by Lawrence Hurley, Reuters, June 25, 2015
Roberts was joined by fellow conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy and the court's four liberal members in a ruling that may ensure Obamacare becomes a lasting element of the nation's social programs. The ruling means the current system will remain in place, with subsidies available nationwide. If the challengers had won, at least 6.4 million people in at least 34 states would have lost subsidies worth an average of $272 per month. (http://tinyurl.com/oamllrc)
Two court cases this past summer upheld the regulations laid out in the Affordable Care Act. A Supreme Court case ruled in favor of keeping nationwide tax subsidies. Additionally, lower courts did not rule in favor of The Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns, who objected to the opt-out provision for contraception coverage which provides such coverage to women who want contraception even if the religious organization they work for has opted-out of such coverage.
by Robert F. Service, Science, June 25, 2015
The last piece of the poppy puzzle is now in hand: Plant geneticists have isolated the gene in the plant that carries out the last unknown step in converting glucose and other simple compounds into codeine, morphine, and a wide variety of other medicines. The discovery sets the stage for splicing the full suite of genes needed to produce these drugs into yeast, which could then produce safer and cheaper versions. (http://tinyurl.com/q6aoyjj)
In a breakthrough in synthetic biology research, scientists are now able to reproduce all of the steps that the poppy plant takes to make morphine. Earlier this year researchers published the steps to make the first half of the morphine synthetic pathway in yeast, and another research group had already reported the second half of the pathway. This article reports the final step linking the two pathways. The hope is to tailor opioid drug dosages as well as possibly make opioid pain killers that are less addictive. However, there is also concern that some people may try to make their own home-brewed versions of synthetic morphine.
by Justin Huggler, The Telegraph, June 19, 2015
Doctors in the Netherlands have called for terminally ill young children to be given the right to die. The Netherlands is one of few countries in the world where euthanasia is permitted for terminally ill patients. But the Dutch Paediatric Association said that existing laws do not go far enough and called for an age limit to be scrapped. (http://tinyurl.com/pmh6ted)
by Eilish O’Gara, Newsweek, June 29, 2015
Doctors in Belgium are granting a 24-year-old woman who is suffering from depression but is otherwise healthy the right to die as she qualifies for euthanasia under the Belgian law, even though she does not have a terminal or life-threatening illness. (http://tinyurl.com/nuw5veq)
In countries where physician-assisted suicide is legal, the law continues to expand who qualifies for euthanasia. In Belgium, a young woman who did not have a terminal condition was allowed to undergo physician-assisted suicide because she was suffering from depression. In the Netherlands, children over twelve years old can ask to die, but some doctors believe this age is arbitrary, calling for a removal of the age restriction. A poignant article in The New Yorker by Rachel Aviv (http://tinyurl.com/ngxws4n), published in June, suggested that there are larger cultural issues in countries like Belgium that spur the increase in those wishing to die to relieve their psychological distress.
by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2015
Stalled by the deep personal beliefs of many lawmakers, a proposal that would allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients in California was sidelined Tuesday. The measure passed the state Senate last month. But on Tuesday, the authors concluded that it did not have enough support to pass the Assembly Health Committee and withdrew it from a scheduled hearing. (http:// tinyurl.com/nq9c5j3)
In July, the California Aid-in-Dying bill died in committee. However, in September this bill was back on the floor for vote. The bill subsequently passed the California legislature and was signed by Governor Jerry Brown. Right-to-die legislation has been picking up steam across the United States in recent months, including a bill that is being debated in New York.
by Mike Orcutt, MIT Technology Review, July 16, 2015
By turning stem cells taken from autistic patients into tiny “organoids” that closely resemble the brains of human embryos, researchers have gleaned potentially valuable insights into what may go wrong during brain development in people with autism. (http://tinyurl.com/pdkj758)
by Cassandra Willyard, Nature, July 29, 2015
In 2008, researchers in Japan reported that they had prompted embryonic stem cells from mice and humans to form layered balls reminiscent of a cerebral cortex. Since then, efforts to grow stem cells into rudimentary organs have taken off. (http://tinyurl. com/ns4c3vs)
by Michelle Starr, CNET, August 19, 2015
The brain was created from adult human skin cells, and grew to about the development of the brain of a five-month-old foetus, containing around 99 percent of the genes present in the foetal brain. This will allow the testing of experimental drugs, unlike tests that are performed on rat or mouse brains. (http://tinyurl.com/oevuhxt)
Organoids, tissues grown in the lab that mimic the structure and function of organs, are an area of research that has garnered much interest and controversy. These organoids have been used to test drugs, such as using liver organoids to test drug uptake, or model diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Originally, many of the organoids were made from embryonic stem cells, but recent studies show that some of these organoids, include those made of neural cells, can be made from induced pluripotent stem cells.
by Ewen Callaway, Nature, July 31, 2015
An experimental Ebola vaccine seems to confer total protection against infection in patients at high risk of contracting the virus, according to preliminary results of a trial in Guinea that were announced today and published in The Lancet. They are the first evidence of any kind that a vaccine protects humans from Ebola infection. (http://tinyurl.com/nujjm6a)
Over 11,300 people have died and over 28,000 have been infected by Ebola since the onset of the outbreak early in 2014. Researchers have been scrambling to find a cure or vaccine. This past July, researchers from Canada found that a vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, seems to be effective in preventing Ebola infection. Because the study involved a small number of participants, further research is needed to confirm if it is truly 100% effective and for how long, but preliminary results showed none of the subjects in one ring of the study (meaning all of the close contacts of an individual who have contracted the disease) contracted Ebola.
by Sarah Kliff, Vox, August 4, 2015
Five sting videos from an anti-abortion group, released throughout July, show Planned Parenthood executives and other workers discussing how the organization provides fetal organs and tissues to researchers. The videos led to a new, Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood—a Senate vote to defund Planned Parenthood, which ultimately failed on Monday. The videos also open a debate that split bioethicists decades ago: Is it ethical to use the remains of aborted fetuses for medical research? (http:// tinyurl.com/q3l99q3)
As of this writing, there have been ten videos released, five this past summer, by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Representatives from the CMP posed as buyers interested in fetal tissue from abortions and covertly recorded conversations in which Planned Parenthood and StemExpress appear to have admitted that Planned Parenthood is selling fetal tissue, changing their abortion procedures to keep certain body parts intact, conducting late-term abortions, and conducting the procedure in unsanitary conditions. Thus far, several congressional hearings are underway and the House has passed a bill to stop federal funding for Planned Parenthood for a year.
by Martin Patience, BBC, August 11, 2015
China suffers from a huge organ shortage. For years it harvested the organs of executed prisoners to help meet demand. Following international condemnation, Beijing says it ended the practice at the start of this year—although officials admit it will be tough to ensure compliance. Now the government says it will only rely on public donations. (http://tinyurl. com/pys5f7o)
The Epoch Times has been reporting on the use of Chinese prisoners of conscience as sources of organs along with those from executed prisoners for several years. Additionally, other reports have surfaced that there is a large black market industry in China for organs. And, in August, a Canadian documentary called Human Harvest: China’s Organ Trafficking was released, exposing China’s history of illegal organ trafficking. China has a large organ shortage, due in part to the belief that the body must be buried intact. China agreed to stop procuring organs from prisoners at the beginning of the year, but rights groups believe this practice continues and are calling on the UN to intervene (http://tinyurl.com/orlvjla).
Heather Zeiger, "Top Bioethics News Stories (Fall 2015)," Dignitas 22, no. 3 (2015): 14–15, www.cbhd.org/dignitas-articles/top-bioethics-news-stories-fall-2015.
