Legislators yesterday shelved a plan to increase individual control over online medical records.
The measure had backers from both sides of the aisle in the House, but hospitals and medical associations opposed it. Debate raised questions over the measure’s unintended consequences and uncertain costs.
The bill would have allowed people to restrict access to their own records [...]

MPs are planning a change in the law to allow babies to be conceived from artificial sperm, a move described by opponents as playing God with human DNA.
A furious debate is building over how far to leave the door open to its use in IVF treatment, ahead of a Commons vote due shortly on the [...]

Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that’s likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.The pilot project announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to [...]

For centuries, man has searched for miracle cures to end suffering caused by disease and injury. Many researchers believe nanotechnology applications in medicine may be mankind’s first ‘giant step’ toward this goal. According to Freitas nanomedicine is:

The comprehensive monitoring, control, construction, repair, defense, and improvement of all human biological systems, working from the molecular level, [...]

[Article excerpts] We sit on the cusp of a new world in which the ability to genetically engineer our children, as well as reupholster our own organs, promises to become routine rather than exotic. Just as old definitions of life proved ethically problematic once medicine understood pregnancy better (would people fight over abortion if everyone [...]

A Field That Interprets the Language of Genes
A YOUNG woman finds that she has a defective gene that increases her chances of breast cancer. A man must decide whether to be tested for the gene that causes Huntington’s disease, a debilitating neurological disorder. 
These days, patients who face hereditary risks like these are more likely to [...]

Google Inc-funded 23andMe launched on Monday and began offering a DNA saliva test for $999 per person, which would help U.S. users of the online site learn about disease risk, inherited traits and their ancestry.
Eventually users, who sign up for the saliva test online and receive it by mail, will also be able to participate [...]

A bill in Britain would loosen restrictions on the creation of “savior siblings” to allow parents of sick children to use in-vitro fertilization to create designer babies. These children would be used to treat the medical conditions of siblings by supplying bone marrow or umbilical-cord blood shortly after birth.

(Excerpt) The burning pain in Ellen’s arm was due to the rapid application of propofol, a paper-white liquid medication, which the perceptive Dr. Frank had plugged into Ellen’s IV the second he heard the c-word (cancer). When he saw her reaction, he pushed. The drug, sometimes called “milk of amnesia,” stings some patients sharply in the [...]

The revelation was shocking: A good friend said he supported legalized abortion because it reduced the number of children who would face bleak futures in the nation’s cities.
That moment 25 years ago helped crystallize my perspective on medical ethics: Every human life is of immense value and dignity. I could not then, and cannot now, [...]