Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
Category: Bioethics/Biotech
-
I can’t remember whether I’ve posted these links before (a quick search of the blog says not), but in a week’s time I’ll just back from Dunedin having attended the New Zealand Bioethics Conference: Wellbeing and Technology so it seemed apt to note them. There’s a session on transhumanism on the last day of the…
-
Firstly, a short summary piece from PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly on recent developments in biotechnology and whether they change the ethical landscape. See Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . PERSPECTIVES . Bioethics Update . January 25, 2008 | PBS And secondly, Rod Benson (who produces the weekly summary RELIGION & ETHICS AUSTRALIA) also has a…
-
The “People Power for the Third Millennium: Technology, Democracy and Human Rights” symposia from The Centre for Bioethics & Public Policy in the UK looks interesting, though being held in London means I’m hoping they’ll be something published out of them for a wider audience. The first symposium, “Robots & Rights: Will artificial intelligence change…
-
I’ve been wondering whether South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who runs with carbon-fibre prosthetic legs, would be competing at the Beijing Olympics ever since I saw a news article about him a year to eighteen months ago. It appears now that he won’t be there, even if he makes the qualifying times. See: Pistorius’s unfair…
-
A few interrelated things in the past week or so about genetic testing, discrimination and Alzheimer’s. Firstly, PBS carried this article (and video) about the ethics of testing for Alzheimer’s – Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . COVER . Alzheimer’s Testing . December 14, 2007 | PBS. Which, in turn, relates to this part of Radio…
-
I long time ago I flatted with a postgrad geneticist-microbiologist who had the crazy idea of trying to make bioluminescent bananas (so they could be picked in the dark 🙂 ). Apparently, bananas are the wrong type of plant for the bioluminescent symbiote he wanted to use, though potatoes would have worked. Now I see…
-
Various books on the go at the moment. Some good, some not so. Random comments follow. “Metal Swarm” by Kevin J. Anderson (Book 6(!) in the “The Saga of Seven Suns” series). Should be right up my alley – ancient powerful alien races continue ancient wars while plucky humans (with strange alien sometime allies) strive…
-
Scott Prather, over at swords to plowshares: Major bio-medical breakthrough highlights the recent news of researchers developing techniques that look useful for creating stem cells for therapies from a non-embryonic source. (More details at: Researchers Turn Skin Cells Into Stem Cells — Vogel 2007 (1120): 1 — ScienceNOW). Scott notes that Lutheran bioethicist, Ted Peters,…
-
Practical Ethics is a new blog that provides “reaction to the most recent ethical issues in the news, with a special focus on science related events” from a collection of people associated with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Given the presence of commentators from the Future of Humanity Institute, which has strong transhumanist…
-
Radio New Zealand National’s Nine-to-Noon programme had an interview last Thursday concerning the potential resumption of clinical trials of xenotransplantation techniques to help treat Type 1 Diabetes (through the implantation of pig tissue in a person’s pancreas). See Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Nine to Noon : Thu, 30 August with the…