A nice film review of our documentary, "Lines That Divide". Check out where it has shown, where it is showing, some reviews and great clips of the film. Oh and feel free to pick up a copy or two.
Lines That Divide Film Continues Asking Tough Questions About Bioethics Research
Lines That Divide Film Continues Asking Tough Questions About Bioethics Research
Single Embryo Transfer Best - DUH!
A piece just out in the LATimes (although the concept is not new) addresses the practice of only transferring a single embryo into the mother's womb when carrying out IVF.
The author writes,
"data published in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine show that what they're really doing is increasing their odds of having twins -- which is riskier for the mother and babies alike."
This should be of no big surprise as we know that by design, a woman's body is best suited for one baby at a time and not litters. And even a twin pregnancy naturally places the pregnant mother into a 'high risk' category for her health as well as the health of the babies she is carrying.
Here's some data:
"A team of Swedish researchers is trying to assess the optimum number of embryos to transfer. In their study of 661 IVF patients, 331 women got two embryos, and 142 of them (or 43%) had live births. The other 330 women got a single embryo, and if that didn't work, they made a second attempt. Of these women, 128 (or 39%) had live births.
The difference between 43% and 39% wasn't statistically significant. But one-third of the patients in the double-embryo group had twins or triplets, compared with only 1% in the single-embryo group. Those results were published in 2004. Researchers continued to follow the 661 patients. Their conclusion, in the latest issue of the journal: There's little downside and plenty of upside to transferring one embryo at a time instead of two."
What do you think? Make sense to you?
Introducing the 2010 Paul Ramsey Award Winner, Leon R. Kass, M.D. « The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network
Introducing the 2010 Paul Ramsey Award Winner, Leon R. Kass, M.D. « The Center for Bioethics and Culture NetworkThe Center for Bioethics and Culture Network is pleased to announce that Dr. Leon R. Kass has been selected to receive the 2010 Paul Ramsey Award, given to those who have demonstrated exemplary achievement in the field of bioethics. Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago, is a pioneer in bioethics who has, in the spirit of Paul Ramsey, made significant contributions toward a proper understanding of the challenges we face in bioethics, to defend the dignity of human life and advance ethical biotechnology. From 2001 to 2005 he served as the chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics and has been writing and thinking about the ethical and philosophical issues raised by biomedical advances for more than thirty years.
Dr. William Hurlbut, who serves on the Paul Ramsey nominating committee said, “Leon Kass is an extraordinarily constructive and courageous voice in bioethics–a treasure to our civilization. He is the intellectual epicenter of American bioethics.”
Paul Ramsey is regarded by many as one of the most important ethicists of the twentieth century. He was a distinguished writer on bioethics and served as Harrington Spear Pain Professor of Religion at Princeton University. His commitment to the sanctity and dignity of human life was paramount to his work.
Gilbert Meilaender, Ph.D., in his address last year as recipient of the 2009 Paul Ramsey Award said, “We’ve heard a lot about the relation of science and ethics in recent months. A great deal of it confused, and one would have liked to see the Ramsey scalpel go to work on it. One point he would have surely have made – for he made it in different contexts on several occasions. It’s a point about what it means to be morally serious.”
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What's Wrong with IVF? Let Me Count The Ways!
IVF headlines this week only further advance my position that we should have never taken the embryo out of the womb. For example:It allows doctors like Michael Kamrava, of Octumom fame to be touted as "distinguished" and to be only given a slap on the hand for his recklessness in transferring six embryos (two twinned resulting in eight live births) into Nadya Suleman. Kamrava was "expelled from the professional body" of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine for ignoring their meaningless guidelines on the number of embryos to implant.
It reminds us that IVF technology fueled right into the embryonic stem cell debates and human cloning and opened the door to exploiting women for their eggs. Think Dr. Hwang in South Korea who abused women for eggs for his fraudulent stem cell research. Hwang was just convicted for fabrication of his research studies, but will not face jail time, only probation.
It holds "reproductive choice" up so that stories like this are more and more common place:
An Australian woman, who attracted media attention in 2005 after giving birth to a second set of quadruplets, has given birth again to a set of twins. According to the newspaper, The Australian, Mrs Chalk, 31, has had eleven children conceived using an anonymous sperm donor and artificial insemination, although there are conflicting reports that she may have undergone IVF (in vitro fertilisation). The treatment was given at a private clinic in Queensland.
The Drive to Redefine Defenseless Human Beings Into Mere Natural Resources « The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network
Wesley J. Smith, our special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network has another great piece you can read here. Organ donation - yes. But donation is the operative word!
Consuming Children: Humanity=Artifact
I recently attended a debate between Wesley J. Smith and Gregory Stock. Our CBC staffer, Evan Rosa has a great write up you can read in its entirety here.Evan writes, "The match-up for this event: Wesley Smith, bioethics watchdog and consultant to the CBC, arguing that genetically designing progeny is wrong, and Gregory Stock, PhD, CEO of Signum Biosciences, defending the practice of designing babies.
It was a lively debate, on a tough, complex issue. Here I can only offer a brief (and hopefully fair) representation of both views, and then I’ll offer some of my own thoughts."
Stem Cell Research Goes Green « The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network
Recycling. Renewable Resources. Sustainability. We know these words well. But when it comes to human sustainability and health, we have a largely untapped resource that is proving to be more valuable than we might dare to imagine. Fittingly, it comes to us from our very first lifeline: the umbilical cord. Umbilical cord blood is already improving health and saving lives. At the Banking on Life Conference (May, 2009), sponsored by the Center for Bioethics and Culture and Cord Blood Registry, leaders from around the world in the field of umbilical cord blood stem-cell research and regenerative medicine treated attendees to a detailed update on progress being made in the use of cord blood in research and clinical applications. Conference attendees also heard from U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Speier on her efforts to educate the public about cord blood banking, and from two mothers who have seen dramatic health improvement from cord blood therapy in their daughters who suffered…read the rest here:
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