West Virginia bans Down syndrome abortions
The US state of West Virginia has banned abortion of foetuses with Down syndrome and other disabilities. . The “Unborn Child with Down Syndrome Protection...
‘Happy and healthy’ American sisters die in Swiss suicide clinic
Two middle-aged American sisters died in a Swiss suicide clinic in Basel, on February 11. Lila Ammouri, a 54-year-old palliative care doctor, and Susan Frazier,...
US scientists claim that they can scan the whole genome of an IVF embryo
A California company claims that it can read nearly the entire genome of an early embryo after extracting a single cell. In an article in...
Transhumanism under the microscope
Transhumanism is – to put it mildly – controversial. But its futuristic ideas are compelling and intriguing. Some of its advocates (like Elon Musk) are...
Class action over unproven stem cell treatment settled for US$3.65 million
San Diego-based StemGenex, a now-bankrupt stem cell clinic, has to pay out US$3.65 million to its former patients for ineffective stem cell treatments. The complaint,...
When fertility management becomes big business
It’s a commonplace of science journalism that ethics cannot keep pace with technology. As far as assisted reproduction goes, ethics cannot keep pace with business....
Bioethics after Ukraine
In a thoughtful essay in The Hastings Center blog, Jonathan Moreno, a leading bioethicist, reflects on how bioethics will change after the war in Ukraine....
‘The Tasmanian Tiger will walk again.’ Dream on, scientists say
De-extinction is a romantic dream. What if woolly mammoths could once again tread the Siberian tundra. Or thylacines lope through the bush of Tasmania? Or...
Longevity does not always work in your favour in the UK
“Dying patients living longer than expected lose NHS funds” was the BBC headline. The NHS is the UK’s government health service, which is publicly funded...
Transgender wars
The right to transition to a different gender dominates coverage of transgender issues in the media. Less well known is a growing movement of “detransitioners”,...
House of Lords votes down another assisted dying proposal
This week the House of Lords in the UK voted down an unusual amendment to a Health and Care Bill and killed the latest initiative...
Bioethics must repudiate its white past to confront racism
The Black Lives Matter movement has exposed a crisis in bioethics, argues Camisha Russell, of the University of Oregon, in the American Journal of Bioethics....