by Agata Ferretti
In Thailand, a homosexual couple is embroiled in a legal battle with the Thai government. The couple wants to leave the country with their surrogate baby daughter, because the surrogate mother, who is not biologically related to the child, is refusing to give the couple the child because she claims that she had not been informed that the couple was gay.
In January, this child had been entrusted to …

by Ana Lita
Graduations always signify turning points; we’re so glad that our participants spent these past few weeks with us, and we hope they have learned a lot! We know we have! It is our hope that our students will take what they have learned through our summer program and apply it to their future endeavors, whatever they are. We also hope that we have inspired all of them to …

by Remy Servis
In Israel, like in many other countries around the world, the sale of organs for transplantation is illegal. However, a new policy established this week by the National Transplant Center– an organization formed by Israel’s Ministry of Health in 1994– guarantees that donors will still be protected and compensated for their contributions.
Donors will be financially reimbursed for up to five years—considering both the scope and breadth of the …

by Agata Ferretti
This week, Planned Parenthood shot into the spotlight to become one of the most scrutinized groups in America. On July 14th 2015, the anti-abortion group The Center for Medical Progress posted a long version of a conversation between a Planned Parenthood executive and undercover actors on YouTube about the “special methods” used by the Planned Parenthood Company to abort babies without “crushing” them, in order for their …

by Remy Servis
UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) is the first-ever UN emergency health mission. It was assembled in mid-September 2014 in response to the growing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The mission’s main objectives were to help treat those already infected (by providing medical, financial, and administrative support to countries in need), and to help prevent further outbreaks from occurring. By setting (and subsequently meeting) monthly goals for …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
This week, a nurse who volunteered with the charity International Medical Corps succumbed to Ebola yesterday in Sierra Leone. She worked at a treatment facility in Kambia, a coastal district that boarders Guinea. In this location, flare-ups of Ebola are still common, and experts warn that the virus is no longer contained in other areas of Africa as well.
Last week, thirty cases of the virus were reported …

“In the past couple of weeks, those of us who are students at the Global Bioethics Initiative Summer School have learned quite a lot about different bioethical issues. Two lecturers that really made the students think were Dr. James Hughes and Dr. Joseph Fins. Dr. Hughes presented on the Ethics of Life Extension and discussed the possible ethical issues surrounding people living much longer than they do now. Some of …

We are happy to announce that we are now a member of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI). The UNAI is an initiative operating within the United Nations that promotes partnership among higher education and research institutions and the UN itself. Founded in 2010 by current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UNAI now has over 1000 member institutions in 120 countries.
In order to promote a culture of social and educational …

By Remy Servis
A recent article in US News and World Report has brought to light the true costs of increasingly expensive drugs and other pharmaceutical products that are meant for consumers with some of the most complex and serious chronic diseases in our world. This comes against the backdrop of the June FDA announcement that “Praluent”, a new cholesterol-lowering medicine made by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, has been approved for …

Who has the “right to die?” People with terminal illnesses, people with non-terminal illnesses, or no one at all? In our summer school program, Dr. Terry Perlin of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Dr. Charles Debrovner of NYU Langone Medical Center, presented the ethics behind euthanasia, assisted suicide, and end-of-life care. “The Death Treatment: When Should People With a Non-Terminal Illness be Helped to Die” article by Rachel Aviv in The …