Biotech and Public Policy

Preserving Humanity in the Biotech Century

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Dear friends, As I reflect on the work of the Center for Bioethics and Culture (CBC) over these last 20 years, I am amazed at all that we have been able to accomplish because of your commitment to our shared human future. CBC entered what has been called “the biotech century” in 2000. At that […]

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Our Not So Human Future

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Robot soldiers, economic meltdowns, robot lovers, and autonomous drones and weapons—these are just a few of the items that make the list of Tech Republic’s “Ten Terrifying Uses of Artificial Intelligence.” But perhaps the scariest is the prospect of an increased reliance on artificial intelligence for medical treatment. Tech gurus are already pouring billions of dollars—not […]

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This Week in Bioethics

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1. New Records Set For Reproductive Technology in the United States According to a new report, the U.S. reproductive technology industry is slated to reach over $4 billion by 2020. The largest sector of the market, $1.2 billion, comes from fertility drug revenue. As we’ve long said, infertility has become a booming business in the […]

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This Week in Bioethics

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1. Another Push for Physician Assisted Suicide in Colorado The Colorado state legislature is set to consider a bill on physician assisted suicide at the beginning of next month—one year after a similar bill failed to pass. We’ll monitor this as it makes its way through committee, but once again we see that advocates of […]

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A Summer in Review

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It has been an eventful summer here at the CBC! In May, the International Campaign to Stop Surrogacy Now was launched, and CBC was an original signer of the Stop Surrogacy Now Statement. Stop Surrogacy Now is a truly international movement that has secured the support of an array of prominent international voices—more than 5,000 people from well […]

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This Week in Bioethics

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Mitochondrial Disease Research Makes Progress Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal reported on the fact that two new experiments—one using cell reprogramming and the other using cloning—have led to progress against mitochondrial disease. While we encourage ethically informed research that could reduce or eliminate the disease, we oppose any type of experimentation that will […]

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“Family Equality” Requires Eggsploitation

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Dear Friend of the CBC: Yesterday we reported on an article in the Los Angeles Times calling for “family equality” in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage in all fifty states. Among the many egregious omissions in the article are the harms to women who agree to serve as egg donors […]

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Support for Physician Assisted Suicide Isn’t Liberalism, It’s Nihilism

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There’s a fine new piece just out in POLITICO where Dr. Ira Byock calls out his fellow progressives for supporting physician assisted suicide under the guise of protecting civil liberties. He issues a strong indictment: Just when moral outrage and radical social change are called for, my fellow progressives have embraced physician-assisted suicide as their […]

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Good News, Bad News

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I’m writing with good news and bad news. First, the good news: we have been surveying audiences who have watched Eggsploitation for several years now. The data show that overwhelmingly, before watching Eggsploitation, people are largely favorable to the practice although unfamiliar with the process of egg donation. But after watching Eggsploitation, people feel better […]

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Designed Human Embryos (CRISPR-CAS9)

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I attended a conference in Atlanta this month titled “Beings2015: Biotech and the Ethical Imagination.” During the main sessions, much was discussed regarding CRISPR, or what is more commonly known as gene editing. “Beings2015” convened to discuss how biotech should proceed and who should regulate advances like CRISPR in order to draft a statement of […]

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Get Ready for a Busy 2014 in Bioethics

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My taskmasters at the CBC never allow me to rest on my laurels. Fresh off several years of stellar prognosticating, I am now forced to answer the question: “But what have you predicted, lately?” Okay, let’s take a look. Oh! Oh my. Please remember, the following predictions are what I see happening. They do not […]

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My Predictions in Bioethics Right Again!

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Can you believe a year has come and gone since I last told you what would happen, before it happened, in bioethics? Maybe it’s my increasing age, but time is passing too fast! So, how did I do? Not as well as in years past, but still an A-. Let’s take a look: The Affordable […]

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Follow $ to Non-Embryonic Stem Cell Research!

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Ten years ago, we were in the midst of a heated national debate over embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). Proponents castigated opponents (like me) as “anti-science,” and theocratic for opposing ESCR federal funding based on ethical concerns. When we claimed that alternatives to embryonic stem cells showed great promise, we were derided as Luddites. Embryonic […]

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Statement on NJ Gestational Carrier Agreement Act

Statement by Kathleen SloanRegarding the New Jersey Gestational Carrier Agreement Act (S1599/A2646)May 30, 2012 The worldwide use of reproductive technologies has grown exponentially in recent years. While these developments have brought benefits to many by successfully treating some types of infertility, deep regulatory divides—or their complete absence such as at the national level in the […]

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Tiny, Happy People

By C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D., CBC Board Member Just when you think you have heard it all, someone pushes the envelope. According to three ethicists writing in the journal Ethics, Policy and the Environment, because geoengineering might be too risky a way to combat global climate change, we should alter the human species instead. Here […]

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Babies without Sex

By Jennifer Lahl, CBC President Last December I was invited to tape a show for Dr. Oz, which aired in January of 2012. It is hard to explain what it’s like to tape a show in front of a live audience. There are all the pragmatic realities—such as the very early wake-up call for hair […]

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See It Now! Bioethics 2012

By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Fresh off a very successful year of predicting the future in 2011, I now find myself forced to once again risk my laurels, peer into my crystal ball, and tell you what will happen in the world of bioethics in 2012. What I foresee hurts […]

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Who’s Allowed in the Public Square? And who Gets to Decide?

By Jennifer Lahl, CBC President Despite all our society’s talk of civility these days, it seems the public square is only becoming more of a lion’s den. And people of a certain stripe are being excluded or marginalized purely on the basis of their religious beliefs. Case in point: Recently, I was invited to speak […]

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