This Week — Nigel M. de S. Cameron, PhD, the president/co-founder of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future at the Illinois Institute of Technology offers his perspective on the 15 year history of CBHD, bioethics engagement and a challenge for our future, entitled “Why I founded CBHD: Some personal reflections 15 years on.”

Podcast

Employment Opportunities —

Director of Development, CBHD & Bioethics at Trinity (Fulltime):  Position is responsible for developing a strategic plan, performing ongoing analysis and program implementation to achieve the development goals for Trinity's bioethics initiatives. This person will be versatile, able to perform competently in a wide variety of development functions. These functions will include event planning and execution, major gifts, foundation relations, annual fund solicitations, marketing and communications, church relations, and data management. For more information click here.

Quote of the Week —

—Dr. Robert Lanza, the chief scientific officer of the American biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology, in "Coming Soon: 'Designer' Babies," redOrbit, April 7, 2008.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics Public Lecture 2008: The ranking of values as a basis for ethical decision making
May 7, 2008
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace
London SW1Y 5AG
Email: cperkins@nuffieldbioethics.org
Tel: +44 20 7681 9619

Ethical Challenges in Surgical Innovation
May 8-9, 2008
InterContinental Hotel & Bank of America Conference Center
Cleveland, OH
Tel: 216/ 932-3448

5th International Symposium of the Definition of Death Network
May 20-23, 2008
Plaza America Convention Center
Varadero Beach, Cuba

Emerging Issues in Embryo Donation and Adoption
May 29-31, 2008
Marriot Crystal Gateway
Arlington, Virginia

Call for Abstracts: Challenges to Ethical Considerations in Research in the East Mediterranean and Arab Region: Research Subjects, Researchers and Research Ethics Committees Perspectives
Deadline: May 31, 2008
Research Policy and Cooperation Unit
Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, WHO,
Email: rpc@emro.who.int
Tel: +2 02 227 65028 / +2 02 227 65348
Fax: +2 02 227 65421

Drug Makers Near Old Goal: A Legal Shield
The Bush administration has argued strongly in favor of the doctrine, which holds that the F.D.A. is the only agency with enough expertise to regulate drug makers and that its decisions should not be second-guessed by courts. The Supreme Court is to rule on a case next term that could make pre-emption a legal standard for drug cases. The court already ruled in February that many suits against the makers of medical devices like pacemakers are pre-empted. (New York Times)

Op-Ed: What comes after iPS?
It sounds like alchemy: cells within an organism are genetically almost identical, yet they form cell types as disparate as pulsing neurons, engulfing macrophages and enzyme-secreting villus cells. Recently developed techniques appear able to prompt cells from a terminally differentiated state into one in which they not only divide indefinitely but can, in theory, become any cell type found in adults. Last year’s advances in generating such cells from mice and humans have opened what could be a new era of pluripotent stem cell biology. (Nature)

Monday, April 7, 2008

Valuable blood discarded
99% of umbilical cord cells, which can be used to treat diseases, thrown out. (Akron Beacon Journal)

Hearing continues over lethal injection
Ohio’s lethal injection method was assailed as unfit for even household pets by an anesthesiologist testifying in a case challenging the constitutionality of the procedure. (AP)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Self-assembling Nanofibers Heal Spinal Cords
An engineered material that can be injected into damaged spinal cords could help prevent scars and encourage damaged nerve fibers to grow. The liquid material, developed by Northwestern University materials science professor Samuel Stupp, contains molecules that self-assemble into nanofibers, which act as a scaffold on which nerve fibers grow. (Technology Review)

Campaigners against human embryo research launch legal challenge
The challengers argue that the hybrids are not permitted under current law because, when current law was drafted, it was for human embryos, not hybrids. They will have to show that this interpretation was not the meaning intended by the Act, or that the HFEA acted irrationally in choosing this meaning in these circumstances. (Telegraph)

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

FDA to take key stem-cell step
Government advisors meet this week to discuss designs for embryonic stem cell testing in humans. (CNN)

Scientists take drugs to boost brain power: study
Twenty percent of scientists admit to using performance-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a survey released Wednesday by Nature, Britain’s top science journal. (AFP)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

German lawmakers vote to loosen limits on embryonic stem cell imports
German lawmakers voted Friday to loosen slightly a 2002 law that imposes strict limits on the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research, enabling scientists to import newer stem-cell lines. Following a debate that cut across party lines, the lower house of parliament approved the change by a 346-228 margin, with six abstentions. (International Herald Tribune)

Op-Ed: The Ethics of Designer Children
The ethics of this new technology has - as is traditionally been the case – lagged behind the scientific capability. Despite the engagement of prominent intellectuals—Jurgen Habermas, probably the most important living Continental philosopher wrote a short tract on it a few years ago (The Future of Human Nature), and now so has Michael Sandel—a truly public debate has not materialized, aside from brief flashes over Dolly the sheep and stem-cell research. In his discussion, Sandel brings up several fundamental issues: the role and importance of choice as such, the distinction between medical treatment and enhancement, and perfection of species as such. These slippery topics will hopefully make the following discussion more interesting. (IEET)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Each week the top news stories, as determined by the staff at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity are sent out via email.

[Note: News stories, Quote of the Week, and events do not represent the Center's views. For additional commentary on many of the issues they raise, please see the CBHD web site at www.cbhd.org.]

Please visit http://www.bioethics.com for daily posts on bioethics news and issues.