By the time Camilla Black Grondahl became pregnant with her second child in 2010, she had already watched two older sisters bury sons who were born with a congenital affliction that gave them the appearance of “little old men.” Various health problems made their survival impossible... [More]

The Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) welcomes the abandonment of a US patent application that uses genetic samples from Solomon Islanders, in a case that raises major ethical questions.   According to the USPTO’s Patent Application Information Retrieval system, U... [More]

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is considering today whether to take up an examination now of ethical issues surrounding neuro-imaging and genetic testing. If it decides to do so, Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, had some adv... [More]

'Business as usual' wins out over precaution in proposals for policing synthetic organisms WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today released its recommendations on the oversight of synthetic biology, provoking strong criticism from public intere... [More]

On its face, it seemed reasonable enough: a bone marrow registry sending recruiters to malls, ballparks and other busy sites to enlist potential donors. But the recruiters were actually flirtatious models in heels, short skirts and lab coats, law enforcement officials say, asking passers-by ... [More]

The president’s bioethics commission says there is no need to temporarily halt research or to impose new regulations on the controversial new field known as synthetic biology. In a report being issued Thursday, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues says that at... [More]

Senator Charles Grassley (R–IA) is asking more questions about ethics policies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In one of his last actions as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley is concerned about intramural researchers at the National Cancer Institute (N... [More]

Last month, Steven Teutsch, chief science officer of the Los Angeles County Health Department, received word that the US Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (SACGHS), the expert panel he chairs that advises the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) o... [More]

When a B.C. couple discovered that the fetus their surrogate  mother was carrying was likely to be born with Down syndrome, they  wanted an abortion. The surrogate, however, was determined to take  the pregnancy to term, sparking a disagreement that has raised  thorny ques... [More]

The astounding revelation that U.S. medical researchers intentionally gave Guatemalans gonorrhea and syphilis more than 60 years ago is so horrifying that we want to believe that what happened then could never happen today. We want to believe that doctors are treating the poor, ... [More]