Bioethics News.
02/14/2014
Crazy ants take on fire ants and win
Crazy enough to use their own venom to detoxify that of a fire ant.
02/14/2014
Ancient American’s genome mapped
Present-day Native Americans are descended from some of the continent’s earliest settlers, a genetic study suggests.
02/13/2014
How your DNA can reconstruct history
Most people are carrying around historical records in their DNA, with clues to how people from genetically distinct groups intermingled over the last 4,000 years. That’s the conclusion of a new study in the journal Science.
02/12/2014
Measuring Public Perception About Cancer Prevention, Treatment and Research
Genetic testing to predict the likelihood of developing a hereditary cancer can help save millions of lives each year.
02/12/2014
Vast Study Casts Doubts on Value of Mammograms
One of the largest and most meticulous studies of mammography ever done, involving 90,000 women and lasting a quarter-century, has added powerful new doubts about the value of the screening test for women of any age.
02/11/2014
Did AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Violate HIPAA?
Tim Armstrong has already acknowledged (and apologized) for his sizable gaffe last week, but is he also guilty of violating healthcare’s privacy law known as HIPAA?
02/10/2014
Teen Pregnancy Rates Much Higher for Girls With Serious Mental Illness: Study
Teenage girls diagnosed with major mental illness are much more likely to give birth, suggesting such girls should become a special target for anti-pregnancy efforts.
02/10/2014
Scientist’s Experiment in Fundraising
Scientist Plans to Raise $1.5 Million Through Online Solicitations
02/07/2014
23andMe Releases New Research on Genetic Causes of Allergies
23andMe finds 11 new genetic associations for allergy sufferers, but the company isn’t out of the hot-seat yet as questions continue to emerge about direct-to-consumer genetic testing.
02/07/2014
To Catch a Killer Gene: Sisters Race to Stop Mystery Disease
The gene has killed five people in the Linder family, and it now threatens the sisters themselves. But if they have their way, it will die out in their generation.
02/06/2014
Why You Should Care That CVS Will Stop Selling Cigarettes, Even if You’re Not a Smoker
CVS/Pharmacy announced on Wednesday that its stores will discontinue cigarette sales by October 1 of this year. CVS Caremark, the parent company of the pharmacy chain, predicts that the move could lose the company $2 billion in revenue for 2014, but won’t affect its earnings forecast.
02/05/2014
Ethics Questions Arise as Genetic Testing of Embryos Increases
Her first thought after she heard the news, after she screamed and made her mother and boyfriend leave the room, was that she would never have children.
02/05/2014
New rule allows patients to get test results directly from labs, without doctors’ clearance
Patients may obtain their test results directly from the laboratory that produced them, without having to go through their doctors.
02/05/2014
Myriad Genetics jumps into RA Dx with its $270M Crescendo Bioscience deal
Myriad Genetics ($MYGN) dropped a big hint in November that it would pursue a major acquisition, and now it has pulled the trigger.
02/04/2014
Breastfeeding Is Now Required By Law In The United Arab Emirates
The Emirates’ Federal National Council has passed a clause, part of their new Child Rights Law, requiring new moms to breastfeed their babies for two full years, The National reports. Now, men can sue their wives if they don’t breastfeed.
02/04/2014
Seeing ultrasound rarely changes abortion plans: study
Nearly 99 percent of women went ahead with an abortion after voluntarily viewing an ultrasound image of the fetus beforehand, according to a large new U.S. study.
02/03/2014
Thank The Pill For Abortion Rate Drop
The abortion rate in the U.S. has reached its lowest level since Roe v Wade. Why credit should go to Planned Parenthood, not the GOP.
02/03/2014
Stem cell ‘major discovery’ claimed
Stem cell researchers are heralding a “major scientific discovery”, with the potential to start a new age of personalised medicine.
02/03/2014
J&J Sets Drug Data Free in ‘YODA’ Collaboration With Yale
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will give academics access to data on clinical trials, a move that may prompt more companies to do the same.
02/01/2014
‘Miscarriage Management’: The Next Front in the Abortion Wars
The new abortion law H.B. 2 may not have eliminated abortions in Texas; it may simply have changed the tools and made it more dangerous for women to obtain these crucial medical procedures.
01/31/2014
Drug traffickers deal lethal blow to Central American forests, study says
The craving for cocaine in the United States is carving apart rainforests in Central America as narco-traffickers seek new routes to ship their drugs and expand cattle ranches to launder their profits, according to a new study.
01/31/2014
Obama Says Easing Marijuana Restrictions a Job for Congress
President Barack Obama says in a new interview that that it’s up to Congress to remove marijuana from the federal government’s list of the most serious narcotics.
01/31/2014
We Are Giving Ourselves Cancer
DESPITE great strides in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States.
01/30/2014
Calling Obesity a Disease May Have ‘Boomerang Effect’
01/30/2014
How much Neanderthal DNA do you have? Lots
Many of the genes that help determine most people’s skin and hair are more Neanderthal than not, according to two new studies that look at the DNA fossils hidden in the modern human genome.
01/29/2014
Mass Slaughter of Vulnerable Shark Species in China, Wildlife Group Says
A “shark slaughterhouse” of vulnerable species, including the whale shark, was operating in China.
01/29/2014
Antioxidants including vitamin E can promote lung cancer: study
Antioxidants do not protect against cancer in healthy people and may increase it or promote it in those who already do.
01/28/2014
Compounds in exhaled breath may detect early lung cancer
Of all cancers, lung cancer is the biggest killer in both men and women. According to the American Lung Association, it causes more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined.
01/28/2014
‘Challenger: An American Tragedy:’ Review
In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger launched through frozen skies and exploded just one minute and 13 seconds after lift off.
01/27/2014
Sex, pregnancy poorly understood by women
Women are often in the dark when it comes to basic facts about sex, fertility, pregnancy and their own reproductive health, according to a US study Monday.