Commercialization

Leading UK surgeons call for ban on cosmetic surgery advertising

Jared Yee | 28 January 2012

Leading plastic surgeons in the UK have responded to the current crisis in cosmetic surgery by calling for a ban on advertisements for all types of cosmetic surgery, including breast enlargements and tummy tucks. They say the industry is an under-regulated “wild west”.

We are healers, not “providers”, US physicians protest

Michael Cook | 15 October 2011

“Customer,” “consumer,” and “provider” are words that do not belong in teaching rounds and the clinic, two Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians, Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman write in a stinging attack on the “industrialization” of medicine in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Trapiantiamo la felicità: we transplant happiness!

Michael Cook | 15 October 2011

Organ donors need compensation, says UK bioethics think tank

Michael Cook | 15 October 2011

Organ donors should have their funerals subsidised and women who donate their eggs for research should be paid, says an influential British bioethics think tank. In a new report, “Human bodies: donation for medicine and research”, the Nuffield Council for Bioethics argues that altruism should remain at the heart of organ and tissue donation -- but people do respond more readily to financial incentives.

Radio station condemned for IVF giveaway

Jared Yee | 23 September 2011

A Canadian radio station has been denounced as “unethical” and “insulting” for hosting a “win-a-baby” competition Ottawa’s Hot 89.9 promised to fund three cycles of IVF to the listener who makes the best case in 100 words or less.

And the first prize is… IVF!

Michael Cook | 09 July 2011

A British non-profit is touting a raffle whose prize is IVF treatment at one of London’s five best IVF clinics. To Hatch, a new charity founded by Camille Strachan last year, is selling tickets for £20. The IVF treatment is will be worth £25,000. The competition is open to single, gay and older people as well as couples and will be held on September 18.

The ride of your life, er, death

Michael Cook | 30 April 2011

US women join class-action lawsuit demanding more money for eggs

Michael Cook | 16 April 2011

Thousands of women across the United States have joined a class-action suit demanding better compensation for egg donors. The case was lodged this week in San Francisco by two firms, Finkelstein Thompson and Cafferty Faucher. It claims that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology and the San Francisco-based Pacific Fertility Center engaged in anti-competitive behaviour to fix the price paid to egg donors.

IVF bank ad sparks criticism

Jared Yee | 03 December 2010

Ad campaign criticised

Shonky stem cell company bribes Koreans with treatment

Jared Yee | 13 November 2010

Bargain prices for stem cell injections

Special delivery: embryos by courier

Jared Yee | 04 September 2010

Reproductive tourism’s latest offering

UK fertility watchdog considers sperm and egg market

Michael Cook | 28 August 2010

Floating ideas before public consultation

FDA tries to muscle in on stem cell regulation

Michael Cook | 21 August 2010

Colorado clinic fights back

Australia may regulate cosmetic surgery for teens

Michael Cook | 21 August 2010

Government report recommends more professional qualifications

Cosmetic surgery junkies and their doctors

Michael Cook | 14 August 2010

Only 30% of doctors think that BDD sufferers should not get surgery

Eggsploitation

Michael Cook | 31 July 2010

New documentary from Center for Bioethics and Culture

Experts worried about stem cell claims

Michael Cook | 16 June 2010

Stem cell scientists worried about shonky cures

FDA cracking down on commercial genetic tests

Jared Yee | 16 June 2010

Watchdog issues letters to five major drug companies

The perils of ancestor testing

Michael Cook | 27 May 2010

Could pose “palpable threats to human welfare”

Classic suicide book in new edition

Michael Cook | 21 May 2010

No new ways of deliverance