Bioethics.gov
The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
http://www.bioethics.gov/
The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
http://www.bioethics.gov/
http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/index.html This PCBE web site is hosted and maintained by the Bioethics Research Library at Georgetown University.
Materials produced by the President’s Council on Bioethics in this archive are government documents and in the public domain. Please note the source as http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/.
The President’s Council on Bioethics Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
My beloved great-aunt knew the seasons well. After the advent of Spring, we still had to go through “Blackberry Winter” and a few other cold snaps. She would be amazed to learn that I find these “Kudzu Days”. She never celebrated such a time. After all, kudzu*, which grew behind her home, is a non-native woody vine planted all over the Southeast by F.D.R.’s Civilian Conservation Corps. Later it was designated a pest weed. In 1953, kudzu was removed from the USDA’s list of permissible ground cover, but it has never been eradicated from ...read more
What Looks Good to Some, but Soon Takes Over? Read More »
Early in this debate, a number of people hoped to find a “bright line” between therapy and enhancement. Various issues were considered, such as:
— Is reconstructing a breast after cancer surgery the same as gifting your teenage daughter with breast implants? — If you were born with a deformity that has been corrected with prostheses, and those prostheses enable you to run faster than people without them, do you have a therapeutic advantage, or have you been enhanced? The International Association of Athletics Federations (I.A.A.F.) has dealt with this issue, in the person of Oscar Pistorius (http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/p/oscar_pistorius/index.html). — Stimulants often help people ...read more
Is there a difference between therapy and enhancement? Read More »
Can a Hippocratic physician assent to P-AS or euthanasia? The traditional Hippocratic Oath included a pledge that the physician would “Give no poison to anyone though asked to do so, nor suggest such a plan”. Is the Hippocratic ethic relevant today? If so, how? Some medical schools have re-written the oath, retaining the name for tradition’s sake but leaving out the proscriptions on abortion and euthanasia. If physicians are dually-trained in healing as well as euthanizing, what happens to the patient’s trust when the physician hands him/her a prescription for pain medication?
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Euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide: are these desirable ends? Read More »