The UK’s cosmetic surgery industry is under fire in the wake of the liquidation of a French company which made faulty breast implants. For a number of years Poly Implant Prothese had been manufacturing breast implants with industrial grade silicon instead of medical grade. Now the implants are rupturing at a higher than normal rate and a woman has died in France of a rare cancer which appears to be related to the leakage.
Earlier in the month, a few dozen women with PIP implants marched in London's medical specialist district to protest against clinics which are refusing to remove and replace the devices. Danni Starr, 33, an accounts clerk, told the Guardian: “We feel totally fobbed off. I feel so angry that these companies can make all this money from doing this surgery, and then when there is a problem, they can’t afford to help us.”
Here is contrarian bioethics at its best. Pregnancy and childbirth are so painful, risky and socially restrictive for women that public funding should urgently be directed to the development of artificial wombs. This is the only way to achieve true equality between men and women for then neither women nor men would then be limited by having children and the burdens of reproducing the species would be shared equally.
This is the radical suggestion made by a leading British bioethicist, Anna Smajdor, of the University of East Anglia.
Artificcial gestation, or ectogenesis, is currently science fiction, but it may be possible. Dr Smajdor believes that in a truly liberal society pregnancy and childbirth should not be tolerated:
Changes to financial and social structures may improve things marginally, but a better solution needs to be found. Either we view women as baby carriers who must subjugate their other interests to the…
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More from the booming surrogate mother industry. A Philadelphia company is raising eyebrows by describing gestational surrogacy as a paying job. An email from Surrogate Services International says that "In this economy and particularly around the holiday season one would think a local business would not have any trouble filling job openings." It is offering "well paid, part-time positions" as egg donors and surrogate mothers.
The company’s website explains: “We understand that for many women assisting parents achieve their dream of parenthood is payment enough, however since we know this is a real job with immense responsibilities we believe the gestational carrier should be paid accordingly as such.” The “wages” [sic] range from US$20,000 to $35,000.
Like similar companies in the US, SSI’s services include a phalanx of lawyers to ensure that the mother relinquishes the child and that the intending parents, from both the US and overseas, can adopt the baby. It is…
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A 3-year-old girl who was allegedly denied an opportunity for a kidney transplant because she was “mentally retarded” has sparked a debate in the US media. Amelia Rivera has a rare genetic disease known as Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome that can cause mental impairment, seizures and kidney failure. However, her parents were told by doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that there would be no transplant. Her mother, Chrissy Rivera, was enraged and posted her version of a conversation with the doctor and a social worker on a blog.
“So you mean to tell me that as a doctor, you are not recommending the transplant, and when her kidneys fail in six months to a year, you want me to let her die because she is mentally retarded? There is no other medical reason for her not to have this transplant other than she is MENTALLY RETARDED!”
After a long legal and political debate leading up to a decision by its Supreme Court in 1988, Canada has ended up as one of the few nations in the world without an abortion law. About 100,000 abortion are performed each year. But now the Canadian Medical Association Journal is calling for strict limits on abortion – if the mother wants to abortion a child simply because it is a girl.
Gendercide has been imported into Canada with Asian migration. Census data show that there is an unusually high number of male births to women who are South and East Asian immigrants despite vastly improved socio-economic prospects. Most Canadians regard sex-selection as “odious”, says the CMAJ, but the practice persists.
The UK should legalise assisted suicide, says a report by a private group headed by former lord chancellor Lord Falconer. The Commission on Assisted Dying, which, despite its official-sounding name, was funded by a right-to-die activist, argues that it is possible to craft a law which will allow people with terminal illness to die without danger of coercion, provided that strict safeguards were observed.
The main provisions of the Falconer commission’s scheme are:
only those with less than a year to live to seek an assisted suicide would be eligible
Two independent doctors would have to confirm the diagnosis.
The person must aware of available social and medical help
The decision would have to be voluntary, without any pressure, and with no sense of being “a burden”
They could not be motivated by a mental illness,
they must take the medication themselves, without help.
Remember the Avis Rent-a-Car commercials from the 1960s? Maybe not. Anyhow, they tripled the company’s market share with the slogan, “Avis Is Only No. 2, We Try Harder.” The Belgian right-to-die lobby seems to have the same can-do attitude. In the journal Health Policy, researchers associated with the End-of-Life Care Research Group at Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels have lamented the low take-up of the services of doctors specialising in facilitating euthanasia.
A group called the Life End Information Forum (LEIF) was formed in 2002 in Belgium as soon as euthanasia was legalised. Since the new law required a second, confirming opinion if someone requested euthanasia, there was a need for experienced doctors. “Consulting a LEIF physician contributes to the careful practice of euthanasia,” say the researchers. Disappointingly only 35% of those who had received a euthanasia request since LEIF became active had made use of LEIF.
My test for the completeness of a such a list is whether it includes the film with the desperate line, “I am not an animal. I am not an animal. I am a human being!”. Give up? That’s from David Lynch’s haunting film The Elephant Man. And yes, the SCHB has listed it. At the moment, there are 118 documentaries and 165 dramas on the list. It even has some famous foreign titles, like the German classic Homunculus (1916) and the Nazi voluntary euthanasia film Ich Klage An (I accuse, 1941).
Given that chimpanzees are so closely related to us, American researchers should hardly ever allow them to be used in biomedical research, says a report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. These include the absence of suitable models and inability to ethically perform the research on people.
In addition, these animals should be used only if forgoing their use will prevent or significantly hinder advances necessary to prevent or treat life-threatening or debilitating conditions. In short, chimpanzees are obsolete in most biomedical research.
The report attracted a huge amount of public attention and the committee was swamped with public comments and emails.
NIH also should limit the use of chimpanzees in behavioral research to studies that provide otherwise unattainable insights into normal and abnormal behavior, mental health, emotion, or cognition, the report says. They should be performed only on acquiescent animals using techniques that are minimally invasive and are…
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A New South Wales government proposal to prevent families from overturning their deceased relatives’ wishes on organ donation has garnered mixed reactions. Some lauded the government for trying to tackle the low transplant rate, others expressed concern that denying the wishes of family members could be fruitless. A government discussion paper released on Tuesday revealed about 50% of potential organ donors in NSW were vetoed by family members when their loved ones died.
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said a low donation rate is partly due to families using their power of veto over a loved one’s request to donate organs. “Perhaps it is time to look at ensuring patients have the final say,” Ms Skinner told reporters at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. NSW’s donation rate was only 12.4 people per million, compared with 19.7 per million in Tasmania.
More from the booming surrogate mother industry. A Philadelphia company is raising eyebrows by describing gestational surrogacy as a paying job. An email from Surrogate Services International says that "In this economy and particularly around the holiday season one would think a local business would not have any trouble filling job openings." It is offering "well paid, part-time positions" as egg donors and surrogate mothers.
A 3-year-old girl who was allegedly denied an opportunity for a kidney transplant because she was “mentally retarded” has sparked a debate in the US media. Amelia Rivera has a rare genetic disease known as Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome that can cause mental impairment, seizures and kidney failure. However, her parents were told by doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that there would be no transplant. Her mother, Chrissy Rivera, was enraged and posted 
The UK should legalise assisted suicide, says a report by a private group headed by former lord chancellor Lord Falconer. The Commission on 
Remember the Avis Rent-a-Car commercials from the 1960s? Maybe not. Anyhow, they tripled the company’s market share with the slogan, “Avis Is Only No. 2, We Try Harder.” The Belgian right-to-die lobby seems to have the same can-do attitude. In the journal 
