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CRISPR:“We can get used to everything, including the threat of transgression”
CRISPR or the “irrepressible temptation to reinvent the human genome”. Should we “prepare ourselves for the birth of a ‘CRISPRbaby’ in the future?” “How should we organise democratic dialogue on this kind of subject”? An international meeting was organised at...
United States: gathering momentum to protect the conscience of health professionals
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met with 25 other major religious pro-life and health care organisations on 19 April to ask the United States Chamber of Representatives to adopt the Conscience Protection Act (H.R. 4828). The signatories...
Against conscientious objection: “If the law changes, conscience must change”, suggest bioethicists in Canada
Whilst the Canadian Parliament is in the process of drafting a law authorising assisted suicide and euthanasia (see The Ottawa government starts the journey towards assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia), some doctors are voicing their concerns: will they be...
Thailand: a homosexual couple granted guardianship of Carmen born through surrogacy
On Tuesday, Gordon Lake and Manuel Valero, a Spanish-American homosexual couple were granted guardianship of Carmen, born fifteen months ago in Thailand through surrogacy. The biological mother contested the child leaving the country and refused to sign papers to...
Plants genetically modified with CRISPR, – are these GMOs?
Summoned for the first time to comment on a plant that had been genetically modified by CRISPR, the US Department of Agriculture deemed that its administration “did not have the power to regulate the cultivation of a Paris mushroom genetically modified using CRISPR”....
The Netherlands: almost 4% of deaths are due to euthanasia
The 2015 Annual Report drafted by the Regional Euthanasia Monitoring Committees in the Netherlands highlighted a 50% increase in the number of cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide since 2011. Out of the 147,010 deaths recorded in 2015, 5,516 involved euthanasia or...
In Poland, the government wishes to fund NaProTech rather than IVF
In December, the new Polish Government[1] decided to terminate State funding of the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) programme with effect from mid-2016 (cf. Poland: the government announces cessation of IVF reimbursement). The Health Minister, Konstanty Radziwill,...
The “CRISPR insanity”
“Genetic revolution”, “biotechnological tsunami”, “fantastic tool”: the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, the new genetic tool, brings both hope and concern, and, for over a year now, has given rise to much debate. At the beginning of it all, the publication of two...
Fish programmed to be “winners” or “losers”
Can the brain be programmed to “win” or “lose” a battle? This is precisely what neuroscientists at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, are attempting to prove. At any rate, the answer seems to be positive for the zebrafish whose distinct neuronal...
Indiana: pro-abortion supporters take a stand against new law
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Family Planning Association of Indiana and Kentucky legally attacked the State of Indiana on the recently approved abortion law (see Indiana is the second US state to ban abortion in relation to...
HIV stronger than CRISPR?
Scientists hope to use the CRISPR technique to prevent the HIV virus from entering patients’ immune cells or to inactivate the virus once it has infected the cell. However, a recent study on this subject published in the Nature journal has just qualified these...
A reduction in the number of abortions in Russia: ruse or reality?
On Wednesday, during a Governmental session focusing on Russia’s demographic situation, Russian Health Minister, Veronika Skvortsova, stated that the number of abortions ought to be reduced. According to her, this decrease of 8% in 2015 and 24.5% compared to...