The latest episode of BioTalk is with Dr. David Prentice of the Lozier Insititute on the world’s first GMO baby born this summer using the “3-parent IVF” method called “maternal spindle transfer”. If not for the Aderholt amendment to the 2015 omnibus spending bill, which prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from entertaining any submission that proposes “research in which … Read More
BioTalk18: Self-Regulation Science Doesn’t Work
Scientists love to give themselves “ethical guidelines” — only to “reevaluate” and revise those guidelines when they are no longer convenient. A perfect recent example of this came this May when scientists in two separate studies reported keeping embryos alive, healthy and developing for 12-13 days. In both studies the embryos grew autonomously and began processes that lead to organ … Read More
Genetic Enhancements: A Biological Arms Race No One Can Win
Last year the UK became the first in the world to offer controversial ‘three-parent’ fertility treatments. This year they approved the use of CRISPR to edit genomes of human embryos. In the latest episode of BioTalk, Rebecca Taylor and I talk about how scientists and governments have re-engineered language to sell the public on embryo-re-engineering. We also look at the … Read More
IVF Custody Wars: People, Not Property
Embryo custody battles are on the rise. Except, legally speaking, they aren’t really “custody” battles — in the traditional sense of the term. They’re more like property disputes. I was very pleased recently to find out that Missouri Right to Life has gotten together with a few other pro-life organizations to file an amicus brief in the case of McQueen … Read More
Equality?
A few weeks ago I posted a video of Millie Fontana, a donor-conceived daughter of lesbian mothers. In her speech, Fontana touched on the imbalance of “equality” in the LGBT debate. Indeed, “equality” is the buzz word for this debate. Marriage equality. Family equality. Of treating people with equal respect for who they are as human beings. But what about … Read More
Third Party Reproduction vs. Adoption
When I re-posted this graphic from the Center for Bioethics and Culture (using data from this study) on Facebook someone objected to it, concerned that something like that might be harmful to her adopted son if he ever came across it. Causing him to feel shame since his parents had to pay money, as well. I understand her concern, especially … Read More
Audio: Bristol Palin, “Family Equality” and “Tansability”
This morning I was on the Mike Allen Show to talk about: Bristol Palin and the tricky pro-life tightrope, the bio-ethical implications of Justice Kennedy’s marriage opinion (in other words: “marriage equality” leads to “family equality” and more and more third party reproduction — #adultswin #childrenlose), and, finally, why “transability” isn’t as crazy as it used to be. Click the play buttons below to … Read More
Human Beings Are Not Science Experiments
I never cared much for science in school. At all. And, yet, last week I found myself sitting in front of my computer for a day and a half listening to public workshops at the Institute of Medicine on “Ethical and Social Policy Considerations of Novel Techniques for Prevention of Maternal Transmission of Mitochondrial DNA Diseases” — AKA “Three-Parent IVF” … Read More
India, Surrogacy and Black Market Babies
Here in the America, celebrities, wealthy columnists and popular entertainment paint a smiling, rosy picture of third party reproduction, meanwhile the fertility industry has a dirty little secret. In the latest Vice for HBO documentary, Outsourcing Embryos, correspondent Gianna Toboni traveled to India to report India’s booming surrogacy industry where impoverished women are recruited to be “gestational carriers” for middle-to-upper-class … Read More
Let’s Not Sit Idly By While the Brave New World Advances
My friend and BioTalk partner, Rebecca Taylor, recently wrote on the horrifying reality we currently find ourselves with regard to genetic engineering and human cloning and expressed her frustration at the…mild (to put it kindly) reaction from pro-lifers. I feel her frustration. To their credit, some of the mainstream pro-life news sites do report on these issues. But are pro-lifers paying … Read More