>ScienceDaily, a website that often carries news headlines and just about any press release anyone sends them, has topped themselves today with a blurb suggesting that same sex civil unions are a “600 year old tradition.” We know that homosexuality has been around at least since Exodus was first related, and murder and lying are … Continue reading
>Ben Stein on the movie, “Expelled,” “Big Science in this area of biology has lost its way,” says Stein. “Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it’s anti-science. It’s … Continue reading
Kathryn Hinsch, founder of the Women’s Bioethics Project and the Women’s Bioethics Blog recommended the questions and answers from an article by Joshua Perry published in the Journal of Legal Medicine. (It cost $32 to access – perhaps we ought to talk about open access in publishing.) Perry notes that others have noted that bioethics … Continue reading
>Whether you see today’s ruling as “weakening” or “slapping,” or “trimming” the McCain/Feingold campaign laws, you’ve got to appreciate the simplicity of this statement by Chief Justice Roberts: “Discussion of issues cannot be suppressed simply because the issues may also be pertinent in an election,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “Where the … Continue reading
Senators Specter and Harkin, in the Senate Appropriations Committee, have added funding for research on embryos destroyed in research between the August 9, 2001 cutoff point and June 15, 2007 to “a must-pass bill for the Labor and Health and Human Services”. The Bill must make it through the Senate, the House and the possible … Continue reading
>Last week’s announcement that three different labs have managed to not only reproduce work showing that certain genes are responsible for embryonic-stem-cell-ness, but actually managed to turn adult cells into embryonic-like stem cells has been widely reported and comment upon. Times Magazine displays blatant racism and not a little naivete in their report, “Japan gets … Continue reading
>The title throws you for a loop, doesn’t it? Trust me to do what? Follow the law, when I can violate my own conscience? Practice ethical medicine when I promise not to have any personal convictions to guide me? What are laws and ethics to a person who has no conscience? This month’s American Journal … Continue reading
>It’s all over the web (here and here, at the “news@nature.com” site,for instance), three separate labs have been able to reproduce embryonic stem cells by “reprogramming” adult cells from skin. Much of the commentary is like Art Caplan’s comments quoted in the first (Blog.bioethics.net) link above. Paraphrased, the bulk of the “mainstream remarks include, “It’s … Continue reading
I haven’t been blogging – I’ve been lobbying and working, instead. Whether in Austin or at work, my access to the blog is spotty. And I worried that anything I wrote might get in the way of some bills we were fighting for. Unfortunately, the Texas legislature is self-destructing and virtually none of the pro-life, … Continue reading
Once again, ACT is hyping research that duplicates work already done using non-embryonic stem cell research. The only thing new is the possibility that they have come up with a way to make “Billions” of the plastic cells. Ok, maybe we learned something from Advanced Cell Technology’s Robert Lanza’s latest human embryonic stem cell report … Continue reading