Remembering Nikola Tesla, eugenicist
He thought that the unfit should be sterilized. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk celebrated Nikola Tesla’s birthday this week with a US$1 million donation to set...
A bioethical dilemma for sharia law
Most of our readers probably live in countries where bioethics often revolves around the proper use of sophisticated medical technologies. My attention was drawn this...
Canadian bioethicists sunk in dejection over government inaction
The bioethics community in Canada is enraged at the Harper Government’s refusal to appoint a strong and formally credentialed leader. The bioethics community in Canada...
What are the issues in post-mortem sperm retrieval?
Is it ethical to remove sperm from a dead body without consent? In 2010 21-year-old Niklas Evans was assaulted outside a bar in Texas. He...
Court orders France to recognise surrogacy children
Surrogacy may be banned in France, but it must recognise children born to surrogate parents abroad, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. Surrogacy...
Last act in stem cell research tragedy
Nature has retracted a paper and a letter, both published in January, which claimed that physical perturbation of cells could create genetic effects. The sorry...
Is a day of doom looming for bioethics?
Predictions of a Ragnarök for bioethics surface regularly in academic journals. Ragnarök is the day in Norse mythology when gods and men meet their doom....
BMJ backs assisted suicide
"The BMJ hopes that this bill will eventually become law… Let us hope that our timid lawmakers will rise to the challenge.” One of the...
Remembering Archduke Ferdinand
Hi there, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated 100 years ago today in Sarajevo. Within weeks the world was at war. In another four years...
We need to redefine parenthood, say bioethicists
“And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.”...
Do prisoners have a right to participate in clinical trials?
Prisoners are being unfairly excluded from taking part in potentially beneficial clinical research, argue researchers in the JME. Prisoners are being unfairly excluded from taking...
Can patients enjoy a life of disability?
What a fit and healthy person regards as “acceptable” might not match what a disabled person feels about life. Severe head injuries sometimes require a...