Featured Resource of the Month — CBHD Consultant on Neuroethics William P. Cheshire, Jr., MD, continues with the fifth installment in his Grey Matters series with the conclusion of an essay entitled, "Can Grey Voxels Resolve Neuroethical Dilemmas?"

Part I
Part II

Quote of the Month —

"When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters.  I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way."

Summer Internships with NIH
The Office of Biotechnology Activities at the National Institutes of Health is accepting applications for paid summer internships for students interested in gaining hands-on policy experience in a Federal government office in the areas of biosecurity, gene transfer, genetic technologies, and clinical research policy. Applications will be accepted until March 1, 2008.

Robots & Rights: Will artificial intelligence change the meaning of human rights?
January 15, 2008
The Royal Society of Medicine
London W1G 0AE

Babies by Design: Redefining Humans?
UCLA Center for Society and Genetics Sixth Annual Symposium
January 27, 2008
Sunset Conference Center, UCLA

New Zealand Bioethics Conference
February 1-3, 2008
Dunedin, New Zealand
Email: sally@events4you.co.nz

Stem Cells World Congress
February 12-13, 2008
Marriott San Diego La Jolla
La Jolla, CA
Tel: 858/ 587-1414, email: Mathias.Kuo@marriott.com

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

Op-Ed: Behind the Stem Cell Breakthrough
The stunning announcement by Japanese and American research teams that they have obtained highly promising stem cells without having to destroy an embryo could help free scientists from shackles that have long hobbled their efforts. It is especially important for a critical field of research that is far behind where it could have been if the Bush administration and Congressional conservatives had not thrown up so many roadblocks. (New York Times)

Ethicists ponder embryo personhood
If embryos are declared people and granted full legal rights, “it would cause a lot of problems,” says Linda MacDonald Glenn of the Alden March Bioethics Institute in Albany, N.Y. (Chicago Tribune)

Menstrual blood tapped as source of stem cells
While the excitement continues to swirl around the recent breakthrough of converting skin cells to stem cells, other researchers are quietly pursuing a new type of stem cell discovered in menstrual blood.

These menstrual stem cells could offer several advantages. They come from a source that’s easy to obtain from women, they could be used to treat patients without the fear of tissue rejection, and they avoid the ethical questions associated with embryonic stem cells. (MSNBC)

Watchdog delays decision on whether to allow creation of ‘cybrid’ embryos
Scientists seeking to create embryos that are part human and part animal will have to wait until next year before beginning work, after a Government watchdog decided to delay a decision on two licence applications.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) had been expected to approve the proposals this week, but it has postponed a ruling because of the likelihood of a legal challenge. (Times)

Reprogrammed Skin Cells Strut Their Stuff
Skin cells reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells–a breakthrough first reported in human cells 2 weeks ago–are already showing promise as a therapeutic agent. In today’s online edition of Science, researchers describe using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to alleviate symptoms of sickle cell anemia in mice. The technique is not yet safe to try in people, but scientists say it is proof of principle that iPS cells could someday treat human disease. (ScienceNOW)

Book Review: The Ethical Imagination
Human dignity has fallen on hard times. Nearly 60 years ago, it was the bedrock of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. But now bioethicists, who are tasked with the protection of life, are questioning whether or not it even exists. Not long ago, for instance, the most quoted bioethicist in the world, Arthur Caplan, of the University of Pennsylvania said that: “Dignity reflects a moral status that moral agents assign to others. It is conferred on a human being by other human beings. There is no inherent property that confers dignity on a human being.” (MercatorNet)

A future where your brain is better
From the odd capsule of fish oil to major brain surgery, the options for boosting our mental capacity are expanding all the time. Do we need to worry about the advent of a brave new world, where everyone is too clever by half?

According to the British Medical Association, we must at least start thinking about the ethics of altering the organ which is so central to our being before there is no turning back. (BBC NEWS)

Italian doctors want to scrap ‘outdated’ Hippocratic Oath
Senior medical figures in Italy are campaigning to scrap the Hippocratic Oath for doctors on the ground that the passages forbidding abortion and euthanasia are outdated. (Times Online)

Revealed: scientist who sparked racism row has black genes
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist who provoked a public outcry by claiming black Africans were less intelligent than whites has a DNA profile with up to 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European. (Independent)

Stem-cell patch may fix damaged hearts
Scientists have made two significant advances in developing a stem-cell patch to repair the damage caused to the heart after an attack.

Sian Harding of London’s Imperial College said on Thursday her team had successfully matured beating heart cells in a laboratory dish for up to seven months and developed a biocompatible scaffold to form the basis of a patch. (Reuters)

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms
It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life’s most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA — an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought. (Washington Post)

Designer baby fear over heart gene test
A British couple have won the right to test embryos for a gene that leads to high cholesterol levels and an increased risk of heart attacks, The Times has learnt.

The decision by the fertility watchdog will reopen controversy over the ethics of designer babies, as it allows doctors to screen embryos for a condition that is treatable with drugs and can be influenced by lifestyle as well as genes. (Times Online)

Drugs to build up that mental muscle
As Major League Baseball struggles to rid itself of performance-enhancing drugs, people in a range of other fields are reaching for a variety of prescription pills to enhance what counts most in modern life.

Despite the potential side effects, academics, classical musicians, corporate executives, students and even professional poker players have embraced the drugs to clarify their minds, improve their concentration or control their emotions. (Los Angeles Times)

U.S. House passes extension of child health program
Ending months of deadlock with the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday gave final bipartisan approval to legislation that would temporarily extend the state health insurance program that covers about 6.6 million poor children.

The bill, approved by a 411-3 vote, extends the program until March 2009. It also delays a scheduled 10 percent pay cut for Medicare doctors for six months and provides a 0.5 percent increase instead. (Reuters)

Book Reviews: Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice and The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering
We sit on the cusp of a new world in which the ability to genetically engineer our children, as well as re-upholster our own organs, promises to become routine rather than exotic. Just as old definitions of life proved ethically problematic once medicine understood pregnancy better (would people fight over abortion if everyone agreed a child before birth is not conscious?), our traditional ideas of how we should control our bodies and those of our children look increasingly fragile in the face of “reprogenetics,” the new medical field that unites reproductive and genetic technology. (Miami Herald)

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 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.