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“This French secularism, which sometimes surprises our neighbours, is a powerful cement in a country torn by so many wars of religion." - Emmanuel Macron President Emmanuel Macron has hinted at controversial changes in France’s bioethics law this year at the same time as he invited the country’s religious leaders to participate fully in the public debate about reforms the Catholic Church opposes. Addressing senior clergy at a New Year’s reception, the president said his role was to ensure both that France debated the bioethics reforms seriously and that it adapted its laws responsibly to changes in technology and society....

France on Wednesday kicked off a marathon round of talks designed to inform the country’s legislation on bioethics, with the government hoping to avoid a repeat of the poisonous debate that hijacked the legalisation of same-sex marriage. The six-month consultation, involving scientists, medical practitioners and legal experts from across France, will lead to a revised bioethics law, slated for later this year. It will touch on a broad range of subjects, from legalizing euthanasia to the development of artificial intelligence. Some of the topics up for discussion represent a political minefield in France, and President Emmanuel Macron will be keen...

Stanford University bioethicist says as the lab rats become more human-like they may one day be 'entitled to some kind of respect' TINY human brains injected into rats have sparked a major ethical debate among scientists worried it may give the rodents some type of human consciousness. Esteemed science ethicists claim the experiments might reach a point where the test lab rats will be "entitled to some kind of respect". Advances in science have allowed experts to connect tiny human brains with that of a rat. To do this, they created clumps of cells that behave similarly to human brains...

Patricia Heaton is outraged by a recent CBS report about Iceland. CBS reported Sunday that the majority of expecting mothers in the country or “close to 100 percent” who received a positive test for Down syndrome “terminated their pregnancy.” *snip* "Iceland isn't actually eliminating Down Syndrome. They're just killing everybody that has it. Big difference," she [Heaton] wrote.

CBS reported Sunday that the majority of expecting mothers in the country or “close to 100 percent” who received a positive test for Down syndrome “terminated their pregnancy.” The network tweeted on Sunday, "Iceland is on pace to virtually eliminate Down syndrome through abortion. #CBSNOA learns more, tonight at 10pm ET/PT." The 59-year-old actress took to Twitter with a heated reply, taking aim at the wording of the CBS tweet and Iceland in the process. "Iceland isn't actually eliminating Down Syndrome. They're just killing everybody that has it. Big difference," she wrote.

With the rise of prenatal screening tests across Europe and the United States, the number of babies born with Down syndrome has significantly decreased, but few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland. Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women -- close to 100 percent -- who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy. While the tests are optional, the government states that all expectant mothers must be informed about availability of screening tests, which reveal the likelihood of a child being...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/14/dying-together-deepest-wish-couple-91-die-rare-double-euthanasia/ An elderly couple died holding hands surrounded by loved ones in a rare double euthanasia....“ ...“The geriatrician determined that our mother was still mentally competent. However, if our father were to die, she could become completely disoriented, ending up in a nursing home.

Evolutionary Biologist Now Wants Doctors to Kill Suicidal Depressed People Michael Egnor August 9, 2017, 10:48 AM Darwinist Jerry Coyne, who has recently advocated the medical killing of handicapped babies so they won’t “suffer,” has added another class of people to his kill list: people who are depressed. In response to a doctor’s suggestion in an article that a patient who was not physically suffering but who was depressed should be offered euthanasia, Coyne writes: My answer, as was that of another expert discussed in the piece, is “yes”, but I’d offer them antidepressants first… Goodness gracious. Coyne is now...

The first known attempt at creating genetically modified human embryos in the United States has been carried out by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon, Technology Review has learned. The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the gene-editing technique CRISPR, according to people familiar with the scientific results. Until now, American scientists have watched with a combination of awe, envy, and some alarm as scientists elsewhere were first to explore the controversial practice. To date, three previous reports of editing human embryos...

the hospital and the British Parliament will make suitably grave remarks about how tragic it is to lose "this beautiful baby" (whom they killed), and how much their hearts go out to "his loving parents" (whom they stripped of their rights, their dignity, and their baby). But the public outcry will die down; Charlie's death will, given the time-distorting elasticity of memory, begin to look like a vindication (rather than condemnation) of the government's decision; and the real issues at the heart of this case – progressivism's crushing of the private family and socialized medicine's absolute rejection of the natural...

