By Richard Balagtas
Many couples struggle with conception. Fortunately, advancements in medical technologies have produced alternative methods for conceiving children, including in-vitro fertilization and surrogacy. These options are often stressful for the individuals who undergo them; one can only imagine the nightmare some families went through when they discovered they’d been swindled.
“Forty families, desperate for kids, paid Allison Layton tens of thousands for the promise of parenthood. But the babies never came.”
Allison …

by Kaitlyn Schaeffer
After receiving a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer, Brittany Maynard moved to Oregon, a state that has a “Death With Dignity” law. She passed away in November of last year, surrounded by family and friends.
Her story has inspired two New York state lawmakers to introduce a “death with dignity” bill that would make the state the sixth in the country to allow people suffering from terminally ill diseases …

The Mason Institute won its bid to host the 13th World Congress of the International Association of Bioethics. The event will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland, from June 14-17, 2016.
The Mason Institute is an interdisciplinary research network based at the University of Edinburgh. They aim to investigate how developments in medicine and bioethics affect law, the life sciences, and the practice of medicine on a national and international scale.
The World …

We are happy to announce a collaboration between GBI and the Center for the Study of Bioethics in Belgrade. We have teamed up because we share the common goal of promoting awareness and discussion of bioethical issues. Our cooperation should help facilitate the exchange of information, the organization of seminars and conferences, and the advancement of other activities that are important to the development of bioethics. We hope that by …

By Caroline Song
Dr. Michael Rees of the University of Toledo Medical Center believes he has found a way to save the federal government money while creating an influx of kidneys; he calls his innovative program reverse-transplant tourism.
“In rich countries there’s not enough kidneys for people who have kidney failure, but there is plenty of money to pay for all the transplants. In poor countries, there’s lots of people that need …

By Richard Balagtas
The organ donation industry rakes in some $20 billion every year. Non-profit companies, such as Gift of Life and CORE, are key contributors. According to their 2012 tax forms, these two non-profits have a combined value of almost $100 million. While money is important for building and growing an industry, one wonders how much difference this capital would make if it were invested directly into saving lives instead of …

By Caroline Song
The Delhi government has been cracking down on private hospitals’ practices of donating corneas to foreigners. In 2014, the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules proclaimed that Indian patients are to take priority over foreign nationals. Due to concerns that this rule wasn’t being followed, the state government of Delhi introduced a new restriction. Now, in order to be able to transplant corneas into foreign nationals, a hospital …

By Rose Bowen
Recently, a 36-year-old Swedish woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy, making her the first woman to perform this feat with a transplanted uterus. The new mother, who has asked to remain anonymous, was told by her doctor that she did not have a womb when she was a teenager. In 2013, she became one of nine women to receive a transplanted uterus.
The success of this initial uterus …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Iran’s Health Ministry recently reported that 300 patients are in need of lung transplants, and only 60 are currently on the waiting list.
In an effort to procure more lungs for donation, doctors in Iran are stepping up their efforts to obtain prompt donation consent from the families of brain dead patients. Once a patient suffers brain failure, the lungs are the first organs to stop working. In order …

Interested in getting an overview of bioethics? A Manhattan-based NGO, the Global Bioethics Initiative, has organised a bioethics summer school in June and July. We asked Dr Ana Lita, the organiser, to explain what’s happening.
Global Bioethics Initiative works closely with the United Nations and its agencies. What interest does the UN have in bioethics?
The Global Bioethics Initiative is a not-for-profit international organization founded in 2011. We keep the international community, …