http://www.bioedge.org/ {site_description} mcook31@gmail.com(Michael Cook) michael@bioedge.org(Michael Cook) http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10525 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10525#When:06:29:02Z This 25-minute documentary by Al-Jazeera presents a balanced view of the campaign for euthanasia in Australia. No presentation will satisfy everyone, but this one, "Licence to Kill", presents articulate folk on both sides of the question. Definitely worthwhile. Read more...]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 06:29:02 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10524 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10524#When:15:00:38Z Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 15:00:38 GMT Newsletter http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10523 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10523#When:13:53:58Z Hollywood celebrity Angelina Jolie was hailed this week for her bravery in revealing that she has had a preventative double mastectomy. Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:53:58 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10522 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10522#When:13:48:35Z The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) goes on sale on May 22 after more than a decade of revision by 1,500 experts. Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:48:35 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10521 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10521#When:13:45:16Z Cloning humans might be one step closer, with scientists in the US managing to use adult skin cells to produce an embryo clone. Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:45:16 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10520 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10520#When:13:40:35Z Is bioethics compatible with democracy? This is not a question that surfaces very often in policy debates featuring prestigious bioethicists. However, in a provocative column in The Guardian, Nathan Emmerich, a young bioethicist, asks whether bioethicists are turning into a priestly caste: Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:40:35 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10519 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10519#When:13:36:35Z The German and Czech governments allow sex offenders to be surgically castrated – provided that they give informed consent to the procedure. This has put them at loggerheads with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). It has denounced the practice as degrading treatment which should be ended immediately. Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:36:35 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10518 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10518#When:13:34:47Z A new bill is before the South Australian parliament that would make IVF available to lesbian couples and fertile single mothers Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:34:47 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10517 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10517#When:13:30:46Z A Californian women has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment after she misappropriated US$2.5 million from a surrogacy company. Tonya Ann Collins, 37, set up the company Surrogenesis in 2005, along with the escrow company Michael Charles Independent Financial Holding Group. Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:30:46 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10516 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10516#When:13:23:24Z A complex custody dispute has come before an Israeli court, raising questions about the limits of legal parenthood as well as the rights of parents with disabilities. A disabled woman is taking state social services to court after being denied custody of a child she had conceived by surrogacy. Read more...]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 13:23:24 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10515 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10515#When:14:22:47Z Read more...]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 14:22:47 GMT Newsletter http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10509 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10509#When:12:32:37Z Of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, about 100 are on a hunger strike. About 20 are being force-fed, according to the New York Times. About 40 medical staff have arrived to ensure that the detainees are fed. Read more...]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 12:32:37 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10508 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10508#When:02:51:53Z India and China are not the only countries with lop-sided sex ratios due to sex-selective abortions. Georgia, a former member of the USSR in the Caucasus with a population of about 4.5 million, has a distorted sex ratio at birth of 114 boys to 100 girls Read more...]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 02:51:53 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10507 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10507#When:02:08:33Z Euthanasia claimed its most famous victim last Saturday. At the age of 95, Belgian Nobel laureate Christian de Duve was killed with a lethal injection. He died in his home, surrounded by his four children. Read more...]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 02:08:33 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10506 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10506#When:01:24:59Z Two German economists have published in Science the results of an economic experiment which supports a pessimistic view of organ markets. Read more...]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 01:24:59 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10505 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10505#When:00:29:42Z Journalist Miriam Zoll has just released a personal account of her involuntary involvement with the reproductive technology industry, Cracked Open. Read more...]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 00:29:42 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10512 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10512#When:13:18:16Z The concept of 'wrongful birth' has suffered another defeat, this time in Australia. Read more...]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 13:18:16 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10511 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10511#When:13:18:16Z Poland's Justice Minster was sacked this week after accusing German scientists of importing Polish embryos for experiments. Read more...]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 13:18:16 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10514 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10514#When:13:13:40Z A media firestorm broke out last week after Harvard’s celebrity economic historian Niall Ferguson said that Keynes's views were affected by his homosexuality. Read more...]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 13:13:40 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10513 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10513#When:13:09:40Z An Australian health tourism company is offering a new package for couples seeking a sex-selective IVF. Read more...]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 13:09:40 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10510 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10510#When:12:52:58Z What do people mean when they make living wills? Read more...]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 12:52:58 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10504 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10504#When:13:06:17Z Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 13:06:17 GMT Newsletter http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10503 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10503#When:12:23:58Z In late February last year, two Italian academics working at Monash University in Australia flicked a match into a highly combustible pile of old abortion debates, caricatures of pointy-headed academics, news-hungry journalists and recycled protest posters about Peter Singer. Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 12:23:58 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10502 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10502#When:12:16:09Z Some bioethicists who feel at home in the utilitarian common room of the Journal of Medical Ethics described the imbroglio as an attack on academic freedom. Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 12:16:09 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10501 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10501#When:12:08:15Z Not everyone in the “pro-life” camp is singing from the same song sheet in the controversy over infanticide. In this month's Journal of Medical Ethics two leading foes of abortion debate the reasonableness of arguments for infanticide. Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 12:08:15 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10500 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10500#When:12:06:31Z The infanticide debate in the Journal of Medical Ethics has garnered comments from the grand old men of infanticide, the Australian Peter Singer and the American Michael Tooley. Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 12:06:31 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10499 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10499#When:12:02:32Z Dr Eduard Verhagen, a paediatrician at University Medical Centre Groningen in the Netherlands, says that, in his experience, infanticide is sometimes preferable to second-trimestre abortion. Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 12:02:32 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10498 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10498#When:11:58:01Z Peter Singer supports free speech for foes of abortion Read more...]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 11:58:01 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10497 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10497#When:06:57:01Z Five people have been convicted of organ trafficking in Kosovo by the European Union court which runs the legal system in the quasi-independent territory. Read more...]]> Thu, 02 May 2013 06:57:01 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10496 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10496#When:05:35:43Z An unnamed woman in the UK has been jailed for five years after artificially inseminating her 14-year-old adopted daughter in order to get another child. Read more...]]> Thu, 02 May 2013 05:35:43 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10495 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10495#When:15:04:06Z Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:04:06 GMT Newsletter http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10494 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10494#When:13:17:51Z Here’s the bioethical angle on the Boston Marathon bombing Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:17:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10493 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10493#When:13:10:51Z Are we exploiting animals by relying on them for solace? Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:10:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10492 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10492#When:13:03:00Z Two IVF stories from opposite ends of the globe are a sobering reminder that “foetal reduction” remains a failsafe position in clinical practice. Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:03:00 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10490 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10490#When:12:59:51Z Prominent British writer and producer Samantha Brick has spoken of her devastating experience with IVF in a recent column in the Daily Mail. Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:59:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10489 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10489#When:09:58:51Z A feature story in the new online magazine Matter gives an exclusive account of how an American man found a surgeon in Asia who was willing to amputate his healthy leg. Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:58:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10488 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10488#When:09:52:51Z Utah has become the first state to allow prisoners, even prisoners on death row, to donate organs. Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:52:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10487 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10487#When:09:49:51Z Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have created bioengineered rat kidneys which successfully filter blood and produce urine. If the technique works with humans, it could do away with the need for donor kidneys. Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:49:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10486 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10486#When:09:45:51Z Fancy having your prescription data sold to pharmaceutical corporations? Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:45:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10485 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10485#When:09:39:51Z A new Australian think tank has issued a call for the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Read more...]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:39:51 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10484 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10484#When:11:59:38Z Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:59:38 GMT Newsletter http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10483 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10483#When:07:34:39Z Should parents be required to tell donor children of their origins? An influential British think-tank says No. Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:34:39 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10480 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10480#When:07:12:06Z Turkish doctors have announced that the first woman ever to receive a uterus from a deceased donor is two weeks pregnant with an IVF baby. Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:12:06 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10479 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10479#When:06:33:24Z The first drug to help people with Down syndrome overcome cognitive deficits is being tested on humans. Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 06:33:24 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10478 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10478#When:05:54:37Z I. Glenn Cohen, of Harvard Law School, argues that this universally accepted idea must be repudiated. Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 05:54:37 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10477 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10477#When:02:17:01Z The outcome of the official coroner’s inquest was that Ms Halappanavar died in University Hospital Galway as a result of “medical misadventure”. Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 02:17:01 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10476 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10476#When:01:48:33Z Why can’t embryos be bought and sold like any other commodity? Making this unsettling proposal is less surprising than where it was made – in the America’s leading medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine. Read more...]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 01:48:33 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10475 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10475#When:11:43:04Z Somerville versus Biller-Andorno in a NEJM podcast Read more...]]> Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:43:04 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10474 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10474#When:11:10:17Z "If I can't find a donor in this country I have to decide whether I'm willing to take on my soul the ethical burden of purchasing a kidney from somebody, or to die," says says a patient in a new documentary about the organ trade. See the trailer. Read more...]]> Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:10:17 GMT BioEdge http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10482 http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10482#When:07:29:56Z The US military came under fire this week for force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay. Read more...]]> Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:29:56 GMT BioEdge