By Caroline Song
A team of researchers at Duke University has sparked an ethical debate with one of their current projects: they remove kidneys from aborted human fetuses and implant them into rats so they can develop and become larger. It is the researchers’ hope that they will be able to grow the organs large enough to be viable for transplantation into humans.
One of the co-authors of the study, Eugene Gu, …

By Elizabeth Yuko, Ph.D.
Between adoption and advancing reproductive technologies, there are ever-increasing options for individuals and families who wish to have a baby. Recent reports indicate that the high costs associated with these processes have resulted in some using crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.com and GoFundMe.com to raise money for fees associated with adoption, surrogacy, and assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Indeed, certain forms of assisted reproduction raise ethical questions in and …

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 think creatively, …

by J. Adebukola Awosogba, MA
It has been 43 years since the media learned of the federally funded Tuskegee Syphilis study, and just 5 years since the US apologized for conduct of unethical STD research in Guatemalan prisons and mental institutions during the 1940s. In order to investigate and prevent such atrocities, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, established in 2009 by executive order, provides a forum for …

By Caroline Song
A story recently published by ABC News focuses on the Knickerbockers, a young family from Huntley, Illinois. Their son, Noah Knickerbocker, was born with an aortic valve stenosis and needed a heart transplant to survive. Since coming into the world five months ago, Noah has received care from the Wisconsin Children’s Hospital. During an attempt to raise money for the procedure, Noah’s parents fell victim to a GoFundMe …

By Andrew Rock
The Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled that 17-year-old Cassandra is not competent to make her own medical decisions and ordered her to continue receiving chemotherapy treatments. She will be required to receive treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma at a hospital in Hartford. Patients who undergo chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma survive nearly 85% of the time; those who refrain nearly always perish.
 
Cassandra does not want to receive treatment because …

By Josephine Adebukola Awosogba
The start up world has given us social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well as mobile grocery delivery with Instacart. Tech start ups offer the public innovation and excitement.
In the field of biomedical engineering, they have the ability to launch medicine into the future. The difficult part is deciding what the future will look like. For Austen Heinz, a silicon valley entrepreneur, the future includes …

By Richard Balagtas
Katherine Don writes from a perspective shared by many women today, one concerning the difficulties associated with conception. After Don suffered from her third consecutive miscarriage, Don’s mother offed to help in any way she could, even if it meant taking on the role of a surrogate. Was this even possible given her advanced age? What were her other options?
In 2011, Kristine Casey, at age 61, gave birth to her own granddaughter …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Dr. Mark Donowitz at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is interested in ridding the world of diarrheal disease-related deaths. Every year, more than 800,000 children succumb to diseases such as cholera, rotavirus, and some strains of the bacteria E. coli.
“We’ve failed so far to find drugs to treat diarrhea using cell culture models and mouse intestine,” Donowitz explained. Mice guts are just not sufficiently similar to the human …

By Caroline Song
A new state law in Illinois that provides funding for undocumented immigrants to receive kidney transplants went into effect this past October. It may be the first law of its kind in the United States. There are currently 686 undocumented immigrants in Illinois enrolled in the state’s kidney dialysis program. Opponents worry that tax dollars spent on undocumented immigrants places an unfair burden on legal citizens and that …