domingo, 18 de septiembre de 2016

BioEdge: Everything you wanted to know about genetic engineering in one chirpy video

BioEdge: Everything you wanted to know about genetic engineering in one chirpy video

Bioedge

Everything you wanted to know about genetic engineering in one chirpy video
     
This chirpy video about genetic engineering explains the complex present and speculative future quite well although it probably takes too optimistic a view of how the new technology will be used. Elliot Hosman, of the Center for Genetics and Society, grumbles that it:

... adopts an exceedingly narrow vision of democratic progress and governance. “The only thing we know for sure,” it asserts, “is that things will change irreversibly.” By this logic, technology’s impending arranged marriage to biology is inevitable, and we might as well sit back and watch the Silicon Valley “cradle of innovation” unburden us from our human imperfections—one human birthing experiment at a time.
However, it has been extremely popular. Released in August by the German company Kurgesagt (“In a Nutshell”), it has clocked up 3.2 million views.

With the great public interest in CRISPR, the CGS recently produced a resource page on human germline editing. It's quite useful. 
- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-genetic-engineering-in-one-chirpy-video/11999#sthash.j40r6UvQ.dpuf

Bioedge

Bioedge

Today is a landmark, of sorts. It marks the first time that a child has been euthanised under contemporary euthanasia laws. Of course, euthanising infants is relatively common, but not children who are old enough to be asked if they really want to die. The death occurred last week in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, although it was announced today by Belgium's euthanasia supremo, Wim Distelmans. His words were very sober and solemn, as befits the occasion, but I suspect that he and his colleagues are quietly happy to see the boundaries of euthanasia spread even further.
Ultimately this is a triumph for out-and-out nihilism, not just Belgium's inventive euthanasia lobby. Nihilism is a philosophical fad which seems to catching on. Below we feature a report on three American bioethicists who argue the case for population control to fight climate change and a defense of infanticide by a Finnish bioethicist. I've also just discovered a new book by South African philosopher David Benatar. In it he argues that procreation is morally wrong because life's a bitch and then you die (I am over-simplifying, of course.) He concludes his book with these cheerful thoughts: 
Every birth is a future death. Between the birth and the death there is bound to be plenty of unpleasantness ... Inflicting serious harm—or even the risk of it—on one person, without his or her consent, in order to benefit others, is presumptively wrong. 
If I'm right, euthanising a child is not an terminus for Belgian euthanasia, but just a bus stop en route to pure nihilism. What its supporters are trying to eliminate is not just pain, but life itself. What do you think? 


Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge

This week in BioEdge
 
by Michael Cook | Sep 17, 2016
This is the first case since the country's euthanasia law was amended in 2014
 
by Michael Cook | Sep 17, 2016
Is it in the public interest to deny them privacy?
 
by Michael Cook | Sep 17, 2016
Mutilation and cosmetic surgery
 
by Michael Cook | Sep 17, 2016
Scientists collaborated with the sugar industry in the 1960s to dismiss health concerns.
 
by Michael Cook | Sep 17, 2016
Bioethicists table strategies for reducing greenhouse gases
 
by Xavier Symons | Sep 17, 2016
Victoria has moved one step closer to legalising euthanasia, while New Zealand doctors remain hesitant.
 
by Xavier Symons | Sep 17, 2016
Bioethicists have not given up on the idea of infanticide.
 
by Xavier Symons | Sep 17, 2016
A research institute in Germany has been forced to dispose of 100 brain specimens after discovering they were sourced from illicit medical research.
 
by Xavier Symons | Sep 17, 2016
A new study of egg freezing in the UK suggests that most women are motivated by an anxiety to find the right partner.
 
by Michael Cook | Sep 16, 2016
It may be too optimistic about the future, but it is a good overview of a complex field.
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