October 2006

British scientists grow human liver in a laboratory

Big news for those in need of liver transplants! And it is using umbilical cord blood stem cells! “British scientists have grown the world’s first artificial liver from stem cells in a breakthrough that will one day provide entire organs for transplant. The technique that created the ‘mini-liver’, currently the size of a one pence […]

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The Big Stem-Cell Breakthrough That you’re not hearing about . . .

(from weeklystandard.com) DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THOSE HEADLINES? “Stem Cells Used to Create Artificial Liver,” the New York Times screamed on its front page. “Breakthrough! Stem Cells to One Day Create Organ for Liver Transplant,” was how the Washington Post put it. “Stem Cell Breakthrough Demonstrates Viability of New Science,” yelled the Los […]

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2007 Paul Ramsey Award Winner

Human or Person? Reflections on Paul Ramsey and Reproductive Technology presented by William E. May at the 4th Annual Paul Ramsey Award Dinner. I began teaching moral theology (Christian ethics) at The Catholic University of America in September 1971. The major influential sources on which I relied were St. Thomas Aquinas, Germain Grisez, and the […]

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Chicks Protect Their Eggs

Chicks Protect Their EggsCloning is a women’s issue. By Kathryn Jean Lopez “Wow. I never really thought about that.” That’s the response Jennifer Lahl says she gets “over and over again” when she talks to people about “the women’s health and safety” concerns at the heart of the debate over embryonic-stem-cell research and cloning. Lahl […]

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A Clone by Any Other Name is still Human

Language always plays a critical role in how and what we communicate. The field of bioethics is no stranger to the language wars. Early on, under the direction of Leon Kass, the President’s council on bioethics talked about the importance of terms, language, and nomenclature in these great bioethics debates. Bait and switch terms–have you […]

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A Clone by Any Other Name is still Human

Language always plays a critical role in how and what we communicate. The field of bioethics is no stranger to the language wars. Early on, under the direction of Leon Kass, the President’s council on bioethics talked about the importance of terms,language, and nomenclature in these great bioethics debates. Bait and switch terms–have you noticed […]

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A Sobering Setback in Stem Cell Research

The progress of science is paved with stories of high hopes and heartbreaks. But in a busy lab at the University of Rochester the two extremes have met in one dazzling yet devastating experiment. Researchers there have for the first time essentially cured rats of a Parkinson’s-like disease using human embryonic stem cells. But 10 […]

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Clone Threat to Women

One organization I founded and am very involved with started an international movement called “Hands Off Our Ovaries”. The purpose of HandsOff is to demand an immediate moratorium on using women’s eggs for research because of the known and unknown health risks for these young women. We have been working very closely with groups down […]

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Sex for Fun and IVF for Babies

The New Scientist is devoting much of this weeks print edition to the topic of Assisted Reproduction. Jo Whelan’s piece on Sex for Fun and IVF for Children caught my eye. Here is a frightening quote in her article by John Harris, a bioethicist at the University of Manchester, UK. “No embryo has a right […]

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2006 Paul Ramsey Award Winner

John M. Finnis is Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy in the University of Oxford and Professor of Law in the University of Notre Dame. He is also Visiting Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Moral Philosophy in the Institute in Melbourne. He was born and educated in Adelaide, graduating LLB at the University of Adelaide […]

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How to buy a constitutional amendment

In today’s Kansas City Star “Backers of a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot to support stem-cell research in Missouri raised nearly $12.7 million in the last quarter, campaign reports showed Monday. Meanwhile, three opposing groups reported raising $1.2 million, according to reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Amendment 2, the Missouri Stem Cell […]

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The Dysfunctional Context in Which Assisted Suicide Would be Practiced

An excerpt from testimony before senate judiciary committee – In considering the cultural impact legalizing assisted suicide could have on our society, let us first explore the dysfunctional context of health care in California in which assisted suicides would be carried out. Arguments in favor of assisted suicide almost always depict the act as occurring […]

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Legislative Deja Vu

For those who aren’t following the international human cloning debate, (although it sometimes feels like a traveling dog and pony show coming to a state near you) the Show Me state of Missouri is trying to become the next clone state if amendment 2 passes next month. Missouri is currently in a battle similar to […]

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Legislative Deja vu

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Legislative Deja vu

For those who aren’t following the international human cloning debate, (although it sometimes feels like a traveling dog and pony show coming to a state near you) the Show Me state of Missouri is trying to become the next clone state if amendment 2passes next month. Missouri is currently in a battle similar to that […]

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UCLA Daily Bruin Targets Young Women

Women can earn big money for eggs By Joie GunerBRUIN SCIENCE REPORTERjguner@media.ucla.edu College students seeking to pay their bills may be tempted by egg donor agency advertisements with five-figure compensation values. Egg donor agencies and donor banks seeking young women commonly place daily advertisements in college newspapers, such as the Daily Bruin. “We like the […]

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Assisted Dying Consequences

At present there is a clear principle: never intend to kill the patient, and never try to help patients intentionally kill themselves. That is the law. It is also the long-established common morality, it is the ethic of the health-care professions, it is article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. There is a […]

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The art of the deal for Donor #15

Kerry Howley, associate editor of Reason Magazine, tells her personal story of donating her eggs for $10,000. Her criticisms are not just directed at the opponents of the infertility trade but also at the infertility boosters who blur the economic exchange and the altruistic pep talk. The disconnect between helping couples have the baby of […]

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