I thought it would be interesting and fun to take the pulse of the readers of Secondhand Smoke. So, I devised a poll to see what y’all think about some of the most important and contentious bioethical issues of the day. In the Next Twenty Years, What is the Most Likely Scenario?Embryonic Stem . . . . Continue Reading »
I am completely cool with health care workers being warned to be on the lookout for suicide ideation among their cancer patients. When I was a hospice volunteer, I was trained similarly. I was told in no uncertain terms that if a patient threatened or even mentioned suicide, I was to tell the . . . . Continue Reading »
Stanford bioethicist, William Hurlbut, Princeton professor Robert P. George, and stem cell scientist Markus Grompe, have published a defense of ANT in the Hastings Center Report. (No link available.) It is a cogent essay, beyond my capacity to reproduce here. But it contains a splendid description . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael J. FoxMichael J. Fox doesn’t tell the truth about Senator Talent in this ad. Talent does not want to outlaw stem cell research. Rather, he does not support Missouri’s Amendment 2, which would create a constitutional right in Missouri to conduct human cloning—which . . . . Continue Reading »
The importance of accepting the intrinsic value of human life cuts across almost every major bioethical issue facing society today. In this San Francisco Chronicle column, I describe how our most vulnerable brothers and sisters—those diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative . . . . Continue Reading »
Let us pull back for a moment and ponder the embryonic stem cell debate. What has it been over as a matter of government regulation? Not whether it could be done legally. There are no federal efforts to outlaw ESCR. The debate isn’t even about whether the U.S. taxpayers should foot the bill . . . . Continue Reading »
NJ, the state that has a law permitting human cloned fetal farming to the very point of birth, look like it will devote hundreds of millions to stem cell research—not all embryonic. Given that California will be pouring in $3 billion into ESCR and human cloning research, other states are . . . . Continue Reading »
The hubris and arrogance of Missouri’s Amendment 2 crowd apparently knows no limits. Having poured around $20 million into their campaign to convince Missouri voters they are outlawing human cloning when they are actually trying to create a constitutional amendment to protect it, they have . . . . Continue Reading »
This story out of the UK speaks volumes about how devalued the lives of disabled people are becoming. Gillian March had progressive multiple sclerosis, a very difficult disease that not only leads to increased disability, but often depression. She decided she wanted to kill herself—so that her . . . . Continue Reading »
I bring this very hopeful story up, not so much because of its substance, although it is a very hopeful apparent breakthrough. Rather, I want to illustrate an important point: In all of the brouhaha over cloning and embryonic stem cell research, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that most . . . . Continue Reading »
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