The Bioethics Weekly

This Week — We offer a piece from former CBHD Director, C. Ben Mitchell’s last Director’s Desk entry entitled “Healthcare and the Common Good.”

Podcast

Quote of the Week —

"The nature of biomedical research means it is constantly challenging our ideas about the world, ourselves and our health. Research into ethical issues surrounding medical science and healthcare is essential if our society is going to be able to make informed decisions about research and medicine."

—Clare Matterson, the Wellcome Trust’s Director of Medicine, Society and History, in "Oxford University to launch UK’s first neuroethics centre," Oxford University, June 24, 2008.

Center Conferencing

Healthcare & the Common Good
July 17-19, 2008
This conference will identify the pressure points in the current domestic healthcare system, examining the economic, educational and care issues surrounding this complex topic. Beyond merely identifying problem areas, the conference also will provide a programmatic vision of the common good as well as a symposium of constructive proposals for re-envisioning policy, health and care all of which emerge from this framework of the common good. Academic Credit is available for conference, institutes and seminars.

For information or to register contact CBHD at 847.317.8180 or visit: www.cbhd.org/conferences/

Download Media Kit

Symposium of Solutions Special Offer

Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, MD, Chair of The President's Council on Bioethics, will join Dean Clancy, MS, Kinetic Concepts, Inc., and Peter Lawler, PhD, Berry College, in the final Symposium of Solutions as part of the Healthcare and the Common Good conference on Saturday, July 19, 2008.

Commencing at 1:15 p.m. in the Chapel on the campus of Trinity International University, each speaker will give a plenary presentation outlining a solution to the current domestic crisis in healthcare, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Robert Scheidt, MD, Christian Medical and Dental Associations.

Advance registration for this afternoon event only is $100 and $125 at the door. Please plan to arrive by 1:00 PM to check-in. A student rate is available upon request. For more information or to register for this special event, please call 1-888-246-3844 or email dmorrow@cbhd.org.

Happenings

Stem Cells Europe
September 1-3, 2008
Amsterdam

UNESCO Ethics Teacher Training Course
November 17-21, 2008
Minsk, Belarus

Stem Cells World Congress
January 20-22, 2009
Palm Springs, USA

Drug Discovery Latin America
February 26-27, 2009
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

News Highlights

Improved Technique Makes it Easier to Form Powerful Stem Cells
A new method may allow scientists to reduce the risk of cancer as they turn adult stem cells to a more powerful, embryonic-like state, according to a study in mice. (Bloomberg)

The Ethics of Testing Embryos for Disease
A London doctor used genetic screening to help a woman conceive Britain’s first baby guaranteed to be free of hereditary breast cancer. (ABC News)

Monday, June 30, 2008

Human-pig hybrid embryos given go ahead
This marks the third animal-human hybrid embryo licence to be issued by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the first since the Commons voted in favour of this controversial research last month. (Telegraph)

Where you live affects your health care
“We’ve found that geography is often destiny,” says James N. Weinstein, D.O., director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, where this field of study was pioneered. “It’s not that the rates of disease are different, it’s the way they’re treated that’s different — from prevention to diagnosis to long-term care.” (MSNBC)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Times acquires tape excerpts showing King-Harbor staff ignoring dying patient
Edith Isabel Rodriguez writhed for 45 minutes on the floor of the emergency room lobby at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital as staffers walked past and a janitor mopped around her. Her boyfriend called 911 from a pay phone outside the hospital, pleading futilely for help. (Los Angeles Times)

New Technique Produces Genetically Identical Stem Cells
Adult cells of mice created from genetically reprogrammed cells–so-called induced pluripotent stem (IPS) stem cells–can be triggered via drug to enter an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the need for further genetic alteration. (ScienceDaily)

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Assisted Suicide of Healthy 79-Year-Old Renews German Debate on Right to Die
When Roger Kusch helped Bettina Schardt kill herself at home on Saturday, the grim, carefully choreographed ritual was like that in many cases of assisted suicide, with one exception. (New York Times)

Do the French do it better?
But why do people in the French health care system get more? The answer is they spend more. (BBC)

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Each week the top news stories, as determined by the staff at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity are sent out via email.

[Note: News stories, Quote of the Week, and events do not represent the Center's views. For additional commentary on many of the issues they raise, please see the CBHD web site at www.cbhd.org.]

Please visit http://www.bioethics.com for daily posts on bioethics news and issues.