Posts Tagged ‘Reproductive Technology’
Reporting on IVF Incidents
In the United Kingdom, patients pay for 60 percent of the 76,000 annual in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments rendered. Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the regulatory body overseeing both fertility treatment and embryo research, released in December its State of the Fertility Sector: 2016-17, a report detailing the health of the fertility sector in the UK.
Read MoreChristian Doctor’s Digest – August 2017
In the August 2017 issue of Christian Doctor’s Digest, we seek to equip our members to face the challenges in our world today. James Garlow shares from his book Well Versed: Biblical Answers to Today’s Tough Questions about how to handle some of the issues facing us that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Jeff Keenan, MD brings an update on the National Embryo Donation Center and the important live saving work being done there. Plus Casy Mattox helps us understand the facts about Academic Freedom and the battle for Right of Conscience protections.
Read MoreCrossing the Bright Red Line: Editing Human Beings
This blog originally appeared on the Tennessee Center for Bioethics and Culture blog. It is being republished with permission. For more information, visit www.tennesseecbc.org.
Read MoreLife—Artificial or Natural?
There continue to be reports of new attempts to create life, sometimes labeled “synthetic” or “artificial” because the entity is not created the old-fashioned way, i.e., by fertilization of an egg with a sperm. The most recent report involved combining two different types of stem cells to form an embryo-like structure that was labeled “artificial.”
Read MoreApplying Pressure to the 14-Day Rule
Conducting research on embryos beyond 14 days’ gestation is against the law in 12 countries, including the United Kingdom; the U.S. has only “guidelines” recommending the 14-day limit. Now researchers and others are pushing against that limit. They find it too confining. Where did this rule/guideline originate?
Read MoreApplying Pressure to the 14-Day Rule
Conducting research on embryos beyond 14 days’ gestation is against the law in 12 countries, including the United Kingdom; the U.S. has only “guidelines” recommending the 14-day limit. Now researchers and others are pushing against that limit. They find it too confining. Where did this rule/guideline originate?
Read MoreArtificial Wombs and Modern Incubators
Sometimes what seems like science fiction can actually be science fact, and sometimes new technologies can have the potential for both good and bad uses. So-called “dual-use technology” is most often thought of in connection with potential military as well as civilian use, e.g., weaponized forms of viruses or bacteria vs. using such altered pathogens for vaccine development.
Read MoreTechno-Babies: Some Assembly Required?
Science fiction is no longer fiction—the first three-parent baby was born a few months ago. Last month in The Point, Dr. Robert E. Cranston raised a series of important questions about the safety and ethics of the technique; now more information—and more questions—have arisen. As a reminder, the concept of creating a baby with three parents came as a proposal to “treat” individuals with mitochondrial genetic diseases, i.e., mutations in the mitochondrial DNA that lead to sometimes lethal physiological problems.
Read MoreIVF and Aging Parents
On April 19, 2016, Mohinder Singh Gill, age 79, and his wife Dajinder Kaur, 72, gave birth to their first child. Kaur, long past menopause, and Gill conceived their child with the help of Dr. Anurag Bishnoi’s IVF Clinic, reportedly employing their own egg and sperm.
Read MoreWhy Human Bioenhancement Technologies Are a Bad Idea
Human beings are almost obsessive innovators. Homo sapiens (knower) is by nature Homo faber (fabricator). Thank God He has made us so. Life without what Michael Novak has called “the fire of invention” would be nasty, bloody, and brutish. Medicine and biotechnology are two spheres where innovation is especially rewarded. So it is no surprise that we contemplate the possibility of human biological enhancements.
Read MoreThe Stem Cell Revolution
“Stem cells have the ability to differentiate into a variety of tissues. This means, through careful engineering, stem cells could be used to repair a damaged brain or heart, rebuild a knee, restore injured nervous system connections, treat diabetes and much more. That’s the potential power of stem cells, and the reason the University of Minnesota is investing greatly in its Stem Cell Institute – the first of its kind. The Institute today will change medicine as we know it tomorrow.”
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