The Center for Bioethics and Culture

This Week in Bioethics

by Christopher White, CBC Director of Research and Education

1. Britain Becomes the First Country in the World to Approve Three-Parent Embryos On Tuesday, the British House of Lords voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the creation of three-parent embryos. Lord Winston, voting in favor of the law, said that it would be a “step in the dark”—but a necessary one for medical advancement. […]

You are Cordially Invited

by The Center for Bioethics and Culture

The Board of Directors of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network cordially invites you to The Twelfth Annual Paul Ramsey Award Dinner honoring John F. Kilner, PhD2015 Paul Ramsey Award Recipient Special Interview With Jessica KernFeatured in our Breeders: A Subclass of Women? at Diablo Country ClubDiablo, CA on Saturday, April […]

Reflections on Terminal Illness from CBC Ramsey Fellow

by Christopher White, CBC Director of Research and Education

Paul Kalanithi, a CBC Paul Ramsey Fellow, offers some poignant reflections on his terminal diagnosis of lung cancer in the spring issue of Stanford Medicine that we highly recommend: Time for me is double-edged: Every day brings me further from the low of my last cancer relapse, but every day also brings me closer to […]

This Week in Bioethics

by Christopher White, CBC Director of Research and Education

1. Irish Minister for Health Defends Rights of Children and Opposes Commercial Surrogacy Minister Leo Varadkar has promised that commercial surrogacy will remain illegal in Ireland and that children conceived through donor gamete donation will have access to a register offering them essential information to their medical histories. Speaking on new legislation currently being debated, […]

Grave Concerns: Physician Assisted Suicide Movement Growing Rapidly

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports on the simultaneous efforts to legalize physician assisted suicide in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut—something we’ve been warning about for some time here at the CBC. While the article is focused on the efforts underway in the northeast, what’s stunning is how widespread the movement to […]

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I am not suffering. I am struggling.

These words are part of a beautiful speech delivered by Julianne Moore in her Oscar-nominated performance as Dr. Alice Howland in the film Still Alice. The film is a powerful testimony of how a woman who has made her career out of words loses her words because of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. At the age of […]

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This Week in Bioethics

1. Canadian Supreme Court Allows for Physician Suicide Last Friday the Canadian Supreme Court unanimously ruled to allow for physician assisted suicide—overturning a 1993 ban on the practice and ending an ongoing legal battle that began in 2011. Days later, several physicians in Calgary took to the Globe and Mail to offer some practical suggestions […]

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Hands Off Our Ovaries!

It’s time to resurrect the Hands Off Our Ovaries campaign we launched back in 2006. It was a bipartisan effort that brought together a diverse group of people to counter the push for women to “donate” their eggs for research purposes. Hands Off Our Ovaries (or HOOO as we lovingly called it) was launched during […]

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This Week in Bioethics

1. The UK House of Commons Green Lights Three Parent Embryos On Tuesday, the House of Commons in the United Kingdom voted to allow the creation of three parent embryos in hopes of preventing mitochondrial diseases. Such a move comes despite the fact that there is serious concern over the safety of this technique. As […]

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Three Parent Embryos = Human Genetic Engineering

Yesterday the UK’s House of Commons voted to allow the creation of three-parent embryos—a technique that would introduce the DNA of a third party in an effort to prevent mitochondrial diseases. While much of the media is referring to the process as “mitochondrial transfer,” a more accurate labeling would be human genetic engineering. And venturing […]

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Paul Ramsey Institute: Apply Now via New Website

Dear Friend of the CBC: Today we are pleased to officially launch the website for our Paul Ramsey Institute. As many of you know, the life, work, and thought of Paul Ramsey has been essential to The Center for Bioethics and Culture since our founding. As one of the most important ethicists of the 20th […]

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This Week in Bioethics

Today we’re kicking off a new feature on our CBC website where we’ll recap some of the most important or interesting stories in the realm of bioethics. Part of our commitment at the CBC is keeping you informed about current bioethics news with dependable analysis. Thanks for joining us in promoting a more human future. […]

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Ready or Not: Here Comes 2015 in Bioethics!

For several years, I have been the resident prophet at the CBC, and if I don’t say so myself, I have been quite prescient. But life in the prognosticating business is always a “what have you predicted for me lately,” so let’s take a look how I did for 2014. What I Got Right Affordable […]

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No One Should Have No One

Last week while in the United Kingdom, I kept seeing the same advertisement posted throughout the London Underground: No one to say good morning to. No one to bless you when you sneeze. No one to take tea with. Or whisky, for that matter. No one on the end of the phone. No one to […]

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Is Brittany Maynard’s Husband Fighting the Wrong Battle?

The tagline of our film Eggsploitation is “The infertility industry has a dirty little secret.” In the film we seek to expose the many facets of the market for human eggs, which very few people are aware of. These dirty little secrets include: Egg donors aren’t tracked over their lifetimes, so we have no idea […]

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A Celebration of Devastation

The Hollywood Reporter has a story out with the provocative (clickbait?) title, “23 HOLLYWOOD MOMS WITH SAME SPERM DONOR AND ONE CRAZY VACATION.” I call it clickbait because that’s not what the article is about at all. Instead, the article is a celebration of all the uses to which reproductive technologies can be put, and […]

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Sex, Lies, and Birth Certificates

Recently in my state of California, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that, beginning in 2016, will alter birth certificates in a dramatic way. Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) authored Assembly Bill 1951, which amends the California Vital Records Birth Certificate law in order to “modernize” California birth certificates by allowing each parent to self-identify […]

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Save the Date

Saturday, April 18, 2015 6:00 PM 12th Annual Paul Ramsey Award Dinner Diablo Country Club Diablo, CA Contact info@cbc-network.org for information Formal invitation to follow Sponsorship opportunities available. Contact info@cbc-network.org.

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