UNESCO bioethics chair installed in Cote d’Ivoire
Africa’s first francophone bioethics chair The official installation of UNESCO’s first francophone Africa chair of bioethics took place at the University of Bouaké in the...
Pentagon questions alleged drug study on wounded troops
Alleged misconduct The Department of Defense is investigating whether 80 wounded US service members in Iraq were used improperly as test subjects for a treatment...
Police agencies admit to saving images from body scans
Checkpoint security machines provoke privacy concerns While the US Transport Security Administration claims that images from electronic body scans “cannot be stored or recorded,” a...
Cosmetic surgery junkies and their doctors
Only 30% of doctors think that BDD sufferers should not get surgery What should a doctor do if a patient with a psychiatric condition asks...
Swiss Justice Minister wants assisted suicide for non-terminally ill
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf calls for changes The Swiss are thinking of liberalizing their liberal legislation on assisted suicide. At the moment, assisted suicide is legal so...
Making compulsory euthanasia look good
Hi there, Way down at the bottom of the newsletter is a brief article from Australia. It’s a YouTube clip from “The Gruen Transfer”, a...
Is posthumous conception enough to make you a parent?
No, says Social Security Agency in Utah Should a child born three years after his father’s death be eligible for survivor Social Security benefits? This...
UK fertility watchdog to disappear in “bonfire of the quangos”
Will lobbyists be able to save it? Britain’s fertility watchdog, the Human Fertlitsation and Embryology Authority, is to be abolished as part of a cost-cutting...
Positives can outweigh negatives for new parents of Down syndrome children
US researchers find that doctors can be hostile The tumultuous feelings parents have when they first learn their child will be born with Down syndrome...
Helping judges understand neuroscience
Useful manual for lawyers The Law and Neuroscience Project, a clearinghouse for a dialogue between law and brain scientists, has published A Judge's Guide to...
Top IVF doctor defends helping parents pick babies’ sex
Sex selection superdoc A US pioneer of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has defended sex selection, saying that it is “not playing God”, but rather is...
World Medical Association still burdened with corrupt president-elect
Ketan Desai in New Delhi jail A deadline approaches for the World Medical Association. It holds its annual general assembly in Vancouver from October 13...