NEWS
Facial recognition related to large-scale personal data could threaten the rule of law and the autonomy of the citizen
The archive of millions of personal data at disposal without effective restrictions, something new, at least, in democratic countries Until now, one of the conditions of a democratic state was to grant citizens privacy and autonomy. Could current quick technical advances objectively [...]
Study confirms that genome editing of embryos safety problems persist
A team led by Kathy Niakan, a pioneer in genome editing in embryos in the UK, has confirmed that these techniques are still not ready for clinical use due to major safety concerns that have not yet been resolved. Genome editing of [...]
China accused of genocide after alleged use of family planning laws to eradicate certain ethnic populations
We have published many articles about the Chinese regime’s violation of human rights and lack of bioethical principles, from 30 years of a Malthusian family planning regime (better-known as the one-child policy, now two-child policy), the current organ harvesting from political prisoners, [...]
Commercial surrogacy legalization. Bioethical and medical implications
The news that commercial surrogacy has been legalized with significant financial support by New York State is paving the way to its normalization, being a new type of commercial contract involving three parties: the biological parents, the surrogate mother and the child. [...]
The Vatican Opinion on Gender perspective. Responding to the Timothy F. Murphy’s article published in Bioethics
A recent article published in The Linacre Quarterly (June 17, 2020), entitled "The Vatican Opinion on Gender Theory" is a reasoned response to the Timothy F. Murphy article, published in the section Guest editorial in the journal Bioethics with the title "The [...]
More about discrimination of health care systems in Europe
New regard in a commented issue confirms the discrimination in the basic rights of the ethnic citizens in some European countries. A recent article publishes figures of health care systems exclusion of older people from some ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom. [...]
Animal testing. Alcohol early gestation drinking affects areas of the fetal brain in monkeys
A debated topic with broad bioethical repercussions is whether alcohol intake during the first trimester of pregnancy can affect the development of the motor areas of the human fetal brain. An experimental study carried out in a group of 28 female macaque [...]
Translating to human the findings of experiments in animals is not always feasible
A great deal of the news that reaches the public about biomedical advances based on animal experimentation does not always highlight the difficulties in translating the achievements obtained in animals to human research. This could create false expectations. We, therefore, believe it [...]
Disparities of health care for ethnic reasons should be resolved. Coronavirus and maternal health care data.
Disparities in maternal health care, as reported in the February 2020 issue of the British Medical Journal, are one of the paradigms of inequalities in women’s health care for ethnic reasons. Between 2014 and 2016, the rate of maternal death in pregnancy of white women in [...]
HIV reservoirs after antiretroviral therapy is discovered
Our Observatory has published several articles on the HIV epidemic possible cures. In this sense understanding, HIV dynamics across the human body is important for cure efforts. Antiretroviral therapy studies continue to find new effects. Recent antiretroviral therapy studies One problem related [...]
Increasing genome sequencing in different fields and its bioethical implications
Genome sequencing public domain, is the aim, blocking any attempt to privatize the genome An interesting short review published recently in UK newspaper The Guardian discusses the use of genome sequencing and the bioethical challenge of putting every sequence found into the [...]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law gestational surrogacy commercial contracts
"The global surrogacy market is expected to pass $27.5 billion by 2025." Controversial gestational surrogacy is being debated in Western countries, and indeed there are few countries that allow it. We have published several articles on this issue, highlighting the humanitarian, ethical, [...]
USA Conference 2020 “Living the Fulfilled Life in Medicine”
USA Conference 2020 “Living the Fulfilled Life in Medicine” San Diego, CA 2020 - September 24-26, 2020 (read HERE) Doctor-Patient relationship conference Reclaiming the Doctor-Patient relationship is a global issue in hyper-technological medicine of our days. AI in medicine, genetics [...]
New findings in an ancient issue. Begin smoking in childhood double premature deaths
An article published recently in The Lancet Global Health (June 1, 2020) and the University of Oxford - News looked at the risk of smoking in a large study conducted in Cuba. Evidence has shown that smoking causes about 100,000 deaths per [...]
Is DNA testing reshaping the definition of family?
DNA testing is a rapidly-developing business, and anyone can access their genetic relations for a reasonable cost including DNA paternity testing. However, there is a conflict between the right of people to know their genetic paternity and the right to privacy of [...]
IVF people claims for their right to know
Thanks to DNA tests and the internet but mainly to the mobilization of IVF people to defend their right to know the identity of their biological parents, many persons could find their biological parents despite the fact that the law that protects the anonymity [...]
Biological diversity conservation is a major issue
Conservation of biological diversity is a major issue in our hyper technologized world. In this regard, as is known the loss of natural habitats contributes to the loss of biodiversity and by some thousands of species are thought to be in danger [...]
Pandemic challenges. Without the humanities and social sciences, hard science and technology can do little
On 24 January, an article by the executive director of the British Academy, Hetan Shah, was published in the prestigious journal Nature (vol. 577 pg. 295 year 2020) that makes for interesting reading at this time when we are struggling to try [...]
Social freezing misinformation
Unquestionable medical risks and limited benefits Over the last decade, the number of women using “Social Freezing” (cryopreserving their eggs for social, non-medical reasons when they are young to use them at a later date) has increased dramatically (read HERE). According to [...]
Review of sexual transmission of HIV in patients treated with antiretroviral drugs
HIV transmission If HIV carriers are adequately treated with antiretroviral drugs and have achieved sustained viral suppression (BII), the risk of HIV transmission in serodiscordant couples can be virtually eliminated which means that having a healthy child is now is a reality. [...]
