Bioethics

Editors’ Note: The following is an update to an earlier post on this fetal rights case by bioethicist Ruth Macklin, Ph.D. Justice has prevailed in the case of Marlise Muñoz, the brain-dead, pregnant woman in a Texas hospital that was refusing to remove her from life support against her family’s wishes. The hospital had cited Read more

Numerous strategies by antiabortion groups to curb women’s constitutional right to abortion are frequently reported in the news, and come as no surprise. However, a recent development illustrates novel circumstances in which people are using legal maneuvers to conspire to restrict medical decisions by patients and their families even when the right to abortion is Read more

  Many people have heard of the company 23andMe; hundreds of thousands throughout the world have used the company’s Personal Genome Service (PGS), which provides a report that offers detailed information about an individual’s DNA. For $99, a consumer receives a test-tube kit from the company, fills the tube with saliva and sends it back Read more

The very idea of living individuals selling body parts prompts revulsion in some people, while others may ask whether the price is right. A recent nbcnews.com article reported on an organ-transplant study conducted by Canadian researchers. It began with this finding: “Paying living kidney donors $10,000 to give up their organs would save money over Read more

The use of gestational surrogates in India is a booming business, but is it ethical? This growing practice involves individuals and couples from countries in Western Europe, North America, Israel, Japan and elsewhere who work through brokers to have their genetically related offspring carried through pregnancy and birth by Indian women. An estimated $500 million Read more