didn’t think that parents mattered. These academics don’t, either
In Book V of The Republic, Plato outlines a utopian vision for raising children. They will be taken from their mothers and raised communally by...
Canadian police refuse to prosecute doctor who sterilized Inuit woman without consent
Canadian police have declined to lay criminal charges against a doctor who sterilised an Inuit woman in Yellowknife without her consent. In 2019 Dr Andrew...
A second pig heart transplant appears to be successful
A 58-year-old patient with terminal heart disease became the second patient in the world to receive a successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart on...
Americans wrestle with definition of abortion
Abortion is just as inflammable and divisive an issue as ever in the United States, but the rhetoric is changing. The best illustration of the...
Anthropologists cancel panel discussion on sex binary over ‘transphobia’
The American Anthropology Association, together with its Canadian counterpart, has cancelled a presentation at its November conference in Toronto because the speakers planned to affirm...
Japanese scientists foresee artificial eggs and sperm in next decade
IVG, in vitro gametogenesis, is one of the most radical offshoots of IVF. Scientists are rushing to be the first to create “artificial” eggs and...
Spanish pets must be offered alternatives to euthanasia
In a significant development for animal welfare in Spain, legislation aimed at curbing the mistreatment and abandonment of animals officially took effect last month, as...
Greenland women demand compensation for forced contraception
Greenland women who lost their ability to bear children because Danish doctors secretly inserted IUDs in the 1960s and 1970s are suing for immediate compensation....
A painful debate: shrinking the carbon footprint of anaesthetics
If there is any profession which seems remote from the Sturm und Drang of climate change, it must be anaesthetists. After all their job is...