[Reported by: JoongAng Daily] Korea’s bioethics authority yesterday conditionally lifted a three-year ban on research using cloned human stem cells. The decision will allow scientists to resume studies that could lead to new ways of treating a variety of physical disabilities and diseases.
The lifting comes three years after the Health Ministry banned this kind of [...]

[AP] MEXICO CITY – Global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico. New cases and deaths finally seemed to be [...]

 [AP] BERLIN – The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the swine flu outbreak is moving closer to becoming a pandemic, as the United States reported the first swine flu death outside of Mexico, and Germany and Austria became latest European nations hit by the disease.
In Geneva, WHO flu chief Dr. Keiji Fukuda told reporters [...]

[AP] WASHINGTON – Two million dead. Hospitals overwhelmed. Schools closed. Swaths of empty seats at baseball stadiums and houses of worship. An economic recovery snuffed out. We’re nowhere close to what government planners say would be a worst-case scenario: a global flu pandemic. But government leaders at all levels, and major employers, have spent nearly [...]

[WashingtonPost]  Somewhat overshadowed by the swine flu crisis today was President Obama’s call for dramatically increasing the amount spent on basic science research. The president said in a speech to the National Academy of Sciences that the United States should increase the amount of government and private money spent on scientific research to three percent [...]

Given the current swine flu scare both domestically in New York City and globally, I am reposting my below article written about a year ago.  —
The necessity of bioethics training for hospital emergency preparedness, particularly triage and resource allocation ethics, was recently emphasized by the NY Times.  Bioethics International has been working with hospitals, the AMA and [...]

[AP] MEXICO CITY – A unique strain of swine flu is the suspected killer of dozens of people in Mexico, where authorities closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in the capital on Friday to try to contain an outbreak that has spurred concerns of a global flu epidemic.
The worrisome new virus — which combines genetic [...]

[Rue 89] Although it has been incubating for a long time, the debate on the legalisation of gestational surrogacy has never been so topical : with the 2004 law on bioethics to be revised this year, supporters and detractors of surrogate mothers have been making their voices heard for the last month.
Carrying someone else’s baby is [...]

Jennifer Miller, Executive Director of Bioethics International, discusses the ethics of human cloning on W CBS News. Click here to watch the news video.
NEW YORK (CBS) ―One maverick fertility expert claims to have implanted human clones in women. The sensational claim raises countless ethical and legal issues, and moreover the doctor offers little if any scientific proof of his [...]

[WSJ Health Blog] Can a sperm bank be sued for selling sperm that causes a child to be born with a genetic disease? Yes, a federal judge has ruled. Here’s the opinion.
The case was brought on behalf of a 13-year-old girl with fragile X syndrome, a common inherited form of mental retardation.
While the judge dismissed [...]