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 …

“On June 15th, I embarked on a journey to learn more about bioethics. This was the day I started classes at the Global Bioethics Initiative Summer School Program. At this program, wonderful lecturers from various parts of the United States and the world present on a myriad of bioethical topics.
During the first week, a lecture given by Dr. James Hughes really captivated me. It made me think about bioethics-related topics …

We are pleased to inform you that the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations at its 2015 Resumed Session, held from 26 May to 3 June 2015, decided to recommend our organization to be in Special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations. This recommendation is subject to the approval of the Economic and Social Council, which will consider and take action on the Committee’s recommendation at …

By Grace Kim
As mentioned in previous articles, there are many factors that influence organ donors and affect the rate of organ donation, such as asking potential donors a second time or offering incentives through self-interest motivations. An important aspect to factor in organ donors and donation is religion. In many countries outside of the United States, religion is not often as separated from the state. Even in the United States, …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Many couples facing fertility problems turn to the assisted reproduction industry for help – the rise in the number of people seeking in vitro solutions has resulted in an increasingly large number of frozen embryos (as many as one million) being stored across the nation. These frozen embryos occupy an ill-defined space: they are not clearly human, nor clearly not human. Decisions regarding what to do with these …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has big plans for the next few years: he’s preparing to transplant a head onto a donor body.
This past Friday, at a conference in Annapolis, Dr. Canavero announced to a crowd of over 100 doctors, researchers, and reporters that he believes he can accomplish this feat in two years time. He will need a team of 150 surgeons to perform the 36-hour operation. He …