Doctors and pharmacies in the nation’s capital are now allowed to prescribe life-ending medications to terminally ill patients. The Death with Dignity Act of 2016 became law with the signature of Mayor Muriel Bowser in December of 2016. Now the Bowser administration has announced the implementation of the law in the District. The city said the law allows terminally ill D.C. residents over the age of 18 to legally obtain a physician’s prescription for medications to end their lives in a humane and peaceful manner.

A bill allowing the starvation and dehydration of dementia and mentally ill patients against their will passed the Oregon Senate 17-13 on June 8. SB494 would remove safeguards in Oregon law that protect the right of patients to receive food and water as part of basic treatment. It would give healthcare representatives power to potentially coerce doctors into starving patients against their will.

It’s a boy! A five-month-old boy is the first baby to be born using a new technique that incorporates DNA from three people, New Scientist can reveal. “This is great news and a huge deal,” says Dusko Ilic at King’s College London, who wasn’t involved in the work. “It’s revolutionary.” The controversial technique, which allows parents with rare genetic mutations to have healthy babies, has only been legally approved in the UK. But the birth of the child, whose Jordanian parents were treated by a US-based team in Mexico, should fast-forward progress around the world, say embryologists.

Abort, Euthanize, or Get Out of Medicine Bioethics discourse aims to change the practice of medicine and the thrust of public policy — usually not for the better. As I have been noting, the field is increasingly targeting the right of doctors to refuse to perform an abortion, euthanize patients, and perform other procedures or issue prescriptions that violate their religious beliefs.A bit ago, I discussed a “consensus statement” on this issue in Practical Ethics, published by Oxford. Now, two internationally influential bioethicists — Jualian Savulescu and Udo Schuklenk — join forces to advocate that society legally coerce doctors to kill. First, they deconstruct medical...

Vermont doctors and health care professionals are pushing back against an interpretation of state law that they say requires them to help kill patients who wish to die. Members of two medical groups, the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare and Christian Medical & Dental Associations, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against officials in two state medical agencies responsible for the interpretation. The lawsuit says these agencies have interpreted a 2013 physician-assisted suicide law, Act 39, in a way that would require health care professionals to counsel terminally ill patients about the option to commit suicide. Additionally, under such an interpretation...

On a busy night last week at the Target on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, Ari Nagel, 40, emerged from the men’s bathroom looking a little flushed and quite pleased with himself. “It’s better when it’s fresh,” he told them. “It” is Nagel’s semen, and it’s in demand. The 6-foot-2 CUNY Kingsborough math professor has served as a sperm donor for dozens of locals, siring 22 kids over the past 12 years with 18 women of various backgrounds.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/03/10/58421/assisted-suicide-new-calif-law-to-take-effect-june/ Assisted suicide:New California law to take effect June 9. Fourth state in the US with such a law.

Researchers in the US are creating half-human, half-animal embryos to help save lives, particularly people with a wide range of ailments. The embryos create better animal models to study the occurrence of human diseases and its progression

A handful of scientists around the United States are trying to do something that some people find disturbing: make embryos that are part human, part animal. The researchers hope these embryos, known as chimeras, could eventually help save the lives of people with a wide range of diseases. One way would be to use chimera embryos to create better animal models to study how human diseases happen and how they progress. Perhaps the boldest hope is to create farm animals that have human organs that could be transplanted into terminally ill patients. But some scientists and bioethicists worry the creation...

 Share  Tweet   Print New York State lawmakers have combined two previous assisted suicide bills into the Medical Aid in Dying Act, and proponents boast that there are a number of safeguards. But a pro-life leader in the state is warning of the safeguards that are not in the bill. “There is no requirement for counseling for possible clinical depression causing impaired judgment. Most people considering suicide are depressed — it is a cry for help,” said Kathleen M. Gallagher, director of pro-life activities for the New York State Catholic Conference. “There is no requirement for family...