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How not to criticize the NHS
The British National Health Service (the NHS) has been in news a lot recently. First it was the Investor's Business Daily in the US, which claimed that: 'People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of…
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Should early non invasive prenatal testing be opposed?
It is now possible to detect fetal problems with just a sample of the pregnant woman’s blood. Women will probably be offered this test routinely in the first trimester. But the breakthroughs are said to raise serious ethical questions. In 2008 Fan et al. (Proc. Natl Acad. Sci.USA 2008; 105:16266–16271) non-invasively diagnosed fetal chromosome abnormality…
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The party line and the flu-line
It has emerged over the weekend that the UK government ignored the advice of a key panel of scientific advisors in the formulation of its pandemic response. The panel advised against the mass prescription of antivirals (Tamiflu) because of the fear that this would accelerate resistance of the virus (see also this previous post in…
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Symposium Announcement: Human Enhancement: What should be permitted?
The Brocher Foundation, and the Universities of Oxford and Geneva are pleased to announce the Symposium: Human Enhancement: What should be permitted? 20-21 October 2009, Brocher Centre, Geneva, Switzerland Biomedical science is increasingly yielding technologies that can be used to enhance the capacities of healthy people, as well as to treat disease. This two-day workshop…
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Should we forget about organic food?
A recent report by the Food Standards Agency argues that organic food doesn’t bring any substantial nutritional benefits compared to conventionally produced food. This contradicts the conclusions of previous studies suggesting organic food to be nutritionally superior. As one might have expected, supporters of organic farming have been critical of the report, yet it is…
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Artificial Brains and Personal Identity
Professor Henry Markram, Director of the Blue Brain Project in Switzerland, has told a conference in Oxford that an artificial human brain is achievable within a decade: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/5894875/Artificial-human-brain-could-be-built-in-next-decade.html What would count as a ‘human brain’ is debatable, of course, but the prospect of an artificial grounding for cognitive and other mental functions raises many fundamental…
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Four… three… two… one… I am now authorized to use physical force!
Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, warns that we are well on our way to get military killer robots that have great autonomy in applying deadly force. Current military "robots" such as UAVs have limited autonomy. They are remotely controlled by humans, but increasingly given ability to patrol,…
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Is it wrong to raise money for charity?
The Guardian yesterday reports on the struggles of independent secondhand bookshops to compete with what one of its interviewees describes as “the Tesco of the second-hand book world”: Oxfam. It may come as a surprise to you to learn that Oxfam is now the biggest secondhand book retailer in Europe (though perhaps it shouldn't given…
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R. v Dudley & Stephens
By David Edmonds We at the Uehiro Centre keep a careful watch on the latest developments and pride ourselves on being bang up to date with the news. So I’m pleased to be able to bring you the story of an episode that occurred on the night of July 25th. Well, July 25th 1884. 125…
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A change of heart
Earlier this week fourteen-year old Hannah Jones received a heart transplant. This is eight months after Hannah hit the news for her refusal to have the surgery. There was much debate in the media (including this blog) at the time about whether or not teenagers should be allowed to refuse life-saving treatment, though overall there…