December Archive

Many surrogate children end up in legal limbo

Jared Yee | 10 December 2011

In a story that contrasts with the optimistic surrogacy story in BioEdge last week, at least 15 children born to Irish couples who used overseas surrogates are stuck in a legal limbo.

Drug wakes those who are near death

Jared Yee | 10 December 2011

A gripping feature about the mysteries of the human brain and parental love appeared in the New York Times recently.

UK IVF clinic destroys donated eggs

Jared Yee | 03 December 2011

A UK couple are distraught after a blunder at IVF Wales in Cardiff. Chris and Lorraine were told over the phone on the evening they returned from IVF Wales in Cardiff that a batch of eggs had been accidentally destroyed. The couple had been trying to have a baby for seven years. Earlier this month, the clinic was slated for mistakenly destroying sperm donated by cancer patients about to be treated.

New Jersey nurses allege religious discrimination over abortion

Jared Yee | 03 December 2011

Twelve New Jersey nurses have charged a hospital with religious discrimination after it announced it would introduce a policy that would require them to help patients before and after abortions. In a lawsuit filed at the end of October, the nurses charge that the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey breached state and federal law with its new abortion policy. This removed an exemption on moral or religious grounds.

Elderly British abused, human rights violated while in home care

Jared Yee | 03 December 2011

The basic needs and human rights of elderly people receiving home care in England often go unfulfilled and physical and financial abuse happen too often, claims a report.

Overseas couples go to US in search surrogate mothers

Jared Yee | 03 December 2011

India is often described as the world surrogacy hub. But a good number of American women are also bearing children for overseas couples.

Taiwan to destroy millions of tissue samples

Michael Cook | 02 December 2011

Millions of biomedical samples in Taiwan could soon be destroyed because they were obtained without proper informed consent. According to a recent law, all specimens must have the participants' written consent or they must be destroyed on February 5. The decision has put Taiwanese researchers at loggerheads with human rights groups.

Michael Jackson’s doctor gets four years in jail

Michael Cook | 02 December 2011

The personal physician to deceased pop star Michael Jackson has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for involuntary manslaughter. Jackson died in 2009 from an overdose of inappropriate medication for an inability to sleep.

Does the slippery slope to euthanasia make sense?

Michael Cook | 02 December 2011

Two words guaranteed to spark derision on a blog are Slippery and Slope. They are dismissed with either a smirk as a hoary old chesnut, scaremongering or religious sophistry. However, the slippery slope, the notion that small steps today will inevitably lead to bad policies later on, still has a lot of life in it – at least judging from the number of articles in learned journals which keep refuting it.

Completed lives: a Dutch explanation

Michael Cook | 02 December 2011

The concept of a “completed life” which deserves voluntary euthanasia is a controversial one. The Dutch group Of Free Will , which is campaigning for its legalisation, has explained the reasoning behind the movement in an English-language pamphlet, “The self-chosen death of the elderly”. It was written by Wouter Beekman and translated with the help of a grant from the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide (SOARS), in the UK.

Budapest police probe suspicious hospital deaths

MIchael Cook | 02 December 2011

Hungarian police have launched an investigation into 70 suspicious deaths at a Budapest hospital following claims that patients were given lethal drug overdoses.

Brother, can you spare some time?

Michael Cook | 02 December 2011

New Zealand writer-director made one of the all-time classic bioethics films, Gattaca, about the pursuit of genetic perfection. His latest is a thriller about life extension, In Time, with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. The premise is that the world overlords have developed a robber baron technology for controlling population growth in the year 2061.

November Archive

New doco explores pain of children of anonymous sperm donors

Michael Cook | 26 November 2011

A new documentary presents first person stories of anonymous sperm donors. Anonymous Father's Day features the reflections of now adult children fathered anonymously. They share the pain, longing and uncertainties created by the secrecy of their conceptions. The producers have taken a rather negative view of the IVF industry.

US man sues over girlfriend’s theft of sperm

Michael Cook | 26 November 2011

An angry Houston man has accused his former girlfriend of stealing his semen and using it to create twins with the help of an IVF clinic without his consent. She then sued, successfully, for child support. He is suing the IVF clinic over the cost of child support and his mental anguish.

Wrong twin aborted in Australian mix-up

Michael Cook | 25 November 2011

Australia has been rocked this week by a “selective reduction” gone wrong at a leading Melbourne hospital. A woman was pregnant with twins whom she had already named. At 32 weeks doctors detected significant heart abnormalities in one of the twins and advised her to abort the child. He would have had to have years of operations if he survived at all.

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