bioethics

June 11, 2019

Are children their parents’ property?

John Stossel says, “Yes,” at least according to a recent video at Reason. In the video, “Don’t Be Scared of Designer Babies,” Stossel interviews Georgetown University Professor Jason Brennan, who offers the following unhelpful and patronizing strawman of anyone who objects to the idea of using gene-editing technology to engineer one’s offspring however one wants: When you have any kind of intervention into the body that’s new, people think it’s icky. Continue Reading...

November 10, 2014

Buying Babies And The Industrialization Of Parenthood

“How am I supposed to get a baby?” There are many people who cannot get pregnant and have a child. Some are infertile. Some are single and have no one that wishes to parent with them. Continue Reading...

June 06, 2011

Rev. Sirico: Kevorkian’s ‘Terminal TV’

Writing in the Detroit Free Press, reporters Joe Swickard and Pat Anstett describe the life and June 3 passing of Jack Kevorkian. Long before he made a name for himself as a “assisted suicide advocate,” Kevorkian was known to the nurses at Pontiac General Hospital in Michigan as “Dr. Continue Reading...

May 15, 2009

Interview: Adriana Gini, neuroradiologist and bioethicist

Is moral enhancement of the entrepreneur possible? That’s the question Michael Severance, operations manager for Istituto Acton (the Acton Institute’s Rome office) recently posed to Dr. Adriana Gini, a neuroradiologist at San Camillo-Forlanini Medical Centre in Rome and an expert bioethicist at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. Continue Reading...

June 20, 2008

Science or religion? A false choice

On Tuesday the 17th Mons. Rino Fisichella was called by Pope Benedict XVI to succeed Mons. Elio Sgreccia as the head of the Pontifical Academy of Science, Social Sciences, Life. His Excellency was also raised to the title of archbishop while maintaining his role as Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome. Continue Reading...

December 03, 2007

More than Just a Debate about Cells

Recently the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, one of the many Catholic universities in Rome, drew together church leaders and scientists from around the globe to discuss the nitty-gritty of embryology in a three day conference on bioethics, “Ontogeny and Human Life.” Continue Reading...

November 03, 2006

Timeline Toward The Brave New World

Following the recent Medico-Legal Society of Ireland’s Golden Jubilee Conference in Dublin, the Irish Medical Times provides a timeline of the history of genetics, beginning in 1859 with the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species. Continue Reading...

September 06, 2006

From the ‘Well, Duh!’ Department

“A human brain trapped inside a mouse’s body — not a good idea,” says Anjana Ahuja in the UK Times. Not convinced? Check out this piece of mine over at BreakPoint, “A Monster Created in Man’s Image.” Continue Reading...