This Week — We bring you another article on CBHD’s past, present, and future that appeared in the recent issue of Trinity Magazine. This article combines the insights of CBHD Director, C. Ben Mitchell, PhD and CBHD Senior Scholar, John Kilner, PhD and was part of a special focus entitled, “A Tale of Two Centers.”

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 —

— Sonia M. Suter, an associate professor at George Washington University Law School, in "Congress Near Deal on Genetic Test Bias Bill," New York Times, April 23, 2008.

Designing the Genes of Future Generations
May 7, 2008 at 7:30pm
Michelin Theatre, Discovery Centre ,1593 Barrington St.
Halifax, NS

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

Dual Uses of Biomedicine: Whose responsibility?
X Annual Swedish Symposium on Biomedicine, Ethics and Society
June 9-10, 2008
Seglarhotellet, Sandhamn
Phone: +46 18 611 22 96
E-mail: crb@crb.uu.se

Stem Cell Research and Commercial Applications: Isolation, Expansion, Therapy, Commercialisation and Manufacturing
June 25-26, 20008
Sheraton Towers Hotel, Singapore
Email: greg.moyle@informa.com
Fax: +65 65143173

UNESCO Ethics Teacher Training Course
November 17-21, 2008
Minsk, Belarus

Deep thinkers see how things will be in 2058
The consensus view is that we’ll muddle through many of the issues that vex us today — including climate change and terror threats. And we’ll hit upon so many medical and technological wonders that today’s 50-year-olds will have a fair chance of finding out firsthand how the world will look in 2058. (MSNBC)

Op-Ed: Unseen rise of ‘body shopping’
It’s not just the technology that’s changed since the 1980s; it’s also the economic environment in which science and medicine have to operate. We are living in an age when human organs, genes, eggs and other body parts are fast becoming commodities bought and sold on international markets: what I call “body shopping”. Our law lags behind: once tissue is taken from your body, it doesn’t legally belong to you. Instead, our common law views it as “no one’s thing”, or mere waste. (Times Online)

Monday, April 21, 2008

MEPs back Europe organ donor card
Euro MPs have called for an EU-wide organ donor card to tackle the shortage of organs for transplant. (BBC)

From DNA of Family, a Tool to Make Arrests
The BTK case was an early use of an emerging tool in law enforcement: analyzing the DNA of a suspect’s relatives. In the BTK example, police had a suspect and were looking to tie him to the crime. But now, states are moving to conduct familial searches of criminal databases, looking for close-to-perfect matches with DNA from crime scenes. A partial match with a convicted criminal could implicate a brother or daughter or father of the convict. Such searches, advocates say, constitute a powerful law enforcement tool that, experts say, could increase by 40 percent the number of suspects identified through DNA. (Washington Post)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Bioethics council backs contentious stem-cell research
The Irish Council for Bioethics has given its qualified backing to the contentious practice of stem-cell research. (Belfast Telegraph)

Op-Ed: Emerging Human Embryo Market Poses Moral and Ethical Dilemmas
What is a human life worth? For centuries, that question has been asked in the context of the cost of keeping people alive. In recent years, however, it has expanded to include the value of creating people in other than the natural manner–the “businesses” of sperm donation, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, and cloning. Now the issue has broadened yet again. What about the “business”–now a $3 billion per year trade–of women selling their eggs? (Heartland Institute)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Heart Pump Creates Life-Death Ethical Dilemmas
The debate illustrates how new medical technologies often proliferate before society has resolved the issues they raise, such as what to do when a patient has had enough. Similar clashes have arisen over pacemakers and implanted defibrillators, and experts say such predicaments will multiply as researchers rush to develop a host of other replacement organs. (Washington Post)

Wired.com Readers’ Brain-Enhancing Drug Regimens
Surprisingly large numbers of people appear to be using brain-enhancing drugs to work harder, longer and better. They’re popping pills normally prescribed for narcolepsy or attention-deficit disorder to improve their performance at work and school. (Wired)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Senate passes genetic discrimination bill
The bill, described by Sen. Edward Kennedy as “the first major new civil rights bill of the new century,” would bar health insurance companies from using genetic information to set premiums or determine enrollment eligibility. Similarly, employers could not use genetic information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions. (AP)

Embryonic stem cell debate trips up Ohio cloning bill
The bill, which appeared ready to clear a Senate committee last week after introduction last year, has been slowed by the complex debate among lawmakers trying to balance medical ethics and Ohio’s economic development. Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland opposes the bill, and a narrower proposal two years ago did not pass the Republican-controlled Legislature. (Akron Beacon Journal)

Friday, April 25, 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.