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 …
Continue reading "The lethal “ethics” of Nazi doctors"By Wesley J. Smith Editor’s note. My family and I will be on vacation through August 25. I will occasionally add new items but for the most part we will repost “the best of the best” — the stories our readers have told us they especially liked over the last ten months. I can’t tell …
Continue reading "What happens when medicine’s ethic becomes “we will save your life if we think it is worth saving”?"They 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 …
Continue reading "Where did Nazi doctors learn their ethics? From a textbook"By David Prentice, Ph.D. Does science trump ethics? Do the ends justify the means? Should some trafficking in human body parts be countenanced in society, because of potential or speculative cures? These are the questions raised in regards to the issue of fetal tissue research, in particular using fetal tissue obtained from induced abortion. It’s …
Continue reading "Science or Ethics?"By Nancy Valko Editor’s note. This appeared on Nancy’s blog. In 1988 during the Nancy Cruzan case involving a young, non-terminally ill woman in a so-called “persistent vegetative state” whose parents wanted her feeding tube withdrawn so she would die, I was asked if I was going to feed my mother who had Alzheimer’s disease. …
Continue reading "Ethics, Alzheimer’s, and feeding tubes"By Wesley J. Smith Most people understand the word “death” to mean the end of biological life or, as Merriam-Webster defines it, “a permanent cessation of all vital functions.” But now an influential cadre of utilitarian bioethicists wants to redefine it to include a subjective and sociologically based meaning. Their purpose isn’t greater scientific accuracy. …
Continue reading "A subjective definition of “death” would unleash great evil"By Dave Andrusko The beauty of the web is that one thing leads to another to another with often times fascinating results. Such is what happened yesterday, as I was trolling for information to reply to a friend. I ran across a 2001 piece written by the late Robin Toner, under the headline, “The abortion …
Continue reading "A “More Fetally Aware Society”"By Dave Andrusko This will be a short post because, frankly, I do not have the time to do a lengthy search on what Randy Cohen has to say about abortion and the rights of religious conscience. I bring up Cohen, formerly “The Ethicist” for the New York Times, because he has a book out, …
Continue reading "“Everyday Ethics” and the Pro-Life Community"By Wesley J. Smith Editor’s note. This fine piece ran on Wesley’s blog. Legatus magazine asked me to write a column on the stem cell issue, and so I did. From “Good Ethics Makes for Good Science” [www.legatusmagazine.org/?p=4805]:
Continue reading "“Good Ethics Makes for Good Science”"