With the news and subsequent fall-out from Judge Royce Lamberth’s decision that the current administration’s policy, which allows federal funds to be used in embryonic stem cell research, violates the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, there has been much outrage that this research has come to a grinding halt. Let the rhetoric wars and hyperbole contests begin! Bold [...]
Enewsletter
Women as Commodities
By Chuck Colson, Founder, BreakPoint You’ve probably seen them—most of us have. Ads soliciting women to donate their eggs for in vitro fertilization are everywhere: in newspapers, on the Internet, on college campus bulletin boards. Most people don’t even think twice about it. An opportunity for young women to earn a little cash and do [...]
A Preventative Against Biological Colonialism
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Colonialism of nations is dead, but a new form of resource hegemony is a-borning. Rather than exploiting commodities such as copper deposits and timber forests, the new colonialism is biological, seeking to mine living human bodies. Thus, we see rich westerners buying kidneys from destitute [...]
Summer Movie Reviews
August has arrived, and perhaps you’re considering a night at the movies. This week we feature two reviews of films now playing in theaters. Each has bioethical implications.
New Documentary Eggsploitation Reveals the Infertility Industry’s Dirty Little Secret
For Immediate Release Film Presents the Hidden Dangers, Health Risks, and Exploitation of Young Women Through Egg Donation NEW YORK, NY/July 28, 2010 – The infertility industry has a dirty little secret that is dressed in deceptive advertising, large monetary incentives and appeals to altruism. Using these tactics, the industry targets young, vulnerable women for [...]
Wesley J. Smith, Special Consultant to the CBC, on Loan to Australia
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I am in Sydney Airport waiting for the first leg of an 18 hour trip home. I thought I would reflect on the last two very busy and intense weeks, and what I hope was accomplished. The last time I was asked to tour Australia, [...]
The Eggsploited: When Two Markets Collide
By Jennifer Lahl, CBC National Director Louise Brown was born in the United Kingdom on July 25, 1978, the world’s first test-tube baby, conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF). Just five years later in Australia, fertility doctors used the first donor egg in an IVF procedure. Since then, IVF technologies have been accepted almost entirely [...]
A Review of Splice
By Matthew Eppinette, CBC New Media Manager Splice is a science fiction / horror film about genetic experimentation gone wrong. Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) are scientists working to combine strands of DNA from multiple animals to create a new organism that will generate proteins aimed at curing animal diseases. Achieving success [...]
Presumptuous Consent
By Jennifer Lahl, CBC National Director Since organ donation became the recommended treatment of choice for many patients with end-stage organ failure, the controversy over the number of available organs for transplant and the solutions to addressing the shortage of much needed organs for those on waiting lists has been an on-going discussion. Proposed solutions [...]
Regulate Synthetic Life Science While the Horse is Still in the Barn
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC The media was all atwitter a few weeks ago when scientists announced that they had created synthetic life. Technically, that isn’t true—if by synthetic life one means creating life out of non life. Rather, scientists took a living bacterium, removed its genetic content, and replaced [...]
