Making a Statement

Blog / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture recently responded to a proposed rule of the federal government. It was an opportunity to bring a reasoned voice to potential policy decisions. The full statement can be accessed here; the gist of the statement follows . . .

The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture supports human dignity for all humans, however vulnerable they may be. Our position is that 1) There should be NO overlap ...read more

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Two chat bots have a conversation.

AI Mental Health Chatbots May Not Be So Healthy

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by C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D

Professor and Author of Bioethics and Medicine: A Short Companion

Apparently, AI therapy chatbots do not know that the first principle of medical ethics is primum non nocere (first, do no harm). Actually, they don’t know anything. Chatbots are not knowing beings; they are computational large language models (LLMs) that scrape data, predict how to respond to prompts, and spit out sometimes accurate and sometimes completely erroneous information (so-called hallucinations). Properly speaking, they are neither artificial nor intelligent. But many people, even in clinical medicine, seem to want to give AI the benefit ...read more

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Scotland the Brave

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Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology Emerita

Trinity International University

Recently, the Parliament of Scotland (building pictured above) displayed an uncommon act of “Scotch courage”, which had everything to do with moral fortitude and nothing to do with whiskey.  On 17 March 2026, following months of debate, the Scottish Parliament voted independently from the rest of the United Kingdom to reject a bill that would allow medical assistance in dying to terminally ill adults.  Apparently, this bill, ...read more

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A Step in the Right Direction

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D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

The National Organ Transplantation Act (NOTA) of 1984 established the not-for-profit Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs). These facilitate the organ donation process in a variety of ways — from public education to “clinical management of organ donors and assessment of medical suitability.” There are 56 OPOs in the United States. Hospitals are assigned to a specific OPO; there is no choice involved. In recent years, OPOs have come under scrutiny due to various negative reports, including the harrowing ...read more

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DIY Chemical Abortion: What Should We Know?

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The drug Mifepristone is pictured above. The following article, discussing the use of Mifepristone as an abortifacient, details concerns about that use. No portion of the article constitutes medical advice. D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A., Executive Director, The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture

Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D.Professor of Biology EmeritaTrinity International University

Mifepristone, the so-called abortion pill, continues to be a prominent news topic, particularly since a Senate Committee conducted a hearing in January on its safety, and the landmark Louisiana v. FDA case (enjoined ...read more

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MEDICINE

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Middle Tennessee, like many other locales this week, is enduring snow, ice, and frigid temperatures. That brings some fresh irony to our beginning a new series on artificial intelligence (AI) and medicine — particularly to people who are trying to stay warm amidst power outages. We pray for your safekeeping, and hope that whenever you are able to come back online, you will enjoy our featured article and the other linked ones as well.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MEDICINE (First in a Series)D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.Executive Director

AI and Truly Human ...read more

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A Time to Embrace and a Time to Refrain from Embracing — Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Blog / /
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

The day before Thanksgiving, I needed just a few items for the feast preparations. My mother accompanied me to the grocery store, and we, along with a large sector of the local population, searched the shelves. When it was time to check out, I saw the lines peopled by the harassed clerks, and opted for the self check-out region. After scanning a couple of the larger items, I clicked the “Skip Bagging” button on the screen, and placed them back into the cart. Nearing the end of the self check-out level of Purgatory, the ...read more

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Making Babies? An IVF Primer

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D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

The first successful in vitro (in glass) fertilization (IVF) resulted in the birth of Louise Joy Brown in 1978 in England. Here is a brief account of that event.

Cambridge embryologist Robert Edwards gave a frank interview with The Times‘ reporter Anjana Ahjuga 25 years after the birth of Louise Brown. Edwards said, “The Vatican called Louise’s birth ‘an event that can have very grave consequences for humanity’ because it divorced the conjugal sexual act from procreation.” Edwards is quoted further:

“It was a fantastic achievement but it ...read more

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Bioethics and Medicine: A Short Companion by C. Ben Mitchell

Blog, Book Reviews / /

A Book Review

By R. Henry Williams, M.D., M.A.

Chairman of the Board

The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture

What is the essence of medical ethics as it may or should be practiced today? What is an ethical physician? What is Christian ethics? How does one’s faith impact how medicine can be practiced? These questions along with a broad look at medical ethics, from Hippocrates to today’s practicing professional, are masterfully addressed in C. Ben Mitchell’s new volume, Bioethics and Medicine – A Short Companion.

Mitchell draws on his experience as a pastor early on, who moved into ...read more

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