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Comments and Questions from Our Inbox

August 27, 2014 • Posted in Blog

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

Readers are always welcome to send in questions regarding bioethics issues. This past month, a wide range of thoughtful questions and comments have arrived in our inbox. A few representative ones have been chosen for this newsletter (with no identifiers included, of course).

Read on . . . and remember that you can always contact us here.

1) What exactly are three-parent embryos? 

Mitochondria are the power packs in our human cells, and reside in the cytoplasm — not in the nucleus. Mitochondrial disease varies widely in its expression, and has a prevalence rate of about 1 in 10,000 (Ricki ...read more

Public Comment before the FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee, 25 February 2014

February 25, 2014 • Posted in Blog

Good afternoon, Members of the Advisory Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am Dr. D. Joy Riley, the executive director of The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture, an educational not-for-profit organization headquartered in Nashville, TN, dedicated to promoting human dignity in the face of challenges to what it means to be human, and to informing and equipping people to face the vital bioethics issues of the 21st Century.

I am a physician by training, and hold a graduate degree in bioethics as well. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today.  I have no conflicts of interest to report.

It is remarkable ...read more