Wow. Researchers have been able to stop mice from developing Huntington’s disease symptoms by inhibiting an enzyme that works on a protein, that is responsible for destroying brain function. This is fantastic news and was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell. This breakthrough . . . . Continue Reading »
Starbuck’s has an interesting program called, “The way I see it,” in which people who are somewhat in the public eye submit pithy bits of wisdom that are then printed on the cups (usually seen beneath the hot cup holders). I submitted one last year that was accepted. I just heard . . . . Continue Reading »
New Jersey is pondering weakening the medical standards for declaring death by neurological criteria, known popularly as “brain death.” The New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners wants to permit one doctor, instead of the current two, to declare brain death. And, the doctor . . . . Continue Reading »
I give too little attention here at Secondhand Smoke to the anti-human minions of the Deep Ecology movement. Deep ecologists view human beings as vermin that afflict the earth, which many believe is a living entity called Gaia. This story illustrates the twisted mindset by describing the anti-human . . . . Continue Reading »
The Financial Times has a story (sorry, no link for non subscribers) that describes the intense fight that the European Parliament is apparently having over whether to fund human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Consensus will apparently not be reached. The quote of the article by far is . . . . Continue Reading »
Nature is reporting that scientists may be close to creating a protein “elixer” that would regress adult cells to an embryonic pluripotent state. According to the report, “Doctors might be able to take a simple biopsy of cells from a patient and reprogramme them, using one set of . . . . Continue Reading »
Scientists have used adult human skin stem cells to treat rats with neurological disease. From an article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Neuroscience. . . . . Continue Reading »
Pamela Winnick sent me the following e-mail with permission to post here. You may recall, that she worried that “death doctors” were seeking to force the family to “pull the plug” on her seriously ill father.“Wes, a mere week after the death-loving doctors tried to get . . . . Continue Reading »
This non-story front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle proves many of the points I have been making about our roiling biotech controversies for the last several years:1. The headline, “Backers to Push Stem Cell Issue Across Country,” as if this is news, is laughable. Big Biotech . . . . Continue Reading »
I deeply admire Leon Kass. At a personal level, he is a true gentleman. I consider him to be one of our deepest thinkers. I have always thought that he has been unfairly pigeon-holed by lesser intellects in bioethics and this interview proves my point. I advise reading it in full, but for the . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
