“These polls rely on one or two very simple questions and, on a sensitive issue such as euthanasia, give people very little time or information to consider the issue in depth,” said Dr John Kleinsman. The director of the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre was commenting on a recent survey prepared for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society Read more
Thousands of embryos, sperm and eggs frozen in New Zealand will be discarded in November as the legal limit for their storage expires. Institutions that don’t comply will face a $20,000 fine. A time limit was set by legislators 10 years ago. From November 21, institutions like fertility clinics will not be able to keep Read more
Two stem cell researchers have shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2012, an elderly Briton, Sir John B. Gurdon, and a younger Japanese, Shinya Yamanaka. By a serendipitous coincidence, Sir John made his discovery in 1962 — the year of Yamanaka’s birth. Fifty years of stem cell research have brought cures for intractable diseases Read more
New Zealand’s Minister of Health has given the go-ahead for Living Cell Technologies Limited to proceed with the first stage of a clinical trial of NTCELL for the treatment of parkinson’s disease The treatment involves transplanting choroid plexus cells from the Auckland Island pig herd into the brain. Choroid plexus cells are naturally occurring “support” Read more
Using frozen embryos gets better results for mother and baby in IVF treatments, a study concludes. The study showed that babies which grow from thawed embryos are less likely to be born preterm or underweight and have a lower risk of dying in the days after their birth. Thawed embryos also reduced the risk of bleeding Read more
We have to carefully consider the sort of message the legalising of euthanasia would give to those who are elderly, ill or disabled and the message it would send to the rest of society about a person’s worth says the Director of The Nathaniel Centre, the NZ Catholic Bioethics Centre, Mr John Kleinsman. In a study Read more
While we support discussion about Euthanasia and what it means to die well, it is actually premature to talk about legalising euthanasia while New Zealander’s lack equitable access to palliative care. In the absence of this choice, death by assisted suicide or euthanasia is an illusory choice – it can never be voluntary in a Read more
A recently published article argues that since abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health, after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled because: 1. Both fetuses and newborns do Read more
Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, decrying such methods as a form of arrogance.
Speaking at the end of a three-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility, Benedict also reiterated Church teaching that marriage is the only permissible place to conceive children. Matrimony “constitutes the only ‘place’ worthy of the call to existence of a new human being,” he said.
Read the article...Pope Benedict XVI met with participants of the International Conference “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture”, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture. In his address, the Holy Father spoke about the “truly remarkable contributions” science can make to promoting and safeguarding human dignity. At the same time, he warned that scientists must be attentive to ethical concerns in pursuing their research, so that the inviolable dignity of each human being is never compromised.
Read the article...