It’s that time of year again: time to review the top bioethics stories of 2013. As I sorted through the candidates, I was surprised by how many significant developments there were last year. So many, in fact, that it will take two episodes to review them. They divide rather conveniently into two groups: public policy developments, and technological developments. This week, I’m going to highlight the top six stories in public policy, which includes legislation, litigation, and government regulation.
#1. Early in the year, the criminal trial of Kermit Gosnell exposed the barbaric practice of late-term abortion. Dr. Gosnell did illegal late-term abortions and even snipped the spinal cords of some newborns who survived. Gosnell was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder, along with the involuntary manslaughter of a patient who died from a sedative, and 211 counts of violating the mandatory waiting period. Gosnell’s women’s health clinic was anything but healthy for women.[1]
#2. Physician-assisted suicide spread from Oregon and Washington to the East Coast. In May, Vermont legislators legalized physician-assisted suicide, and Governor Shumlin signed the bill.[2]
#3. The FDA got involved in two bioethical issues. It is considering whether to approve the creation of three-parent, “hybrid” embryos. This procedure—inserting a healthy nucleus from one mother into the healthy enucleated egg of a donor to be fertilized with a third person’s sperm—has already been approved in Britain. The 3-parent embryo avoids passing along mitochondrial disease.[3]
#4. The FDA also stepped in to regulate do-it-yourself DNA test kits sold by 23andMe. It ordered the company to stop selling its $99 test kits, because the company had not provided necessary research studies to the FDA, and the FDA had not approved its marketing materials.[4]
#5. Even if you missed all the other stories, surely you are aware of the HHS mandate requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives. The mandate has generated more lawsuits than any other similar issue in history—91 cases and over 300 plaintiffs. All the plaintiffs object to the inclusion of emergency contraceptives like ella, which can have an abortifacient effect. And many object to the provision of artificial birth control. Two of the cases are on their way to the Supreme Court, so this will be a top bioethics story for 2014 as well.[5]
#6. Finally, to end with good news from last year: in June, the US Supreme Court ruled that human DNA cannot be patented. The cases involved patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The Court said that because these genes occur in nature, they are not patentable (though it did leave the door open for patenting a synthetic gene made in the lab).[6]
While public policy may seem dull or remote, it is vitally connected with bioethics, whether it’s creating human life in the lab, ending it through chemical and surgical abortion or assisted suicide, analyzing human DNA, or claiming ownership of human genes. Although we deal with bioethical issues everyday, 2013 shaped up to be a significant year.
[1] John Hurdle and Trip Gabriel, “Philadelphia Abortion Doctor Guilty of Murder in Late-Term Procedures,” New York Times, May 13, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/kermit-gosnell-abortion-doctor-found-guilty-of-murder.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
[2] “Vermont Governor Signs Assisted Suicide Bill,”CBS News, May 20, 2013. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/vermont-governor-signs-assisted-suicide-bill/.
[3] Jef Akst, “FDA Considers Three-Parent IVF,” The Scientist, October 17, 2013. http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37914/title/FDA-Considers-Three-Parent-IVF/.
[4] Scott Hensley, “FDA Tells 23andMe To Stop Selling Popular Genetic Test,” NPR, November 25, 2013. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/25/247198237/fda-tells-23andme-to-stop-selling-popular-genetic-test.
[5] For a current listing of cases and rulings, see “HHS Mandate Information Central, The Becket Fund. http://www.becketfund.org/hhsinformationcentral/.
[6] Adam Liptak, “Justices, 9-0, Bar Patenting Human Genes,” New York Times, June 13, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/us/supreme-court-rules-human-genes-may-not-be-patented.html.