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Euthanasia: the efficacy of Dutch legislation challenged
A study carried out by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggests that Dutch committees responsible for evaluating euthanasia cases (RTE) tend to focus essentially on complying with the procedure "without checking whether the patient is actually...
Belgium: Heading towards a national debate on euthanasia for psychiatric disorders?
Forty-two psychiatrists, psychologists and academics published an open letter last week, calling for a "national debate on euthanasia and mental disease" in Belgium. They state that "Euthanasia as a solution to pointless, intolerable psychological suffering poses a...
United States: Cellectis may resume its gene therapy trials
The FDA[1] has just lifted the suspension on clinical trials carried out by the French biotech company, Cellectis, two months after halting proceedings following the death of a patient (see Cellectis forced to suspend gene therapy trials). These...
Robotics: trivialised up-dates give cause for concern
At the end of October, a humanoid robot was given Saudi nationality (see Humanoid robot awarded Saudi nationality). This week, an android with the features of a small boy became an official resident of Tokyo. For Laetitia Pouliquen, founder of Woman...
Human organoids in rat brains: the return of the chimera debate
Several American laboratories have apparently inserted human brain organoids into the brains of rats and mice, connecting the two structures via blood vessels. Some of these organoids will develop and scientists believe that human brain tissue could actually work in...
Heading towards relaxation of genetic testing in the United States?
The FDA intends to relax legislation regarding genetic testing in the United States. This is a radical change of direction following the withdrawal of these tests from the market in 2013. Since then, the Agency validates each test annually. The new framework would...
Genetically modified skin cells to save a young boy
On Wednesday, a medical team announced that surgery performed on a seven year-old boy with a serious hereditary skin disease had been successful. Surgeons reconstituted “80% of his epidermis from genetically modified stem cells" in a world first[1]. Admitted to...
NIPS: a “reflex” procedure tested in the United Kingdom
Between April 2015 and August 2016, five UK maternity hospitals/clinics used Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening (NIPS) as part of a research project to test a "reflex” procedure. As a result, "almost 23,000 pregnancies were tested for Down syndrome, Patau syndrome...
UNO: Towards the end of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
While the members of the UNO Committee on Human Rights seek at interpreting the article 6 of the Covenant on Civil Rights relative to the right to life, Claire de La Hougue, Doctor in Law and Expert for Gènéthique denounces the incoherence of a dramatic position....
UN: the “right to life” on the hot seat
The UN Committee on Human Rights seeks to impose the legalisation of abortion and euthanasia to all countries. At the UN, the Committee on Human Rights is currently rethinking the definition given to the “right to life” in international law, mentioned in the...
20th anniversary of the Oviedo Convention: a text at least put into question
Late October, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics (DH-Bio) organised two days of conferences for the 20 years of the Oviedo Convention in Strasbourg. The Committee saw this as the opportunity to “question the relevance of the principles made sacred” via...
UNESCO’s Ethics Commission publishes a report on robotics
In September, UNESCO'S World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology, "COMEST"[1], completed a report on robotics, which has just been published. Its aim is to "propose an ethical framework" in this area and to "promote both public scrutiny and...