Telling porkies: should the doctor tell her patient where the medicine comes from?
In a column in the New York Times this week Randy Cohen fields a question from an anaesthetist. Should the doctor ask a devoutly religious patient whether he minds that his anticoagulant (heparin) is derived from pigs? In reply Cohen sugges…
Read MoreShould NHS Medical Services be Rated Like TripAdvisor?
The website TripAdvisor (See: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ ) allows viewers to access (and contributed to) popular ratings of hotels, restaurants and other travel related facilities all over the world. The NHS is now operating a website – …
Read MoreNon-lethal, yet dangerous: neuroactive agents
An article and editorial in Nature warns about the militarization of agents that alter mental states. While traditional chemical weapons are intended to hurt or kill people, these agents are intended to disable. For example, they might indu…
Read MoreHow 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., w…
Read MoreShould 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 2…
Read MoreThe 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 …
Read MoreSymposium 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…
Read MoreShould 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 …
Read MoreArtificial 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-br…
Read MoreFour… 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…
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