More Transitions
It is with much sadness that the Board and Executive Director of The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture announce the death of Board Member William “Bill” Peter, of Hendersonville, TN. Bill has served humbly but with distinction as a Board Member since the inception of this organization. He will be sorely missed. We extend our condolences to his family.
Resquiescat in pace, our brother and friend
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
Our September e-newsletter contained an article by Joyce Shelton, Ph.D., “For the Safety of Our Children.” It was about the medical transitioning of gender-dysphoric children. ...read more
Transitions – Paying Attention to Other Voices
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
Recently, I traveled north to enjoy some recreation and relaxation in cooler weather. Here, fall is in the air, and some trees are manifesting beautiful foliage ahead of the rest. The tree pictured above caught my eye, with its red leaved branches standing out from the rest of the still-green tree. It is a remarkable and lovely natural autumnal transition.
Alas, other “transitions” in our midst are neither lovely or natural. I am alluding to the “medical transitioning” of our young people, who are often told that multiple surgeries and life-long (cross-sex) hormonal treatments will transition ...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
What Does Autonomy Have to Do with It?
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
On the second day of May, 2022, a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion in the Mississippi Dobbs case, regarding abortion, was leaked to the media. The resulting cultural distress frenzy has been somewhat akin to dropping meat into a pool of piranhas. Much energy is being spent in projecting what will happen if the final decision resembles the draft. A summer of rage is being threatened by some abortion supporters.
Where, O where, is reason in all of the verbiage? Interestingly and amazingly, a book of compassionate pro-life counters to abortion advocates was published by Moody ...read more
Who is He and what has he done to our children?
Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology Emerita Trinity International University
Remember He Jiankui? He is the Chinese scientist who used CRISPR technology to edit the CCR5 gene for the HIV receptor in the genomes of human embryos. His goal was to make them HIV resistant. He reported at an international conference in 2018 that two of the edited embryos had resulted in the live births of non-identical twins, Nana and Lulu. There were also reports of a third child born in 2019. His revelations in a public forum provoked moral outrage from the scientific community. Global pressure caused Chinese authorities to suspend ...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
Life and Choice
Janet Liljestrand, M.D., M.A.
In 1862 Louis Pasteur performed the definitive experiment that proved even the smallest organisms, those only seen under the microscope, derived from other like organisms. (1) Life came from life. Fast forward to 1973, and Justice Blackmun, writing for the majority decision in Roe v. Wade stated “We need not resolve the difficult decision of when life begins”. (2) What was the Justice’s definition of life? The human zygote contains all it needs for cellular division–and thus growth–at the union of a living sperm and living egg. How then has its human life not begun? Yes, in ...read more
Guinea Pigs
Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology Emerita Trinity International University
Successful xenotransplantation, animal donor to human recipient organ transfer, is the holy grail for medical doctors and scientists who study organ transplant. Why? Approximately 107,000 people are awaiting organ transplant in the US. Most will wait up to 2 to 3 years. About 17 people die per day because there are not enough organs available to meet the demand (1). Animal organs that have been genetically engineered to remove tissue molecules that cause transplant rejection would go a long way toward relieving the organ shortage.
A recently proclaimed major transplantation breakthrough attracted widespread ...read more
Risk versus Benefit
Janet Liljestrand, M.D., M.A.
Whether we realize it or not, we weigh the benefit versus the risk of most decisions, large and small. When making medical decisions, physicians will sometimes refer to the risk/benefit ratio. A math problem with numbers? Unfortunately not, but a clinical judgment seeking to determine if the benefit that this particular patient is likely to receive is greater or lesser than the risks the patient will be assuming with the procedure or medication.
Childhood immunizations risks are often stated to be less than one in a million. With such a low risk, the benefits are great by comparison. ...read more
Human Dignity — A First Principle
C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D. Distinguished Fellow The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture
After the horrific human rights abuses of Nazi Germany were revealed at the end of World War II, an international tribunal was held in Nuremberg to try those who were responsible for the Holocaust. Hard on the heels of those Nuremberg Trials (1945-46) followed the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which enshrined the notion of human dignity, declaring that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of ...read more
