By Kaitlyn Schaeffer Every year, thousands of people in the United States die waiting for organs. In an effort to inform legislation that might reduce the current organ shortage, researchers at several national universities undertook studies that examined whether certain circumstantial factors might influence people’s tendency to become an organ donor. Judd Kessler from the [...]

By Grace Kim In vitro fertilization, otherwise known as IVF, is a reproductive technology used as a means to help women get pregnant. As outlined by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, IVF requires five basic steps. First, stimulation is required to boost ovulation in order to produce more than one egg. Then, the eggs [...]

By Caroline Song A 59-year-old woman in the United Kingdom is making history: she is looking for a sperm donor to fertilize her deceased daughter’s eggs so that she can gestate her own grandchild. Her daughter, known only as Ms. A, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2005, and succumbed to the disease in 2011 [...]

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer Many of the organ trafficking stories swirling around the web focus on supply; not much has been paid to demand. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) recently admonished the wealthy Europeans who have traveled to countries such as China, India, and Egypt in search of illegal organs. These MEPs say that Europeans [...]

By Richard Balagtas "If you're holding the 'infected' print edition in your hands right now, you'll get into contact with HIV like never before...It will make you reflect on HIV and you will think differently afterward. Because now the issue is in your hands." – Vangardist publisher and CEO, Julian Wiehl If you were asked [...]

By Rose Bowen The pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson became the first in the drug industry to create a Bioethics panel of ethicists, doctors and patient advocates to respond to requests for access to experimental medicines, called “compassionate use.” This is only applicable to investigational drugs, or drugs that have not yet been approved by [...]

By Caroline Song A 44-year-old male double-lung transplant patient at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, passed away following complications 40 days after his procedure. His death was brought on by hyperammonemia, a state of incredibly high levels of ammonia in the blood. High levels of ammonia lead to brain swelling, which causes the patient [...]

The Center for the Study of Bioethics and The Hastings Center are pleased to announce that they will be jointly hosting the international conference "Enhancing Understanding of Enhancement.” The conference will be held at the Center for the Study of Bioethics in Belgrade on October 27-28, 2015. It will explore various issues pertaining to enhancement, [...]