American sailor jailed over assisted suicide
Google "assisted suicide" on Google News and you can scroll through a number of current cases which have been discribed as "assisted suicide" or "mercy...
Doctors could screen for gay genes in near future
Within a few years, parents may be able to screen embryos and foetuses for the “gay gene”, according to a Columbia University bioethicist. Within a...
The neuroscience of journalistic standards
Hi there, I feel twinges of conscience when writing about bioethical skulduggery. How well do I stack up? There is such a thing as journalistic...
“Never say die”: the surgeon’s motto?
‘When the patient of an internist dies, his colleagues ask, “What happened?,” when the patient of a surgeon dies, his colleagues ask, “What did you...
HIV+ women in Namibia sterilised without consent
Three HIV-positive women in Namibia have been awarded damages after a court found that they had been sterilized without their consent. Three HIV-positive women in...
A malaria vaccine could make the disease worse
So much money invested in a cure for cancer; so little into a cure for malaria. This is the scenario which is sometimes used as...
Startling admissions in IVF journal
Some IVF patients are being offered risky, unsafe techniques which have not been developed ethically and which offer dubious benefits, according to an extraordinary article...
Russian billionaire offers immortality by 2045
The dream of achieving biological immortality may have taken a big step forward. A 31-year-old Russian billionaire, Dmitry Itskov, claims that his research team will...
Leading Massachusetts doctors go mano a mano over assisted suicide
On election day in November, Massachusetts will also vote on a referendum on assisted suicide – or, as its supporters call it, assisted dying. On...
Bourne gets enhanced!
Hollywood takes a definitive look at genetic enhancement in the latest instalment in the Bourne series, The Bourne Legacy – to be released next week....
Bioethics and the Olympics
The Olympics have begun. Sports are supposed to bring out the best of human character – generosity, self-sacrifice, teamwork, courage and so on -- but...
Should Olympic athletes be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs?
The London Olympics have arrived and with them come familiar controversies over drug cheats. IOC President Jacques Rogge said yesterday that tests had identified more...