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Bioethics in the News from Several Continents

Oct 15th, 2007 • Posted in: News

VARIOUS DATELINES
The life sciences continue to be the focus of ethics debates worldwide. Among recent stories from the international media:

  • The Herald-Sun of Melbourne, Australia, reports that one of the current hot-button ethics issues in Queensland involves new stem-cell research laws that opponents say pave the way for creation of human-animal hybrids. Backers say the laws will benefit research enterprises in the state while possibly providing cures for many who suffer from degenerative diseases. At issue is new technology that allows use of human DNA taken from anywhere in the body to be implanted in an animal embryo, creating material suitable for developing new tissues but requiring the destruction of the human embryo.
  • A controversial proposal in the United Kingdom is stirring a vigorous ethics debate: A prominent jurist, Lord Justice Sedley, has suggested that the entire population, as well as visitors to the United Kingdom, should have their DNA profiles added to a law enforcement database. Britain already has one of the world’s largest databases of DNA, usually used as a law enforcement tool to locate people who left biological evidence at the scene of a crime, reports the Daily Telegraph.
  • Pope Benedict XVI last week called on South Korea, which plans to reenter the field of stem cell research, to exercise its “inherent moral sensibility” and reject a resumption of such research, reports the Associated Press. The Pope claims “the destruction of human embryos, whether to acquire stem cells or for any other purpose, contradicts the purported intent of researchers, legislators and public health officials to promote human welfare.” South Korea temporarily halted stem cell research after a scandal involving faked data.

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