by Farzana Paleker
California joined Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont as the fifth state to legalize physician-assisted death when Governor Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act on October fifth. The legislation was propelled to the top of California’s public consciousness following the highly publicized death of Brittany Maynard.
In 2014, 29-year-old Maynard moved from California to Oregon after being diagnosed with incurable brain cancer to take advantage of Oregon’s Death …

by Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Independent experts of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee released a report calling for a temporary moratorium on edits to the human genome that could be inherited by future generations.
A new genome editing technique called CRISPR-Cas9 has made it possible for scientists to manipulate DNA easily and efficiently. While these manipulations can treat and cure certain diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and some types of cancer, they can also be used …

by Bobby Thomas
The United States currently does not fund research-involving genetic editing of embryos. Yet given the rate of progress in the field of genetics, many feel the time to act is now. The Hinxton Group—an international consortium of policy experts, bioethicists, and researchers that conduct research on stem cells, and ethics and the law—states that, “there is a pressure to make decisions” and argues for embryonic gene editing.
Yet, they …

by Richard Balagtas
In what seems like a dream, the cure to cancer may soon be a reality. For the first time, scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Florida have been able to turn aggressive breast, lung, and bladder cancer cells back into harmless benign cells. The solution: discovering a way to stop cancerous cells from constantly dividing and replacing themselves.
In healthy tissue, it is normal for cells to divide and …

by Bobby Thomas
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), or Planned Parenthood for brevity, is a nonprofit organization founded by Margaret Sanger that provides multiple health services, reproductive health care, and health education. Additionally, the organization advocates for affordable health care and lobbies for pro-choice legislation. Recently, new incriminating video footage brought forward by The Center for Medical Progress brings forth damaging evidence of high executives and doctors of the organization …

by Nicole Fenghea
China suffers from a huge organ shortage and chances for its citizens to obtain a transplant are very low. For many years their organs were acquired from executed prisoners to help meet demands. However, after international condemnation, Beijing said that they ended that practice at the beginning of this year, although officials acknowledge that it will be difficult for them to comply with the law.
The government now states …

by Remy Servis
In a fascinating Huffington Post article by Jonathan Moreno, Ph.D., an advisory board member for Global Bioethics Initiative, the interaction between the American conservative “right” and liberal “left” and their representations of the bioethics field in the modern day is explored. Moreno begins his article with the belief that most highly publicized bioethics issues have generally benefited the conservative right. However, he quickly dispels this thought, suggesting that …

by Remy Servis
This week, a team of doctors at The Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania announced that they had completed the world’s first pediatric dual hand transplant on Zion Harvey, an eight year old from Maryland, earlier this month. After he lost his hands and feet to an infection at the age of two, Zion had been living a very active, healthy life with prosthetic limbs. However, the new hands open …

The Opening Reception of the Manhattan International Bioethics Summer School 2015 was held at the Bohemian National Hall | June 16, 2015 | 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Check out this video from the opening reception for Summer School Program on Global Bioethics back in June!

We are pleased to inform you that Global Bioethics Initiative has been granted special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the United Nations’ central platform for reflection, debate, and innovative thinking on sustainable development. It serves as the main mechanism for the activities of the United Nations system, and facilitates collaboration between policymakers, parliamentarians, academics, foundations, business sector representatives and over 3,000 registered non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
As an …