Oxford bioethicist rebukes ruling against dying UK teen’s ability to choose life-supporting treatment

The teenager’s wish to continue treatment ‘is being seen as a reason to deny her dignity as a mentally capable adult. This is a lethal form of paternalism,’ says bioethicist Professor David Albert Jones, director of The Anscombe Bioethics Centre. By Frank Wright OXFORD, England— The case of ST versus the NHS Trust seeking to end her …

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How scientists mold public opinion on controversial bioethical issues

By Michael Cook One of the puzzling features of bioethics debates is how quickly the public changes its mind about controversial issues. This is particularly evident in discussions about heritable human genome editing (HHGE) and Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT). If one were to ask whether scientists should be allowed to tinker with the human genome, most …

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Who Counts? Bioethics, Biomedicine and Exploitation of Nascent Human Beings

By David Prentice, PhD Editor’s note. This appeared in the journal of the Christian Medical & Dental Association and is reposted with permission. What defines our humanity and what it means to be a human being? Put another way, who counts? Every human life has value, no matter the age or stage of development, size, …

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Texas rule allows hospitals to withdraw treatment that keeps the patient alive when the doctor/bioethics committee thinks the patient should die

By Wesley J. Smith Editor’s note. The following is excerpted from Wesley’s testimony before the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services in favor of legislation to change the state’s 10-Day Rule, which allows hospitals to remove a patient’s life support against their or their family’s will. You can watch the beginning of his …

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Why Bioethics Should “Fail”

By Wesley J. Smith Julian Savulescu represents all that I find so objectionable about the mainstream bioethics movement. Rejecting the sanctity/equality of human life, utilitarian in outlook, embracing a eugenics point-of-view, the Oxford professor–what does that tell you?–would lead society in a way opposed by most of the very people bioethics claims to serve. Savulescu …

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A dissenting view of modern bioethics: “What about the sick patient?”

By Michael Cook Today, your doctor is likely to be a “stranger at the bedside,” making decisions according to a “new morality” of bioethics, rather than the traditional Oath of Hippocrates, writes Dr Jeffrey Hall Dobken in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr Dobken writes from the perspective of a doctor who is …

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Bioethicists to the People: ‘Obey Us!’

By Wesley J. Smith Well, this is rich. Udo Schuklenk, the co-editor-in-chief of the journal Bioethics, insists that people obey bioethicists and doctors when it comes to decisions about ending life-sustaining treatment even when the patient or family wants to fight on — an authoritarian bioethics meme known as “futile care.” Schuklenk is furious at …

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The Nazi doctors had plenty of “ethics.” It was just the wrong kind

By Michael Cook German medicine under Hitler resulted in so many horrors – eugenics, human experimentation, forced sterilization, involuntary euthanasia, mass murder – that there is a temptation to say that “Nazi doctors had no ethics.” However, according to an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine by Florian Bruns and Tessa Chelouche (from Germany and …

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Some Big Public Policy Challenges in Bioethics we can expect in 2018

By Dr. Peter Saunders Editor’s note. Dr. Saunders is a former general surgeon and CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organization with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members. This is excerpted from a longer post found here. As we look forward to the challenges that 2018 will bring I am struggling …

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Joseph Fletcher’s dark dreams becoming our reality

By Wesley J. Smith Joseph Fletcher (1905–1991) was one the most influential philosophers and bioethicists of the twentieth century. His advocacy blazed the path for many of the radical social transitions we are experiencing today. He gained fame as the prime proponent of “situational ethics,” popularly known as social relativism. But his work in bioethics …

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Utilitarian in outlook, embracing a eugenics point-of-view, why Bioethics should “fail”

By Wesley J. Smith Julian Savulescu represents all that I find so objectionable about the mainstream bioethics movement. Rejecting the sanctity/equality of human life, utilitarian in outlook, embracing a eugenics point-of-view, the Oxford professor–what does that tell you?–would lead society in a way opposed by most of the very people bioethics claims to serve. Savulescu …

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Self-sacrificial love in the bioethics-sphere

By Wesley J. Smith Editors note. This appears in the Christmas 2017 digital issue of National Right to Life News. Please read the 37-page edition in its entirety and pass it along to friends and family. Kiss today goodbye And point me toward tomorrow. We did what we had to do. Won’t forget, can’t regret …

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