by Heather Zeiger | Jan 28, 2016 | Ethics, Science, Society
The recent issue of Scientific American has an article by Carl Erik Fisher, a psychiatrist and bioethics professor at Columbia University, in which he explores whether behavioral addictions are mental illnesses or just bad habits. His article, “Food, sex, gambling,...
by Heather Zeiger | Jan 19, 2016 | Ethics, Salvo, Science, Society
Check out my latest post at Salvo’s blog, Signs of the Times. I look at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report on how the words “natural,” “unnatural,” and “nature” are used in the media, journals, and in other venues. In...
by Heather Zeiger | Oct 22, 2015 | Ethics, Science, Society, Technology
It’s the stuff of comic book lore. A young woman who was a former professional athlete gave birth to a baby with unusually developed muscles. She did not give the identity of the boy’s father, but several members of her family have been known to have unusual strength....
by Heather Zeiger | Oct 1, 2015 | Clinical Trials, Ethics, Technology
Current laws about federally funded human subject research were last updated in 1991. Since then, the Human Genome Project was completed, and an entire field, known as epigenetics, has arisen from this. Just recently, a new robust gene-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, blew...
by Heather Zeiger | Sep 1, 2015 | Ethics, Science, Technology
In an opinion-editorial in the Boston Globe Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker wrote that the best thing bioethicists can do to help society is to get out of the way: Biomedical research, then, promises vast increases in life, health, and flourishing. Just imagine how...
by Heather Zeiger | Aug 6, 2015 | Ethics, Human Dignity, Society
My typical bioethics beat is not in the area of abortion, but the recent release of undercover sting videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s business in body parts and the subsequent attempts to block the media from reporting on them call for attention from bioethicists....
