By Dr. Charles Debrovner
Most people spend much of their adult lives trying not to have children. During the past fifty years, the ability to make reproductive decisions has expanded significantly to include a wide variety of family planning options. However, when we do want to have children, and conceiving or carrying a pregnancy proves difficult or impossible, we become frustrated, angry, and depressed. This is because we have grown up …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Last August, Thailand gave preliminary approval to a draft law that would make commercial surrogacy a crime; parliament voted 160 to 2 to pass the measure on February 19.
The law bans foreigners from seeking surrogacy services in Thailand, a country that has long been a popular destination for first-world couples seeking affordable surrogates. The country’s previously unrestricted surrogacy market resulted in what the media dubbed a “rent-a-womb” industry, …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is very common; the Center for Disease Control estimates that nearly all sexually active males and females will contract it at some point in their lifetimes. HPV can cause sexually transmitted diseases such as genital warts, and cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancers. In 2011, more than 12,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer, and more than 4,000 perished from it that year.
But HPV …

By Caroline Song
Lawmakers in Vermont recently filed a bill for presumed consent to organ donation. H. 57 states that “[a]ll Vermont residents 18 years of age or older shall be presumed to consent to making an anatomical gift of some or all of their organs, eyes, tissues, or a combination thereof upon their death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education.
The bill, if passed, would give the organ …

By Caroline Song
Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero claims that he will be able to perform a human head transplant as soon as 2017. Two major hurdles to such a surgery still exist: an inability to successfully fuse together disparate spinal cords and the body’s sometimes negative immunological response to transplanted organs. Canavero believes that these obstacles will be overcome in the near future.
Canavero first proposed the idea in 2013, as a …

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 …