Ethics

i wld be interested to hear of any meaningful defence of this practice. it seems to cut across the usual ethical guidelines.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-lifat0927,0,1399300.story?coll=ny-top-headlines The department of health is hoping to ban trans fats from New York city resturants by 2008. Obviously this has a lot of ethical and political effects. Should we be allowed to tell resturants what they can put their foods. Obviously we do this already to a certain extent, but do we have a right to now? Also, how will effect prices at resturants such as McDonalds (of which New York hosts hundreds of) and should people have to pay more money because of what the government tells them is healthy?

Imagine this. Some woman takes fertility drugs while having sex with multiple persons, and somehow it happens that 2 eggs get fertilized at the same time from 2 different men. Will the resulting children be considered twins?

What are your thoughts on Animal Testing? I recently visited http://www.stopanimaltests.com and got a very graphic education on the subject. I always knew that I didn't vouch for animal testing but this has REALLY opened my eyes. Also, check out http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com This is unbelievable. Are there any scientists part of this community that are involved in any way with animal cruelty / testing? This is disgusting, I have no idea how people can do such things. Not only that, the gov't supplies hundreds of millions of dollars annually to have animals slaughtered and abused. 115 million animals (not counting rats,mice, and birds because they are not covered…

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/08/06/sociedad/s-04215.htm by a strange coincidence (Simpson fans will note) the man's name is Cleto. "His name is Cleto Ruiz Díaz, he is 44 years old and lives in Corrientes. He has no permanent job. He has so many children he cannot remember their names. He wants to get a vasectomy to eliminate his reproductive capacity." I guess it's an issue because the operation is not legal where the guy lives. more quotes: ===quote=== Por qué no me puedo controlar? Porque cuando estás enamorado, la emoción te llleva". No sobra una "l", es el énfasis que pone Cleto Ruiz Díaz para explicar su envión. Tanto se emocionó que hoy, con 4…

Hey everyone, I found this really interesting article on Technology Review today about the project going on at Harvard to clone a human. It seems that the scientists are facing new obstacles, not just ethical ones, relating to their project. Apparently they are worried that they will not be able to harvest enough human eggs to continue their experiments. You can check out the entire article here: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16990&ch=biotech

Clones, are they the same as the original? Physically and medically? Yes but mentally they are different. They are like indentical twins, if you may. They share the same genetic code, but they do not share environmental or life effects or experiences, they will be different mentally. So in a way they are indeed different. Unless we can figure out some way of transfering memories, etc into the other persons mind, they will be different. Does anyone here agree with me on this one?

I was thinking about world hunger, and humanitarian relief, and how the more food aid we give, the greater the problem in the third world rises, and thus requires more food aid from us. So I was thinking, why not simply genetically modify food that is for foreign aid to contain a contraceptive? If we did this, then any population that's primary livelihood came from foreign aid, within a generation or two, would die out. Then we would no longer need to send them foreign aid. And if they ever became self-sufficient, and could produce their own food, then they would be able to reproduce, so long as neither they, nor their partner were consuming the GM food. …

I came across an article from Technology Review titled "Stem Cells Reborn". It discusses how researchers are renewing their race to clone stem cells after the shocking fraud case of Hwang Woo Suk in South Korea, which by now I'm sure that most have heard of. The article finds that success could mean a new era of more realistic disease models and safer, life-saving regenerative medicine. Now, six months after details of the fraud emerged, ACT and groups at Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco, among others, are gearing up to start new therapeutic-cloning programs. I can only imagine the ethical issues that are bound to arise. If…

I am currently undertaking some research into public thoughts on stem cell technology for my MSc. I would be grateful to you if you would visit the project website and take part in the online activity. It will take about 20 - 40 minutes to complete and does involve thinking about ethical statements after reading a short vignette (a scenario) that involves some aspect of stem cell technology. The link is: http://www.urbansea.com/s810 . Many thanks, Steven

I was reading the paper last week and came across an article about the first woman in Ireland to conceive a child using sperm provided by a group responsible for the website http://www.mannotincluded.com This group informs us that they provide "a non-discriminatory, confidential and totally anonymous sperm donation service available to any woman wishing to conceive, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status". What struck me was that the Donor has been given absolute assurance that his identity would remain undisclosed, and that he would never be contacted by either the Recipient or by the child. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but does anyone else find this …

I'm not if this has been developed further, but a few years ago a vaccine was created that allowed anti bodies to bind onto nicotine molecules in your blood. This prevented nicotene from crossing the blood brain barrier, essentialy preventing you from feeling the effects of smoking. Similar vaccines were also developed for cocaine. see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3092690.stm My question is, hypothetically if this vaccine was developed further to stay active for years, would it be right to vaccinate young children and babies so they could never smoke, or should everyone have the right to choose regardless?

