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. [...]
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? [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
By J. Adebukola Awosogba, M.A. 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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
