>Scientists have reportedly engineered sheep with organs consisting of up to 15% human cells. A human’s bone marrow stem cells are implanted in a developing sheep ( a fetal lamb), which then develops with the chimeric organs, such as livers, kidneys, etc. The goal is to make multiple sheeple (I’m adapting this term from a … Continue reading
>There is a gut reaction, what Dr. Leon Kass has called a “yuck” factor, to the idea that a mother would trade her child for money, however the idea is framed. ABC news picked up another news item, this time from my hometown. Our local Chamber of Commerce owns the copyright to the title of … Continue reading
> “There are people who are alive now who otherwise would’ve been dead if there hadn’t been a mother who donated their cord blood.” If you know me and my granddaughter Roni, you know that my answer is “Godsend.” ABC News has a video news report from Good Morning America on the current status of … Continue reading
Austin Texas’ KVUE has several video news stories available on their website covering the story about Emilio Gonzales and the Texas Advance Directive Act. The report is in error because it says that the hospital makes these decisions, when the law allows the doctor to do so, and the ethics committee only determines whether the … Continue reading
From Jerri: Your personalizing of this makes no sense. It’s as if you are saying that–if the medical community’s ethics are questioned in any way–that’s an attack on the community. We live in a free society and everyone is entitled to their opinion on what medical ethics should be. That said, the medical profession’s opinion … Continue reading
Jerri Lynn Ward responded to my response: First, I did not accuse YOU of breaking a federal law. If you are receiving information from someone in the hospital, THEY are breaking federal law and not you. Second, the ethics committee does have conflicts of interest whether you want to acknowledge it or not–and there ARE … Continue reading
This is a re-write of a post I made as part of the conversation about Emilio Gonzales’s treatment at Wesley Smith’s Second Hand Smoke. I’m a family doctor because I have always seen the patient as part of the family and (ideally and sometimes not so ideally) the family as integral to the patient’s condition … Continue reading
The title is from a 2005 essay by Gilbert Meilaender in First Things. Not surprisingly, Dr. Meilaender speaks with much more clarity than I ever could in discussing the sort of dilemma that we face when considering the baby, Emilio Gonzales, and the treatment vs. the care he is to receive from his doctors, his … Continue reading
A reader, unfortunately, shows us the other extreme of the end of life debate. However, she missed the point entirely. Our discussion about the end of Emilio’s life is a debate about conscience, laws, and whether because doctors are licensed by the State, they abdicate their duty to act in the patient’s best interest. It … Continue reading
(EDIT, May 31, 2014: It has come to my attention that this post is referenced in a book on bioethics. If you have come from that book, remember that (although I’ve done my best to be accurate) this is a blog, not a peer-reviewed scientific article. Be sure and read all the comments at the … Continue reading