Is Britain’s stem cell crisis a beat-up?
Independent campaigning over hybrid embryos Few areas of science journalism are more susceptible to frothy beat-ups than stem cell research. The UK Independent ran an...
Adult stem cells used to grow jawbone
Could revolutionise treatment of bone defects Scientists at Columbia University have created part of a human jaw joint by growing human adult stem cells on...
Dementia should be treated as a terminal illness
Article in New England Journal of Medicine Is dementia a terminal illness? Yes, according to an article this week in the New England Journal of...
… but who decides what is terminal?
Dramatic case in UK But what can happen when dementia is treated as a terminal illness may not always please close family members, an article...
Warning for California egg donors
Schwarzegger signs new law After lobbying from a wide range of groups, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law a bill requiring that advertisements...
Are bioethicists bioethical?
ome philosophers have their doubts Here’s a bit of fun for professional bioethicists. A forthcoming paper in the philosophy journal Mind discusses the ethics of...
NIH head appointed to Pontifical Academy
... even though he is an Evangelical Christian President Obama’s choice as the head of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, has been...
Novel defences for conscientious objection
Surprisingly, in the Journal of Medical Ethics Should doctors employed by a government hospital be allowed to make a conscientious objection to abortion? A British...
Ethical dimension of caring for dementia
Nuffield Council reportCarers of people with dementia need more support and advice to tackle the difficult ethical dilemmas that they face on a daily basis,...
US IVF clinic scandals come to light
In New Orleans and San FranciscoWhile the mistakes of British fertility clinics are going to be placed on a public register, in the US lawsuits...
Experts identify key issues in swine flu pandemic
Canadian centre calls for preparednessA second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of thorny medical ethics issues, according to discussion papers...
Nobel laureate Blackburn was centre of bioethics wrangle
Elizabeth Blackburn was booted off Bush's bioethics council There’s a bioethical angle to this year’s Nobel laureates for Medicine and Physiology. One of the trio...