Academics continue to spar over conscientious objection
Some argue it's about conscience; others say it's about real issues. Conscientious objection has been a subject of vigorous debate in medical ethics in recent...
NHS terminates contracts over waste disposal scandal
Hundreds of tonnes of waste, including human body parts, had accumulated. The National Health Service has terminated several contracts with waste disposal provider Health Environmental...
Capital punishment abolished in Washington State
The State Supreme Court said that the death penalty was 'racially biased'Washington State’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that capital punishment is “unconstitutional” and “racially...
MSF ordered off Nauru
MSF has called for the immediate evacuation of asylum seekers from the islandThe international medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres has been abruptly ordered off...
Which is more egregious: euthanasia or plagiarism?
About five minutes before I was about to entrust this newsletter to MailChimp, I heard that the Canadian Medical Association had just withdrawn from the...
Dutch man may have fathered 1000 children
Could be the world’s most prolific father Amsterdam street scene Ivo van Halen, a 34-year-old Dutch IT consultant, is compiling a very long Christmas card...
Should HIV+ people be allowed to donate organs?
A South African mother has donated a liver to her infant son A medical team at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa has...
Canadians and Dutch fail to shift World Medical Association opposition to euthanasia
A number of other nations have opposed change A view of Reykjavik The pro-euthanasia Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and the Dutch Medical Association(KNMG) have failed...
If you cannot remember a crime, should you be executed for it?
A prisoner on death row in Alabama may not remember a murder he committed in 1985 On April 18, 1985 Vernon Madison shot an Alabama...
UK govt bodies clash over transgender fertility treatment
Human rights versus bottom line A government human rights agency in the UK plans to sue the government health service for not helping transgender patients...
Documentary makes powerful plea for open access publishing
Many academics do not understand how the system worksNothing warms the cockles of the heart like righteous outrage, so quite a few readers of BioEdge...
Australian man convicted of counselling his wife to suicide
The man stood to gain A$1.4 million in life insurance. An Australian man has been found guilty of “counselling” his wife to commit suicide --...