Monday, July 31, 2006
UK to Allow Women to Sell Eggs
From LifeNews:
British groups are upset at a decision by a governmental agency that is supposed to be a stem cell research watchdog. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has ruled that a British stem cell research institute can pay women for their eggs for stem cell studies.
The decision prompts concerns for bioethicists who say that paying women for eggs for research opens up a list of problems including coercion and taking advantage of poor women.
HFEA ruled that the North East England Stem Cell Institute can ask women undergoing infertility treatments if they would like to be paid for any extra eggs produced in the process.
But Josephine Quintavalle, of the British Comment on Reproductive Ethics, called the decision "lunacy."
"Vulnerable women will be put under pressure. They are extremely susceptible to coercion," she explained.
Dr. David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, also opposed the HFEA decision saying it "shows its contempt for public opinion and its general bias in favor of anything the IVF industry asks for."
British groups are upset at a decision by a governmental agency that is supposed to be a stem cell research watchdog. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has ruled that a British stem cell research institute can pay women for their eggs for stem cell studies.
The decision prompts concerns for bioethicists who say that paying women for eggs for research opens up a list of problems including coercion and taking advantage of poor women.
HFEA ruled that the North East England Stem Cell Institute can ask women undergoing infertility treatments if they would like to be paid for any extra eggs produced in the process.
But Josephine Quintavalle, of the British Comment on Reproductive Ethics, called the decision "lunacy."
"Vulnerable women will be put under pressure. They are extremely susceptible to coercion," she explained.
Dr. David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, also opposed the HFEA decision saying it "shows its contempt for public opinion and its general bias in favor of anything the IVF industry asks for."
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Arrests Made in Katrina Patient Deaths
From UPI via Political Gateway
NEW ORLEANS, July 18 (UPI) -- New Orleans authorities have arrested a doctor and two nurses allegedly involved in some of the 45 deaths of hospital patients in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Sources told WWL-TV, New Orleans, the three staff members were booked at the Orleans Parish Prison Monday night and released by a judge on their own recognizance.
They were charged with being principal to second-degree murder, the report said.
In the days after the Aug. 29 storm battered and then flooded the city, rumors emerged that staff at the Memorial Medical Center had used drug overdoses to euthanize the weakest of the stranded patients who would suffer in the blacked-out stifling hospital.
I'll update as more detail come in.
NEW ORLEANS, July 18 (UPI) -- New Orleans authorities have arrested a doctor and two nurses allegedly involved in some of the 45 deaths of hospital patients in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Sources told WWL-TV, New Orleans, the three staff members were booked at the Orleans Parish Prison Monday night and released by a judge on their own recognizance.
They were charged with being principal to second-degree murder, the report said.
In the days after the Aug. 29 storm battered and then flooded the city, rumors emerged that staff at the Memorial Medical Center had used drug overdoses to euthanize the weakest of the stranded patients who would suffer in the blacked-out stifling hospital.
I'll update as more detail come in.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Canadian Report Claims China Harvesting Organs from Falun Gong Members
Wesley Smith made a brief reference to this report on his Albany Bioethics Conference post. I googled and found a link to the report from Die Welt
Since it is a PDF I'll summarize rather than post. An independent study by a human rights lawyer and former prosecuter have turned up some serious indictors that China is harvesting organs from the incarcerated adherents of the Falun Gong cult. The number, availability, and short wait period for "donated" organs at Chinese hospitals are all consistent with this kind of program. Also in a "sting" operation, callers posing as middlemen have recorded calls with employees of Chinese hospitals who admit they are supplying or did supply the organs. Here is an eerie example of the kind of conversation that was captured:
"Do you have Falun Gong [organ] suppliers? ..."
"We used to have, yes."
"... what about now?"
"... Yes."
"Can we come to select, or you provide directly to us?"
"We provide them to you."
"What about the price?"
"We discuss after you come."
"... How many [Falun Gong suppliers] under age 40 do you have?"
"Quite a few."
"Are they male or female?"
"Male"
"Now, for ... the male Falun Gong [prisoners], How many of them do you have?"
"Seven, eight, we have [at least] five, six now."
"Are they from countryside or from the city?"
"countryside."
The entire report is worth your time reading and you will no doubt find it extremely unsettling.
Since it is a PDF I'll summarize rather than post. An independent study by a human rights lawyer and former prosecuter have turned up some serious indictors that China is harvesting organs from the incarcerated adherents of the Falun Gong cult. The number, availability, and short wait period for "donated" organs at Chinese hospitals are all consistent with this kind of program. Also in a "sting" operation, callers posing as middlemen have recorded calls with employees of Chinese hospitals who admit they are supplying or did supply the organs. Here is an eerie example of the kind of conversation that was captured:
"Do you have Falun Gong [organ] suppliers? ..."
"We used to have, yes."
"... what about now?"
"... Yes."
"Can we come to select, or you provide directly to us?"
"We provide them to you."
"What about the price?"
"We discuss after you come."
"... How many [Falun Gong suppliers] under age 40 do you have?"
"Quite a few."
"Are they male or female?"
"Male"
"Now, for ... the male Falun Gong [prisoners], How many of them do you have?"
"Seven, eight, we have [at least] five, six now."
"Are they from countryside or from the city?"
"countryside."
The entire report is worth your time reading and you will no doubt find it extremely unsettling.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Michael Reagan Nails It on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Michael Reagan does a great guest post in LifeNews. Here he sums it up better than I've seen anywhere:
It needs to be said right up front: at this time those promised ESCR miracles are merely the products of the proponents’ hopes and dreams, and mostly based on the now admittedly falsified claims of a South Korean scientist -- not of the current reality, which is grim. Far from curing everything from Alzheimer’s Disease to spinal cord injuries, and a whole host of other medical problems as proponents promise, all ESCR has produced thus far is cancerous tumors in lab animals. And even top ESCR scientists now admit that any progress in the field is 25 years away, after they stop killing lab animals, that is.
Yet you hear proponents say that cures for Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injuries are right around the corner and if only science had been allowed to go ahead with ESCR a long time ago my dad could have been cured of Alzheimer’s and Christopher Reeve would have lived to walk again.
The fact that Bill Frist is supporting the latest push for ESCR funds is yet another reason why fundraisers who call me from the Republican Party get nothing but an earful lately. Fortunately Bush plans to veto the bill.
It needs to be said right up front: at this time those promised ESCR miracles are merely the products of the proponents’ hopes and dreams, and mostly based on the now admittedly falsified claims of a South Korean scientist -- not of the current reality, which is grim. Far from curing everything from Alzheimer’s Disease to spinal cord injuries, and a whole host of other medical problems as proponents promise, all ESCR has produced thus far is cancerous tumors in lab animals. And even top ESCR scientists now admit that any progress in the field is 25 years away, after they stop killing lab animals, that is.
Yet you hear proponents say that cures for Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injuries are right around the corner and if only science had been allowed to go ahead with ESCR a long time ago my dad could have been cured of Alzheimer’s and Christopher Reeve would have lived to walk again.
The fact that Bill Frist is supporting the latest push for ESCR funds is yet another reason why fundraisers who call me from the Republican Party get nothing but an earful lately. Fortunately Bush plans to veto the bill.