IBODThis may not be the right place for this, but is an interesting piece of technology. Unfortunately the web-page doesn't tell you a lot about it. According to the news broadcast that I heard it allows the user to directly affect heart rate, blood pressure and several other biological functions. In short you could run 2 miles without ever leaving your office. No, it's not available for sale... yet. Should this kind of technology be put in a layman's hands?

say, if somone you new and cared for was ill, and dying. and the only reasearch that could cure them was from a doctor that conducted inmoral expirments (human testing, infecting hundreds with a virus to find the cure). and also the person that was ill didn't wish the doctor to treat him or her. what would you do? would you use the reasearch to treat your loved one? or would you oblige to your loved one's wishes and let them die?

Circumcision should it be done to babies? Why?

Avian influenza, also known as ‘fowl plague’, is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The disease, which was first identified in Italy more than 100 years ago, occurs worldwide in many domestic birds, including chicken, turkey, ducks etc. THE GREATEST CONCERN TILL DATE IS THE PROBABLE TRANSMISSION OF THE DISEASE FROM BIRDS TO HUMAN DIRECTLY but recently in an article published from Forbes, there are some anatomic reasons why the virus can't directly jump from the birds to human. It is mostly due to deep localization of the virus in the lungs of birds rather than upper respiratory tract which means it can't be coughed out as aeros…

Hey I have been in a few huge debates about this in class, and I was wondering what everyones part take on it...Just in case you do not know what I am talking about its about being gay is it herdity or the way you were brought up?

How much information could really be determined from someones DNA? I saw GATTACA and wondered if such discrimination was possible. The genetically perfect people didn't seem to lack anything the faith births lacked, and besides life expectancy, what possible factors could go into employment through DNA testing?

Parts taken from; http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=229 In 1954 the brains pleasure center was found by complete accident, and in 1956 James Olds was able to tap into this center through electroshock bringing on complete euphoria for as long as the shock was issued, even such sensations as constant orgasms were acheived with higher levels of electricity. This technology was tested on dozens of animals from rats to cows and showed a nearly addictive affect where as the animals would deprive themselves of food just to feel the stimulation. In addition to animals, this was also tested on a homosexual man in 1972 in an attempt to "cure" him of his homosexuality, the s…

This is a fairly simple question. Why not? I'm assuming that it can be done in a sanitary way, so the natural fear of getting human diseases from a human body is null. Also, there's no murder involved. Let's say, instead, that a relative put it in his will that instead of being embalmed or cremated, he should be served as the main course at a memorial dinner, and that it would be doing him dishonor if the guests declined. Would you have a bite? Why or why not?

i was watching a show on star world -the medical investigations.according to the episode a boy comes in contact with the small pox virus after he and his friends meddle with the body of a native american which is supposed to have washed down from a mountain after the glacier melted.and the body is 200 years old .is this really possible?can the virus survive for so long in such cold temperatures.

I realise biomedical ethics is quite a serious topic, but I found this today...I particularly like the line 'I'm not a pervert' http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=81091306425 Eilat, Israel (December 29, 2005 ) Till death do us part? An unusual wedding ceremony was held in the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, as Sharon Tendler, a 41-years-old Jewish millionaire from London married her beloved Cindy, a 35-years-old dolphin, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.

How many of you feel that childhood immunizations should be absolutely mandatory? Or should it be left up to the personal choice and/or the beliefs of the parent(s)? I have always thought it should be a personal choice, but I'm seriously rethinking this view. My reason: As I have posted in General Medicine, I have been infected with Bordatella Pertussis, otherwise known as "whooping cough" for about 10 weeks now. My father has had it for 12 weeks, my mother had it for 6, my boyfriend for about 8 weeks now, albeit, his case is not as extreme. Because we became infected through an unvaccinated child, we feel that our contracting the Pertussis aka whooping…

Nature 437, 794-795 (6 October 2005) | doi: 10.1038/437794a Special ReportThe 1918 flu virus is resurrected Top of page Abstract The recreation of one of the deadliest diseases known could help us to prevent another pandemic. Or it might trigger one, say critics. Andreas von Bubnoff investigates whether the benefits outweigh the risks. It is thought to have killed 50 million people, and yet scientists have brought it back to life. In this issue of Nature, scientists publish an analysis of the full genome sequence of the 1918 human influenza virus. And in this week's Science, researchers describe how they used that sequence to recreate the virus and study its ef…

http://www.malepregnancy.com is the above real or a fake?? it makes me wanna puke what do you people think of this??