More Reality than Science Fiction: A review of the novel Mother of Invention

by The Center for Bioethics and Culture on July 11, 2018

Mother of Invention book cover

by Hannah Ens In the past few years, there has been a fair amount of publicity surrounding high-profile women who continued their demanding careers while pregnant. Scarlet Johansson discussed filming Avengers: Age of Ultron while pregnant, as did Gal Gadot for Wonder Woman. Netflix recently tweeted about how director Claire Scanlon had her second child […]

Fully Funded . . . And Then Some!

by Matthew Eppinette, CBC Executive Director on July 2, 2018

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For those of you who read or watched my Friday "This Week in Bioethics" you know that with 25 hours to go, our Kickstarter project was 101% funded. The project closed on Saturday at noon, and we ended with 102% funding! A total of 89 people gave through Kickstarter, and several others gave offline. And, […]

This Week in Bioethics #118

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Welcome to This Week in Bioethics #118. Here are five items from the world of bioethics that caught my eye this week, along with a little something extra. 1. 101%! I’m posting this with about 25 hours left in our Kickstarter campaign, and we are very thankful to be fully funded! In fact, we are […]

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Surrogacy Contracts: A Blight on the Human Dignity of Surrogate Mothers and the Children they Bear

examining papers at table

by Lois McLatchie, University of Kent, CBC Legal Intern A Review of “Surrogacy and Limitations to Freedom of Contract: Toward Being More Fully Human” by Adeline A. Allen in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (PDF) Adeline Allen’s recent article focuses on the document at the crux of all surrogacy deals: the contract. Here, at […]

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This Week in Bioethics #117

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1. Kickstarter Update   Thank you to all those who have given to our Kickstarter campaign. We are encouraged. We are thrilled. Thank you!   As of this writing, we have hit $9,106, 72%, from 72 backers! Thank you! We are grateful for each and every gift. We are so very close to having this […]

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Update from Jennifer

Have you ever liked, commented on, or shared any of our posts? If so, would you give $10 — just $10 — to help us fund our Kickstarter campaign? https://kck.st/2y3Z3AT Help us draw the curtain back on #BigFertility #Give10 #Just10 THANK YOU!  

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Just $10

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BREAKING: As I finished writing the post below, Jennifer issued the following challenge:   Friend, Can you give $10? As I’m sure you know, we are running a Kickstarter campaign to fund our latest film. The $12,500 we are raising will help us to finish the editing and post-production process, market and distribute the film, […]

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This Week in Bioethics #116

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1. Kickstarter Update   Thank you to all those who have given to our Kickstarter campaign. It has been so encouraging to see so many people giving to our project! We are thrilled. As of this writing, we have just hit $5,961, 47%, from 41 backers! Thank you! We are so very thankful for your […]

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Help Us Take on #BigFertility, Help Us Finish Kelly’s Story

#BigFertility: It's All About the Money

We’re finishing our new film telling the story of Kelly’s surrogacies, and we need your help to push it across the finish line. Kelly’s story exemplifies everything that’s wrong with surrogacy. She loved being pregnant and helping others, but as a surrogate mother, #BigFertility lied to her, lied about her, used her, exploited her, and nearly […]

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This Week in Bioethics #115

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Normally we feature five stories from the world of bioethics, but this week we have just one story. And it’s a big one. We’re releasing the first teaser trailer for our new film #BigFertility. And we’re running a Kickstarter campaign to push the film across the finish line and out into the world. Here’s our […]

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On the Profession and Practice of Medicine

Farr Curlin, M.D.

Remarks by Farr Curlin, M.D., at the 2018 Paul Ramsey Award Dinner March 24, 2018 Receiving the Ramsey Award is a delight, an honor, and a privilege. It’s humbling to receive this award and to be here with you tonight. In particular, I thank Jennifer for her long and faithful service in the same direction, and for […]

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This Week in Bioethics #114

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1. New Jersey Legalizes Commercial Gestational Surrogacy Sadly, NJ Gov. Murphy has signed into law S482, which authorizes gestational carrier agreements. We’ve been following this bill closely for several months. We know that many, many people worked tirelessly to oppose the bill and to encourage Gov. Murphy to veto it. This is a major disappointment. […]

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This Week in Bioethics #113

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***Watch our live discussion of This Week in Bioethics on Facebook or on YouTube*** 1. Nightmare Surrogacy Experience Toni, a surrogate mother from Iowa, says of her experience: “It’s been a nightmare. It has almost destroyed my family.” Toni first reached out to us about this time last year. This week, she and Jennifer recorded […]

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Toni’s Experience as a Surrogate Mother: It’s Been a Nightmare

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Toni, a surrogate mother from Iowa, says of her experience: “It’s been a nightmare. It has almost destroyed my family.” Because of our films and how outspoken we’ve been about surrogacy—particularly through the #StopSurrogacyNow coalition—we are regularly contacted by women who find themselves in the midst of surrogacies that are in the process of going […]

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This Week in Bioethics #112

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1. David vs. Goliath We are very close to finishing our latest film! We have the story nailed down and edited, we’re working on adding in all the b-roll, then we’ll be recording Jennifer’s narration, finalizing the edits, cutting the trailers, developing the full slate of marketing materials, and more. In this film we are […]

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Taking on Big Fertility David vs. Goliath Style!

David and Goliath

Raise your hand if you can’t believe how fast 2018 is flying by! As I write, it’s almost May, nearly halfway through the year—wow how time flies. I’m just back from speaking at Harvard Law School, and the students there were very busy with final papers and end of year exams. Of course, this was […]

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This Week in Bioethics #111

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1. Surrogacy and Infant Mental Health Our friends at #StopSurrogacyNow this week published an extremely important new article by a Spanish Perinatal Psychiatrist. It outlines a number of ways in which surrogacy affects children. Children born by surrogacy are exposed to a series of factors that can have serious repercussions for their mental and physical […]

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Mommy Deployment: Military Wives as Surrogates

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A Guest Post by K. Blaine, MS, BSN, RN  Editor’s Note: With news that President Trump has signed an executive order encouraging federal agencies to hire more military spouses, this guest post by our friend K. is even more relevant. It helps provide context to the situation in which many military spouses find themselves, a […]

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