Religion & Law

Stephen Pinker opines on conservative bioethics: "The Stupidity of Dignity."
In TNR:The sickness in theocon bioethics goes beyond imposing a Catholic agenda on a secular democracy and using "dignity" to condemn anything that gives someone the creeps. Ever since the cloning of Dolly the sheep a decade ago, the panic sown by conservative bioethicists, amplified by a sensationalist press, has turned the public discussion of bioethics into a miasma of scientific illiteracy...

Illegal Beings
One day human cloning may be possible, and once so, there will be no way of stopping this technology. People--infertile couples and others--will choose to use cloning even if it breaks the law...

Valuing Human Life, Revisited
There is an excellent article in the Jan. 2-28 issue of America. The title: Church Teaching and My Father's Choice. The author: John J. Hardt, who is an assistant professor of bioethics at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health...

Cloning Around In Japan
Nature reports that Japan may soon authorize experimental human embryonic cloning. This would overturn a 2001 Japanese ban on such research. Human cloning will have to adhere to "rigorous ethical regulations", and human reproductive cloning will still be banned...

Cloning is cheaper when you buy in bulk
Odd info nugget from an AP story about breeders of fighting bulls turning to cloning: cattle cloning at ViaGen in Austin gets cheaper the more clones you buy. It's $17,500 for the first calf, $15,000 for the second, $12,500 for...

The Bioethics of Food
Two recently published books discuss the bioethics of food. Eating with Conscience: The Bioethics of Food by Michael W. Fox. Fox discusses the inner workings of the national food industry, including the treatment of animals, the use of herbicides, the...

Baseball Players Named in Mitchell Report
Major League Baseball Players using Performance Enhancing Drugs

Civil / Human Rights
alleging violations of basic human and civil rights.

FDA
Life-Threatening Complications Associated with Recombinant Human Bone Graft Products

US Federal Government
allegedly violated the niversal Declaration of Human Rights by deporting undocumented parents of US born children.

Cipro
The FDA is seeking to add black box warnings of the risk of tendon rupture associated with Cipro and Levaquin. The ruptures can involve Achilles tendon, shoulder, hand, bicep or thumb tendons, and is especially increased in patients older than 60, or people who have received kidney, heart or lung transplants, as well as people on steroid therapy...