by Henrianne DE PONTBRIAND | 12 Jul, 2018 | Bioethics press synthesis | Abortion - Medical termination of Pregnancy(MTP)
As Belgium is considering fully legalising abortion, experts are being heard in parliament. Their input has raised questions: several of them are proud to perform illegal abortions, while others seem to know little about the conditions of legality. Belgian law...
by Henrianne DE PONTBRIAND | 12 Jul, 2018 | Bioethics press synthesis | End of life
In Hampshire, Dr Jane Baron took “the liberty of ‘routinely’ prescribing opiates (diamorphine, the technical term for heroin) beyond reason to patients who did not need them”. She did so with the complicity of the hospital’s specialists, who did not intervene. Nurses...
by Henrianne DE PONTBRIAND | 27 Jun, 2018 | Bioethics press synthesis | End of life
Doctors and bioethicists have published an analysis in the Journal of Palliative Care, outlining five main reasons for opposing euthanasia. Amongst them, Daniel Sulmasy[1], from Georgetown University, who served on the Presidential Commission for the Study of...
by Henrianne DE PONTBRIAND | 27 Jun, 2018 | Bioethics press synthesis | Prenatal diagnosis
Wales has become the first country in the UK to offer non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) on the NHS aimed at women at a higher risk of having a child with Down, Edwards or Patau’s syndrome. Although some women with Down syndrome children who were interviewed have no...
by Henrianne DE PONTBRIAND | 27 Jun, 2018 | Bioethics press synthesis | Abortion - Medical termination of Pregnancy(MTP)
Hormonal contraception, whether in the form of the pill or IUD, is not harmless for women aged 40 and over. Danish researchers followed up 1.8 million women aged 15 to 49 between 1995 and 2012. To avoid distorting the results of the study, the women selected had...
by Henrianne DE PONTBRIAND | 27 Jun, 2018 | Bioethics press synthesis | Genome
The FDA[1] has not approved a clinical trial request for CTX001, an experimental drug that uses CRISPR technology. This drug is ex-vivo[2] gene therapy which would be used as first-line treatment in the management of sickle cell anaemia[3]. It is being developed...