University Faculty for LifeThe U.S. Jérôme Lejeune Foundation has recently released for download an English version of a revised edition of their Student’s Guide to Bioethics (Manuel Bioéthique des Jeunes, 2006). The guide “puts critical questions facing our society and culture on an objectively scientific basis. It encourages readers to make well-informed judgments based upon scientific fact and […]
Frank Beckwith summarizes some of the points he made in his talk at the Evangelium Vitae conference in Rome (June 15-16) in this The Catholic Thing essay, “Positivist Mentality and the Gospel of Life.” In it he looks at Pope John Paul II’s diagnosis of the intellectual conditions that lead to a Culture of Death in […]
Shirley Darby Howell, Professor of Law at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama, wrote “The Frozen Embryo: Scholarly Theories, Case Law, and Proposed State Regulation” for the Human Life Review (Spring 2013) and DePaul Journal of Health Care Law (Vol. 14.3:407). She looks at possible state laws that would resolve disputes about […]
Dr. Edmund Pellegrino died yesterday at 92. Dr. Pellegrino was the recipient of University Faculty for Life’s Smith Award for distinguished contributions to pro-life scholarship. Here is a link to a brief comment that I posted on the Mirror of Justice blog. http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/06/dr-edmund-pellegrino-rip.html Dr. Pellegrino was a giant in the field of bioethics and he influenced many with his voluminous writings […]
For updates about the relationship between governmental policy and bioethics (with a Catholic focus), the National Catholic Bioethics Center published the Washington Insider. It is produced quarterly by Richard Doerflinger, Associate Director of the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities, and William Saunders, Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel of Americans United for Life. Much of the […]
That’s the title of a recent blog post by Wesley Smith. http://www.nationalreview.com/human-exceptionalism/347188/bioethics-hates-light Smith’s post is a comment on the continuing controversy about the infamous article (by Guibilini and Minerva) in the Journal of Medical Ethics defending after-birth abortion–or infanticide. The article caused a firestorm, and is now the subject of a special issue of the Journal of Medical […]
Top researcher: iPS cells ‘probably’ already embryos, have already made cloned animals An iPS cell is an induced pluripotent stem cell. They had been thought by many to be ethically safe to destroy during research and therapy. New research is calling that into question. (Via LifeSiteNews.com.)
The Spring 2012 NCBQ arrived in yesterday’s mail (many academic journals tend to run a few months behind), and I’d like to make brief mention of several things from the previous issue (Winter 2011) and the new one. In the Winter 2011 issue there is a review, by Germain Kopaczynski, OFM, of Joseph W. Dellapenna’s Dispelling the Myths […]
Here is a link to an article in the National Right to Life News on a recent study in the Lancet. The study indicates that patients who have been diagnosed in a persisent vegetative state may be consciously aware. Here is a conclusion from the study: “These findings confirm that a population of patients exists who […]
My post a few months back also mentioned a NCBQ piece on diagnosing death using neurological criteria. The Autumn issue includes a review of what sounds like an interesting and relevant book. Jason T. Eberl reviews Russell DiSilvestro’s Human Capacities and Moral Status (NCBQ 11 [2011]: 596-98). According to the review, DiSilvestro departs from the […]