LifeEthics
public policy
>Thomson framed: "iPS more relevant than embryonic"
>Framing Science has a great quote from James Thomson, whose lab announced that they had proven a way to reprogram adult cells to become more primitive, embryonic-like stem cells, called “induced Pluripotent Cells.” I don’t know how I missed this one yesterday: “. . . says Thomson, the scientist who in 1998 isolated stem cells … Continue reading
>Court upholds Texas Prenatal Protection Act
>In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed a Prenatal Protection Act, which named the unborn children of Texas individuals from fertilization to natural death. Texas law also calls the “individual” a “person.” With the world the way it is after Roe versus Wade, and because most of us have compassion for a woman who believes she … Continue reading
On the power of Naming (iPS and Art Caplan’s Off the Wall Question)
Art Caplan, Ph.D., is one of the pseudoeditors over at the Journal of American Bioethics blog, bioethics.net and a founding member of the “Progressive Bioethics Initiative,” along with Robin Alta Charo, the subject of one of yesterday’s posts. Dr. Caplan writes a regular “Breaking Bioethics” column for MSNBC. Art took the liberty of renaming the … Continue reading
“I want” ethics reigns, even with good stem cell news
I found someone willing to admit that she’s not happy with today’s news on the production of embryo-like stem cells without the destruction of embryos or harm to women from donating eggs. Robin Alta Charo is a lawyer who, as part of the Clinton administration’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission, helped fabricate the policy to allow … Continue reading
>Embryonic Stem Cells from Patient’s Own Adult Stem Cells
>Well, they did it! From Reuter’s, UK: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells — but without using cloning technology and without making embryos. Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of … Continue reading
>Christian Medical Association on Right to Conscience
>If the scientist or doctor is driven by curiosity (and a desire for her own set of money making patents?) or because “it’s legal” and patients want it, where do we draw the line between preference, opinion and conscience? We’ve been discussing the significance of ethics and conscience at here at LifeEthics.org, the Women’s Bioethics … Continue reading
>Truth or Dare?
>blog.bioethics.net notes that there may be a change in the direction of stem cell research, with Ian Wilmut’s announcement that he and his lab won’t be focusing on cloning or embryonic stem cell research. Blogger Greg Dahlman states that if there is a change, it’s because the science, and not the ethics, is driving that … Continue reading
Dolly’s Dad: Cloning, embryos and eggs not needed
10 years after the world learned about the cloning of Dolly the sheep, the scientist responsible for her birth announces that cloning is passe’. Just after the announcement that a US lab has managed the first confirmed cloning of primate (monkeys, not human) embryos using adult cell donor DNA, Ian Wilmut made statements to the … Continue reading
>Give me liberty or give me condoms!
>Where are the condom squads who go around making sure that every grocery store, drug store, and 24 hour convenience store stocks latex condoms and the appropriate lubricants, “at all times”? Condoms are a much more basic public health issue than Plan B, which only works (when it works) for about 5 days in the … Continue reading
>Government Health: Intervention, Restrictions, and Penalties
>What do Massachusetts and Great Britain have in common? Mandated health coverage. Today is the last day that citizens of the State of Massachusetts may buy health insurance or risk penalties on their State income tax. The BBC News from Britain reports that the Nuffield Council on Bioethics proposes that the government do more to … Continue reading
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