Wikileaks
Hi there,
The big news this week is Wikileaks. I was
even inspired to write a comment on the online magazine I edit, MercatorNet.
It’s a very convoluted issue, but I end up taking a very dim view of leaking US
State Department cables.
It turns out that there is a bioethics
angle to Wikileaks. American diplomats were asked to do some bio-snooping for
the State Department – collecting iris scans, fingerprints, DNA profiles from cigarette
buts and coffee cups and so on (see below). I wonder if their subjects were asked to fill
out consent forms. There’s no way you will catch me schmoozing with American
diplomats any more…
Privacy is a dimension of bioethics which will
grow in importance in the 21st century. As governments, companies and other
institutions amass more and more personal information about us, all archived in
databases, the likelihood that this information will be abused grows. I find it
quite unsettling to contemplate the possibility that X-Ray scans of me passing
through airport screening could be posted on the internet. It’s a very remote
possibility, to be sure, but the Wikileaks saga shows that it is possible.
Cheers,
Michael Cook
BioEdge
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
A painful debate: shrinking the carbon footprint of anaesthetics
If there is any profession which seems remote from the Sturm und Drang of climate change, it must be anaesthetists....
Some patients recall death experiences after heart attacks
In an article in the journal Resuscitation, some survivors of cardiac arrest have described lucid death experiences that occurred while...
Queensland widower dies after taking assisted suicide drugs ordered by his wife
“Move along, please. Nothing to see here.” This was more or less the reaction of supporters of “voluntary assisted dying”...
Australian first: nurse donates organs after euthanasia
A Victorian woman has become the first Australian to combine death by euthanasia with organ donation. Ballarat nurse Marlene Bevern,...
Canadian study hints at crushing institutional conscience objections to ‘assisted dying’
Supporters of “voluntary assisted dying” fought hard to achieve legalisation in various jurisdictions around the world. After legalisation, however, battles...
Hope, hype and xenotransplantation
On January 7, 2022 David Bennett, a 57-year-old with terminal heart disease, made history as the first person to receive...