by Michael Cook
After more than a decade of research on embryonic stem cells, scientists are quietly moving on to greener pastures.
Let’s wind the clock back to 2003. In January wheelchair-bound quadriplegic actor Christopher Reeve visited Australia to promote the legalisation of “therapeutic cloning”. This was absolutely necessary, he said, or patients would die needlessly. Scepticism about the potential of embryonic stem cells was utterly unwarranted. “That’s a myth,” he told his Australian audience. “That’s not true. Don’t let anyone tell you it is a pipedream.” Read more…
by Michael Cook
The euthanasia of Nobel laureate Christian de Duve in Belgium is a worrying precedent for the world’s baby boomers.
Euthanasia claimed its most famous victim last Saturday. At the age of 95, Belgian Nobel laureate Christian de Duve was killed with a lethal injection. He died in his home, surrounded by his four children. Read more…
by Michael Cook
Robert Edwards, the inventor of IVF, died two days after Margaret Thatcher. History may show that his impact was even greater than hers.
The creator of the first IVF baby, 2010 Nobel Laureate Robert Edwards, died last week. Obituaries and eulogies by colleagues, friends and admirers spoke of a passionate man with boundless energy, driven by a desire to bring happiness to infertile couples. Since he is directly responsible for the birth of some five million children since the first IVF baby in 1978, his legacy is worth pondering. Read more…
By John Stonestreet
Scientists often believe that if something can be done it should be done. But that’s not always true.
The subtitle of Mary Shelley’s famous novel “Frankenstein,” was “The Modern Prometheus.” The reference is to the Greek legend about the tragic consequences of endowing humanity with god-like power. Shelley’s Frankenstein is about a scientist operating without regard for moral and ethical constraints. Read more…
The UK fertility regulator has proposed a “minor” procedure with momentous consequences which is legal nowhere else in the world.
Read more…
by Hilary White
LONDON, March 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A technique to implant donor DNA from a third party into in vitro embryos has been approved by the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The technique is a form of “germline” alteration that involves modification of the person’s mitochondrial DNA (MDNA) to create genetic changes that will be carried on throughout subsequent generations. Read more…
By Jennifer Lahl, CBC President
To suggest that one cannot or should not defend the sanctity of human life in the public square by using publicly accessible secular language is to remove a necessary tool for making the case for valuing and protecting all human life. While religious arguments are good and necessary even in the public square, secular arguments from reason are equally as important for effectively engaging in the marketplace of ideas in a pluralistic society. If we deny secular reasoning, then we deny thousands of years of the rich Hippocratic tradition in medicine. For in fact Hippocrates and his colleagues were pagan. Dust off the oath and read it. Read more…
by Sheila Liaugminas
Let’s focus on Wisconsin here, as a microcosm of the morphing healthcare system that’s redefining health and care and prompting an effort to examine it all carefully.
The Wisconsin bishops released a statement warning people about the spreading use of Physician (or Provider) Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). They did it in a carefully but clearly worded pastoral letter Upholding the Dignity of Human Life. Read more…
by Charlie Butts
Ophthalmologist Peter Francis has received permanent resident status in the U.S. on the basis of the country’s interest in clinical researchers. In 2002, while still in Britain, he won the National Research prize for “Best up and coming medical researcher in the U.K.,” and as of late, he has been working in Oregon on a pilot experiment funded by two federal grants. Read more…
by Christopher Kaczor
January 31, 2012 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/01/4540
From its ancient Stoic origins to its modern Kantian formulations, human dignity is an important concept for sound ethical thinking. Doing so requires that we distinguish dignity as attributed, dignity as intrinsic worth, and dignity as flourishing. Read more…
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