August 2008

Rejection Issues Continue with Embryonic Stem Cells

There is good news and bad news with this story. The good news is this: “The much-ballyhooed human embryonic stem cell apparently may share a problem with transplanted organs: a high probability of rejection.” So say the researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. “The finding means that people who may one day be [...]

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Scientists Reprogram Adult Cells’ Function

When something is unethical, and the pressure is put on to find an ethical way it forces us to be innovative and creative in finding solutions to our problems. That is the case in the great stem cell debate. Creating embryos for destruction or destroying “surplus” embryos to treat a sick patient is unethical. And [...]

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Vote Now!

This Sunday’s Parade magazine has an online poll challenging sperm donor’s privacy. Should these children be able to know who their biological daddy is? Vote here! Not surprising, so far the majority say “YES” these kids have a right to know.

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Rights of Conscience Protected by HHS

Great news out of HHS! “Today, HHS will file a rule in the Federal Register aimed at increasing compliance with existing federal laws protecting provider conscience. The proposed rule clarifies that non-discrimination rules apply to institutional health care providers as well as to individual employees working for recipients of certain funds from HHS. It requires [...]

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Egg Donor Survey

I’m putting in a plug for a survey of women who were egg donors. If you were an egg donor, consider participating in this study. If you know of someone who was an egg donor, pass this onto them! Wendy Kramer, of Donor Sibling Registry writes, “We at the Donor Sibling Registry are doing a [...]

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Berkeley Students Respond to Egg Ad

http://youtube.com/v/fPzCxEoiwg8 Check out our latest version of our video we filmed on the UC Berkeley campus. We asked people what they thought of an egg donor ad running in the Daily Californian – the campus paper. Offering $100,000 for an ‘elitedonor’.

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Fertility Tourism: Traveling to bring home baby

“The ads are brazen: ‘healthy young women – superovulated exclusively for you!’. The fees are half those of UK clinics (‘flights and hotel included!’). And the industry is unregulated, leaving doctors free of legal and ethical constraints. No wonder more and more Europeans are going to India for fertility treatment. The baby is due in [...]

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Concerns raised over egg donor dogs

Perhaps you’ve been following the news that the South Koreans have cloned the pit bull Booger? Well five pit bulls have just been cloned from Booger. And this article raises concerns with egg donation and exploitation in pet cloning. Really! I quote: “The procedure, which costs up to $150,000, is drawing criticism from animal rights [...]

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Rescue Me

Another story is in the news again brings us the issue of “savior siblings“. Creating a savior sibling raises some serious ethical issues. Consider a situation in which a sick child needs a genetically matched bone marrow (i.e. cord blood stem cell) transplant: is it right to produce embryo siblings, find the genetic match, and [...]

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CBC Misrepresented in the Dallas News

On Sunday I was alerted to this running in the Dallas News: Apes’ rights reinforce human rights Re: “When human rights extend to nonhumans – Granting apes rights will only devalue human life, says Wesley J. Smith,” last Sunday Points. Mr. Smith’s criticism of acknowledging apes’ basic rights is easy to understand. His organizations, the [...]

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