By Princess Chukwuneke At the start of 2016, China amended its one-child policy that had been in motion for 30 years. Perhaps it was because surrogacy had wormed its way into family planning among the richer members of the Chinese population, a concern for a vast majority of citizens who could not afford such a [...]

By Maria Coluccio In the TED Talk “We can now edit our DNA. But let’s do so wisely,” geneticist Jennifer Doudna talks about the rapidly developing field of gene editing technology and its serious ethical implications. A few years ago, Doudna created CRISPR-Cas9, a gene editing technology that has the potential to cure chronic [...]

By Alexis Vaujany In response to the atrocities committed by Nazi doctors in WWII, the Declaration of Geneva or Physician’s Oath was drafted. Since its creation, only minor changes have been made. The World Medical Association (WMA) (representing 112 National Medical Associations) is calling for a necessary update.The medical environment and global society has radically [...]

By Maria Coluccio "Preventing the Commercialization of Reproduction: Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRA)" The world of healthcare is always growing, and healthcare technologies are evolving at a faster pace than their regulations. In 2004, Canada passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRA) in order to monitor, regulate, and enforce Assisted Human Reproduction research and activities. One [...]

By Ellen Arkfeld Assisted suicide for psychiatric patients has been legal in the Netherlands since 1993, a country with some of the longest standing euthanasia practices. The main argument for euthanasia in the Netherlands is the autonomy of the patient. Whether psychiatric patients are able to objectively determine that their suffering is irreversible is coming under [...]

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer “Manitoba has an organ and tissue donor crisis,” explains the spokesperson for Manitobians for Presumed Consent. “The demand for organ and tissues far exceeds the availability. To make matters worse, the demand for organs is expected to drastically rise in the decades ahead. Manitoba has the worst organ donation rate in Canada, [...]

By Maria Coluccio Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have provided millions of individuals with the opportunity to have biological children who otherwise would have never been able to do so. In 2013, around 68,000 babies were born using ART in nearly 500 clinics across the U.S. As prominent as these technologies are today, ART had some [...]

By Raya Bidshahri The Zika virus has been spreading through Brazil, and more and more babies are being born with abnormally small heads and serious birth defects. The virus is transmitted primarily though mosquito bites, but it can also be spread sexually and through blood transfusions. As a result, authorities in the region are taking drastic measures [...]

By Ellen Arkfeld In July, the Center for Medical Progress released controversial videos that appeared to show Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue for profit. In these videos, the Center's founders, anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, obtained footage using hidden cameras by posing as middlemen for researchers and offering to pay for fetal tissue in an attempt to [...]

By Farzana Paleker An increase in the number of babies being born with microcephaly in Zika-affected areas of Brazil has sparked a heated debate over the country’s strict abortion laws. Abortions in Brazil are illegal except in instances of rape and in cases where fetuses are diagnosed with anencephaly, a condition resulting in an underdeveloped brain and [...]