Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007 would have been my mother’s 70th birthday. Helen Margaret Jernigan Burnett, “Mama,” died from complications of thymic carcinoma last August. Mama is probably the source of my addiction to arguing and politics. Some people might think it comes from being the oldest daughter of a Baptist preacher, but I believe … Continue reading
From WebMD: “We don’t need any eggs or embryos at all,” says Shinya Yamanaka, MD, a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences in Kyoto, Japan. Yamanaka describes his lab’s early successes in mice creating stem cells from adult cells. His research involves isolating two dozen chemicals that give embryonic stem cells their ability … Continue reading
I’m convinced that Plan B does not block implantation. Because I keep getting emails, hearing radio personalities and reading posts on various forums claiming that Plan B is an abortifacient, here’s a review of information on the medical effects of the pills and on the other effects and lack of effects. The overwhelming evidence – … Continue reading
I mentioned last week that my Mama was ill. My family and I were dealing with very real, very painful real-life bioethics questions. Mama passed away Monday night, while in or on the way back from Magnetic Resonance Arteriography. I was with her, and I’m not sure whether she stopped breathing in the MRA and … Continue reading
Wesley Smith has had a bit of time to consider and reconsider the way he was called out and singled out at lunch by Alta Chara on Friday, July 14th at the Bioethics and Politics Summer Conference of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. I am unabashedly human-centric and a human species-ist. Any other … Continue reading