WHO’s in Charge? WHAt’s in Store?
Executive Director
The World Health Organization (WHO), through the governing World Health Assembly (WHA) has proposed changes to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that eliminate human dignity, human rights, and freedoms of persons. The Article by Article Compilation of Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) submitted by States Parties in the context of Decision WHA75(9)2 shows the changes, noted by strikethroughs, underlining, and bold text. A strikethrough deletes existing text, and proposed new text is underlined and in bold font. Many changes are afoot. Only a few are considered here.
One change to Article 1 of the document (see NOTE 1 below) ...read more
EctoLife: A Cautionary Tale
Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology Emerita Trinity International University In the December 2022 TN-CBC newsletter article entitled Déjà vu all over again, D. Joy Riley drew our attention to the parallels between the recently released YouTube video EctoLife: The world’s first artificial womb facility, and the fake publicity for the movie GATTACA 25 years ago. The new video, while actually conceptual, presents ectogenesis, the complete development of a baby in an artificial womb, as a current reality. Once again, a number of viewers were fooled. Unfortunately, it is perhaps more realistic than we dare to think. In a revealing interview by Beau Davidson with the Ectolife ...read more
Déjà vu all over again
By D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
The past couple of weeks have reminded me of the quote attributed to Yogi Berra, “It’s Deja Vu All Over Again.”
Twenty-five years ago, the film, Gattaca, was released. One of the fake ads for the movie is pictured here. Thousands of people responded to the advertisements for the film, thinking it was the real deal.
In the past two weeks, multiple people have sent me the link to a new video, EctoLife: Concept Unveiled for the World’s First Artificial Womb Facility. Some are concerned that this is happening now; comments found online show a significant ...read more
GATTACA: 25 Years On
Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology Emerita Trinity International University
(Editor’s Note: The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture screened GATTACA at the end of June at the international bioethics conference held by the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity at Trinity International University. Dr. Shelton presented opening remarks, which, lightly edited, are presented here.)
The movie, GATTACA, is entertaining to watch as is, but is also rife with symbolism and subtle—and some not so subtle—philosophical messages. 25 years on: it has proved to be prescient in a number of ways.
GATTACA depicts a dystopian world in which there is a new type of social ...read more
I Should Have Read More History
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
As a teenager, I decided I wanted to be a physician — to help people. I also naively thought that medicine was apolitical. I should have read more history. If I had, I might have come across the story of Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis.
Semmelweis was born to Hungarian parents slightly more than 200 years ago, in 1818. Although he began to study law, he ended up graduating from medical school in 1844. Other plans of his changed as well. When he did not land a position in internal medicine, he spent four extra months training to ...read more
If Monkeys Could Talk
Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology, Trinity International University Guest Column
Recent news announcements proclaimed, with both excitement and alarm, that Tan and colleagues, scientists from China and the US, had successfully produced human-monkey hybrid embryos. (1, 2) The hybrids (also termed chimeras) were made by injecting human pluripotent stem cells from an induced pluripotent stem cell line into 132 early- stage monkey embryos. Human pluripotent stem cells have the capacity to develop into a range of tissues and cell types which ultimately form all the structures of the human body including the brain and reproductive cells (sperm and egg). (3) In ...read more
Tennessee Legislative Update: Commercial Surrogacy and a Pot of Gold
By D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
References to pots of gold usually occur in the month of March, and involve leprechauns and rainbows. This year, pots of gold figure in at least one set of companion bills (House Bill No. 1379 and Senate Bill No. 425) the Tennessee Legislature is transforming into law. Instead of leprechauns and rainbows, though, it is the fertility physicians/clinics and “third-party reproductive care for the benefit of the enrollee(s).” The pots of gold are to be provided by “insurance companies,” which means, of course, “the insured,” which would include all of us who pay insurance ...read more
Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing
A Book Review By R. Henry Williams, M.D., F.A.C.P., M.A. (Ethics) Board Chairman, The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture
Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston, Editors Oxford University Press, 2019
As we now live in a time when our genetic code can be altered, whether for better or worse, how should we think about what is best for ourselves? How can we as a human species and as individuals flourish? These are the questions posed in the new volume, Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing. The essays here are interactive, frequently referencing one another, as the ...read more
Statement on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing
Given that According to the canons of research on children, experiments are only ethically justified when there are clear benefits to that individual child and proportional burdens to that child. Risks and burdens beyond truly “minimal” to individual children are not justified to benefit other children. To do so is to treat one child as a means to another child’s ends (i.e., to instrumentalize that child).
Whereas Human germline genome editing is experimentation on embryonic humans who cannot give consent, ...read more
