D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
Executive Director
What do you think about organ donation? Does any one (or more) of these choices describe your position?
1) Organ donation is an unadulterated good.
2) Organ donation is a privilege and/or a responsibility.
3) Organ donation should be voluntary.
4) Organ donation should be a reality for all who die, if their organs are transplantable.
5) The ...read more
Organ Donation Machinations Read More »
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
Making a Statement Read More »
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
AI Mental Health Chatbots May Not Be So Healthy Read More »
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
Scotland the Brave Read More »
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
A Step in the Right Direction Read More »
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 UniversityMifepristone, 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
DIY Chemical Abortion: What Should We Know? Read More »
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 moreARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MEDICINE Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
Executive Director
Pick Your Baby
No longer a fantasy game, picking your baby is now on offer — at least, if you believe the advertisements. The Nucleus website touts decreased worry, risk, and uncertainty for potential parents. How? It begins with the would-be mother and father submitting their cheek swabs for genetic testing of 2,000+ conditions. The current cost of the “mash-up” of the two genomes is about $1,000. That precedes undergoing what the website calls “IVF+,” the cost ...read more
Children: A Gift or an Order? Read More »
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 ...read more
A Time to Embrace and a Time to Refrain from Embracing — Artificial Intelligence (AI) Read More »
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.” ...read more
Making Babies? An IVF Primer Read More »
