Stem cells have been in the news rather a lot lately. President Obama has, it’s currently being widely reported, lifted Dubya’s restrictions on human embryonic stem-cell research, much to the chagrin of some, and the delight of others. (Interestingly enough, among the worriers we find a surprisingly large number of British commentators who point out […]
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Terry Pratchett on Assisted Dying
The creator of Discworld writes to The Times: There may have to be […] legal requirements that should be satisfied, but they should not be such that they become a barrier to the patient’s wishes. […]
Quick and pointless
This has been bugging me for months, if not years. Sorry to spam it here, but maybe someone could provide me with an answer: if and when an effective treatment is discovered for c. difficile, will it have to be renamed – perhaps as c. facile? Have I missed something? Like I said – sorry. […]
The “progress” towards Fast-Tracking research ethics review in the NHS ethics system
Some of you may be aware that the National Research Ethics Service has been trialling a Fast-Track system for dealling rapidly with applications that present “no material ethical issues”. They have recently published a report on this trial which can be found here: Developing NRES. […]
It’s the End of the Father as we Know Him (and I Feel Fine)
It’s another blow to fatherhood, the traditional family, and all things good and pure, squeals the Daily Heil.* What could raise such spleen? By the looks of it, it’s Part 2 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (2008), although the paper doesn’t have the good grace to provide a link. This piece of legislation reduces […]
Purdy and the Role of the Law
Having spent a chunk of my weekend reading the Purdy ruling, one of the things that it seems to illustrate is the way in which ethics and law sometimes seem to come apart. The ruling notes that Purdy and Puente are faced with “an impossible dilemma”, and that “although Mr Puente would be willing to […]
Conference: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: New Directions in Biolaw and Bioethics
Keele, March 30th. Details below the fold. […]
Update on Purdy
Debbie Purdy has lost her case for clarification of the law on assisted suicide. Details are all over your preferred news source: the BBC site seems to have crashed at the moment. I’ll post something more thought-through later. […]
Money for Octuplets
I don’t think that anyone has mentioned the increasingly curious Suleman octuplet story yet on this blog. So I’ll just quickly point out that Nadya Suleman has – obviously – a website, on which she asks for comments and – erm – donations. If someone could tell me what to think about this in a sane and […]
Drugs are Bad, m’kaaaay?
As widely predicted, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has advised that ecstasy be downgraded from a class-A to a class-B drug. This comes in the wake of the Council’s chair, David Nutt, suggesting that ecstasy ought to be considered no more dangerous than horse-riding. (The full article can be found here, but for non-institutional readers, a […]