Bioethike

An article in yesterday’s The New York Times trots out the shopworn “Church vs. State” argument on gay marriage. Although author Jeremy W. Peters and the good folks at The Gray Lady are to be to commended for inquiring into the conflicting perspectives about this issue within the religious African-American community, it is unfortunate that [...]

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Three important women in my life have had hysterectomies, so this article from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times made me sit up and take notice. From the article: For the last 35 years, most doctors have been routinely advising women undergoing hysterectomy to have their ovaries removed to prevent ovarian cancer,’ said lead author Dr. William [...]

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The Obama Administration is having difficulty swallowing the April 15 Tea Party, which according to the Christian Science Monitor hosted over a half-million participants nationwide. Today’s The Washington Post reports that the president, apparently a coffee drinker, will order [Cabinet] members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days. [...]

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According to this April 18 article in The Washington Post, the Obama administration on Friday issued compromise rules on federally-funded embryonic stem cell research. The rules would limit research, paid for by taxpayers, to using “excess” embryos voluntarily donated by their parents/owners and offered without remuneration. These embryos are now cryogenically stored in IVF and [...]

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The number of female reversible contraception clients 2007-2008 was down 3.8%, but the number of abortions was up 5.4%. In total, Planned Parenthood destroyed the lives of 305,310 human beings last year through abortion. You can read the report here. Kyrie eleison!

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According to this piece from LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt (March 31), the National Right to Life Committee is warning members of Congress of a bill it anticipates will seek to overturn the longstanding 1996 Dickey-Wicker amendment, which prohibits the creation of human embryos for research. Writes Ertelt, The NRLC letter says “there is a substantial chance that [...]

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Friends, it is absolutely crucial to understand what Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is, and what it isn’t. It is cloning; even supporters of SCNT say so, even if only they call it therapeutic (vs. reproductive) cloning. Carefully read this from “California Stem Cell” (CSC), a company that apparently sells stem cells and host of complementary products [...]

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Bill, a poster at GetReligion.org has responded to my second post regarding embryonic stem cell research. Fearing that our playful repartee might be cut off  by the GR powers that be, Bill was kind enough to post here at Bioethike (see Bill’s comment under previous post). Privately, I’ve promised Bill a response. Here goes: Bill: Robert, I [...]

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I’ve been having fun with “Bill” over at GetReligion.org. Here’s my recent reply: What Bill is proposing is that DNA be extracted from a person needing a transplant, say, for a liver. That DNA would be placed in an enucleated oocyte. Embryonic stem cells harvested from this clone (Bill objects to this terminology; let’s call [...]

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Moving away from ”dogma” to “sound scientific practice,” as one adviser put it, President Obama is expected to sign a bill tomorrow reversing the government’s ban on using federal (read: your) money to fund embryonic stem-cell research. No big deal if you believe that human life begins at implantation, live birth, or doesn’t matter at all. [...]

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