The Ovolution of the Three-Parent Embryo

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By D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture The United Kingdom presented the rest of the world with Louise Joy Brown in July, 1978, the first test-tube baby.  They convened what became known as the Warnock Committee to advise Parliament regarding the new reproductive technologies:  “what policies and safeguards should be applied, including consideration of the social, ethical, and legal implications of these developments, and to make recommendations.” (Warnock, A Question of Life, 4.)  The Warnock Committee by a slim margin approved a variety of reproductive adventures, including ...read more

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Let’s Talk About Organ Donation

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

Executive Director

A rare feat in organ transplantation was reported this week.  27-year-old Ray Fearing needed a kidney.  His younger sister, Cera, donated one of hers.  Quickly, though, that kidney started failing.  Although Fearing could no longer use the kidney, his physicians thought that perhaps the kidney could be removed before it shut down altogether, and transplanted to someone else. Fearing and his sister agreed to the procedure, as did the recipient.  So, after 14 days in Ray Fearing’s body, the kidney was removed and re-transplanted — this time, into the ...read more

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Philosophies, as well as Actions, Have Consequences*

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

Executive Director

29 February 2012

It was Horace Mann who said, “Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day, and at last we cannot break it.”  If that habit is of thought, it becomes a philosophy.  Whether that habit is of thought or action, there are attendant consequences.  Let’s consider children in this light.

Whether one thinks that babies are commodities, “not yet persons,” or a heritage, those philosophies have consequences.  Recently, Theresa Erickson came face-to-face with the consequences of viewing babies as commodities (wire tap recordings).  Ms. Erickson, the author of ...read more

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THE STATE of the Union — On Hormones

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

A few days ago, I received an unsolicited e-mail from “Stephanie Cutter, BarackObama.com” <[email protected]>.  It read in part,

Here’s some big news that’s going to affect millions of women.

On Friday, the Obama administration announced that soon women won’t have to pay out of pocket for birth control: Starting August 1st, many insurance plans nationwide will be required to fully cover contraception without co-pays or deductibles. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more women can make health care decisions based on what’s best for them — ...read more

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FSBO (For Sale By Others) Babies

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

Executive Director

As the airline steward offered newspapers to passengers, the front page story about child-snatching and selling in China caught my eye (International Herald Tribune, 5 August 2011). In at least one mountainous region of China, parents have not been assured of keeping the children they birth. The Ministry of Public Security recently announced that 89 children had been rescued from child traffickers, but it is the local government that the populace of Longhui County fears. In that county, family planning officials reportedly seized at ...read more

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Physicians and P-AS: Some Things Just Don’t Go Together

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In January, Oregon released their data from 2010 regarding the so-called “Death with Dignity Act.”   The number of people opting for “physician-assisted suicide” (P-AS) has steadily increased since its inception in 1998.  That year, twenty-three persons asked for and received prescriptions for life-ending medications.  Fifteen of those died from the lethal dose of medication; six died from their illnesses, and two survived at least into 1999.  Last year, a total of 65 people died through P-AS in Oregon.  At least, that was the report as of 7 January 2011.  The data set ...read more

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New Year, New Dates; Not-so-New Challenges

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Unlike people, all dates are not “created equal.”   My young nephew who was born on September 11th is learning by association that actions have consequences.  On the January date a friend of mine blows out his birthday candles, our nation will mark a wedge that has divided us for nearly four decades.  Since the Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973, approximately 52 million embryos and fetuses have been “chosen” not to be born.  Our nation alone has aborted 52 million future citizens.

In some macabre way it seems fitting that abortion is in the news this week, although the ...read more

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Senate Stem Cell Sell (September 2010)

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The Stem Cell debate has recently taken some unexpected twists and turns.  I have watched and re-watched several portions of the webcast of a Labor-HHS Senate Subcommittee hearing on stem cells this month, because I wanted to make sure I understood correctly what was said.  Reflections on that hearing conclude this article; please read them.  You will probably be surprised.  First, though, it will be helpful to remember how we got to this place.  Here’s a brief synopsis:

1981 — Scientists derive embryonic stem cells from mouse embryos

1998 — Human embryonic stem cells are grown in the ...read more

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What Price Is a Human Being Worth?

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

Executive Director

Look around at those you love.  What are they worth to you? My children have been worth a lot of time, energy, sleepless nights, messy clean-ups, and much, much more.  They are priceless to me, as children, relatives, and friends usually are.

This is not true of all people in all circumstances.  Consider the California couple who recently tried to sell their six-month-old baby in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Their asking price was reportedly $25.  It became a blue-light special, however, when the police were notified by two concerned citizens.

Half a world away, wombs for ...read more

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