Matching genes for criminal injustice
Next week, the Nuffield council on Bioethics is set to publish its thoughts on the ethics of using biometrics as forensic tools. In the lead up to the publication of the report, to be entitled The Forensic Use of Bioinformation: Ethical Issues, the debate about the use of DNA, particularly, has [...]

Ethics behind artificial birth still murky
Assisted reproductive technology, in all its forms, raises ethical and moral questions. Issues such as how to handle stored embryos that aren’t used, whether to remove embryos when more than one develops, sorting out surrogacy legalities and figuring out who’s in charge of keeping clinics in line.
Little regulation exists in [...]

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to increase the number of organ donors in Wales have called on the Chief Medical Officer to break his silence on presumed consent. And the Kidney Wales Foundation has appealed for new Wales-only laws to change the current organ donor system from an opt-in one to an opt-out system.
Neither Chief Medical Officer Dr [...]

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients’ medical records almost instantly. The FDA found “reasonable assurance” the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005’s top “innovative technologies.”
But neither the [...]

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has come a long way since the early 1980s when a few Australian Universities and hospitals started their journey with IVF and associated technologies. Many couples went through numerous cycles of IVF without success while the clinical and scientific techniques were developed.
The first pregnancy was in the early days of 1980 [...]

Zero-interest financing, a familiar sales incentive at car dealerships and furniture stores, has found its way to another big-ticket consumer market: doctors’ and dentists’ offices.
For $3,500 laser eye surgery, $6,000 ceramic tooth implants or other procedures not typically covered by insurance, millions of consumers have arranged financing through more than 100,000 doctors and dentists that [...]

Linda Fox of Brooklyn donated a lobe of her liver to save her husband, whose own liver had failed. The transplant took, and Ms. Fox said although recovery from the surgery was no picnic, she would willingly do it again.
Will Maloney, also of Brooklyn, donated a kidney to his brother, who was struggling to survive [...]

It is one of New York’s fastest growing industries, driven by government policy and nourished by tax dollars. But as the home health care industry has expanded, the state appears to have been a step behind, with a confusing hodgepodge of regulations and agencies to police it, experts and state officials say.
There are uneven levels [...]