Bioethics

Unborn babies for transplants Is it ethical?

Time magazine for April 3, 1989, carried an account of a historic fetal-cell transplant which may have saved a boy’s life.  Soon after their first child died of a rare form of immune deficiency, a French couple learned that their second baby, due in August, 1988, was suffering from the same condition.  Without publicity, two doctors in Lyons transplanted cells from two [...]

2009-08-27T08:56:36-04:00November 27, 1989|Bioethics|

CMA deceives

Physicians for life has indicted the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) for consistently misrepresenting the true beliefs of Canada’s doctors with respect to abortion. Dr. Ranalli On August 21, Physicians for Life mounted a press conference simultaneously in eleven cities across Canada. In Toronto, Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at York Finch General Hospital and president of that city’s chapter of Physicians for [...]

2009-08-25T12:58:49-04:00October 25, 1989|Bioethics|

Update on Medical Ethics Removing organs without permission

Under pressure from advocates for the mentally retarded, Quebec has agreed to amend legislation that should have allowed removal of organs from healthy mentally retarded people, and children under 14, without their consent.  This morally reprehensible legislation had already been passed by the National Assembly and only needed proclamation to become law when protests of outraged groups finally reached the government late [...]

2009-08-24T09:25:46-04:00March 24, 1989|Bioethics|

C.M.A. asked to reconsider

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) Board of Directors approved the following three paragraphs at its meeting on May 21, 1988: “Induced abortion is the active termination of a pregnancy prior to fetal viability.  (Viability is understood to be the ability of the fetus to survive independently of the maternal environment.  According to current medical knowledge, viability is dependent on fetal weight, degree [...]

2009-08-24T07:05:58-04:00February 24, 1989|Abortion, Bioethics|

Will Roussel market “killer pill”?

An abortion pill called a contra gestation pill may be marketed in Canada if abortion is not considered a criminal act in the future, a large Montreal-based pharmaceutical firm hinted recently Roussel Canada Inc., is considering asking the Health Protection Branch of the federal government for permission to market the drug RU-486 under the name Mifespristine, in Canada.  The drug causes an [...]

2009-08-19T11:32:55-04:00February 19, 1989|Abortion, Bioethics, Issues|

What happened to our Doctors?

The Doctors Here is a story which appeared in the most recent London Right to Life Newsletter. It is probably not factually true, but is a parable with a very striking lesson. I shall tell it briefly in my own words. A young mother carrying a baby came into a doctor’s office. She said, “Doctor, I want you to get me out [...]

2009-08-19T11:09:57-04:00January 19, 1989|Bioethics|

Update

Aids Experiments On The Unborn Doctors in Florida and California plan to use 20 pre-born babies as guinea pigs to see whether the drug AZT, given to their AIDS-infected mothers, will prevent infection in the babies. A child born to an AIDS-infected mother has an approximately 50 per cent chance of being born with the virus.  AZT is not a cure for [...]

2009-07-27T13:21:03-04:00December 27, 1988|Bioethics|

The Editorial – The Medical Profession

No group of people have benefited the physical welfare of individuals as directly and extensively as the medical profession.  Applying the technology advanced by other sciences, health care professionals have been able to lengthen lives, to shorten illness, to relieve pain, to give many people a “new lease on life,” from providing pacemakers for heart patients, to new limbs for accident victims, [...]

2009-07-27T08:53:00-04:00October 27, 1988|Bioethics, Editorials|

From Hippocrates to Hypocrisy

“Six months from now her baby would be born.  Something that had been a single cell, a cluster of cells, a little sac of tissue, a kind of worm, a potential fish with gills, stirred in her womb and would one day become a man – a grown man, suffering and enjoying…. “…A thing would grow into a person, a tiny lump [...]

2009-07-27T08:50:15-04:00October 27, 1988|Bioethics|

Vatican Condemnation of I.V.F.

Rome: The Vatican has condemned the use of in vitro fertilization and in the Charter of Rights of the Family, put out by the Holy See, it stated that “human life must be absolutely respected and protected from the moment of conception.”  The fact that 90% of babies “started” using the method of I.V.F., are never born, is proof enough that this [...]

2009-07-23T08:24:07-04:00July 23, 1988|Bioethics, Religion, Society & Culture|

Banning Embryo Research

West Germany: West Germany will introduce legislation limiting experimentation and banning any research that would “affect the dignity of the human race” said Justice Minister Hans Engenhard. Health Minister Rita Suessmuth said that Germany had a special responsibility to respond to such research in an exemplary way.  She was referring to the Nazis who attempted to create the “Master Race.” This new [...]

2009-07-23T08:21:56-04:00July 23, 1988|Bioethics|

Brave New World – Down Under

The birth of Louise Brown the world’s first “test-tube” baby, in England in 1978, made headlines around the world, and Drs. Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards gained instant fame.  However, they were not the only scientists who were experimenting in the filed of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).   Australian scientists from the Queen Victoria Medical Centre and the Royal Women’s Hospital (associated with Monash [...]

2009-07-15T12:14:12-04:00May 15, 1988|Bioethics|

Brave new World – shades of Huxley

The recent decision of the Medical Research Council (MRS) to allow experimentations in Canada on live human embryos up to 17 days gestation age, is but the latest episode of a running debate going back to July 1978.  That date marks the birth of the first “test-tube baby” in Oldham, England.  That birth triggered an unending and worldwide series of discussions and [...]

2009-07-15T08:39:45-04:00April 15, 1988|Bioethics|

Killing boy & girls for not being girls & boys Aborting ‘wrong-sex’ children

A recent survey, conducted for the Australian Doctor, showed that a number of doctors in New South Wales openly admit that they have performed abortions because the pre-born baby was “the wrong sex.”  Margaret Tighe, Chairman of Right to Life Australia, called on the New South Wales Premier to seek prosecution of the doctors concerned. She stated: “Abortions are supposed to be [...]

2009-07-14T08:31:09-04:00February 14, 1988|Abortion, Bioethics, Society & Culture|

Ethics and IVF: impossible dream

Repeated pro-life calls for a moratorium – or a halt – to in-vitro fertilization, have fallen on deaf ears. Answers as to the impact of this technology will have on human society, lag far behind its growing use. “Baby Craving” has become big business according to a recent Life Magazine article, creating a huge demand for new baby-making techniques. Is it possible [...]

2009-09-01T13:55:11-04:00December 1, 1987|Bioethics|
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