Bioethics.net

December 11, 2018 9:15 am

The CRISPR Baby Scandal Gets Worse by the Day (The Atlantic)

Before last week, few people had heard the name He Jiankui. But on November 25, the young Chinese researcher became the center of a global firestorm when it emerged that he had allegedly made the first crispr-edited babies, twin girls named Lulu and Nana. Antonio Regalado broke the story for MIT Technology Review, and He himself described the experiment at an international gene-editing summit in Hong Kong. After his talk, He revealed that another early pregnancy is under way.

It is still unclear if He did what he claims to have done. Nonetheless, the reaction was swift and negative. The crispr pioneer Jennifer Doudna says she was “horrified,” NIH Director Francis Collins said the experiment was “profoundly disturbing,” and even Julian Savulescu, an ethicist who has described gene-editing research as “a moral necessity,” described He’s work as “monstrous.”

December 9, 2018 12:47 pm

Why Are Scientists So Upset About the First Crispr Babies? (The New York Times)

A Chinese scientist recently claimed he had produced the world’s first gene-edited babies, setting off a global firestorm. If true — the scientist has not yet published data that would confirm it — his actions would be a sensational breach of international scientific conventions. Although gene editing holds promise to potentially correct dangerous disease-causing mutations and treat some medical conditions, there are many safety and ethical concerns about editing human embryos.

Here are answers to some of the numerous questions swirling around this development.

December 6, 2018 9:00 am

If you’re single with cancer, you may get less aggressive treatment than a married person (The Washington Post)

If you are divorced, widowed or never married and develop cancer, watch out. You may get less aggressive treatment than your married friends.

We’ve often heard about studies showing that married adults are more likely to survive cancer than singles. But buried in those same studies is another finding that hasn’t made the headlines. When surgery or radiotherapy is the treatment of choice, patients with spouses are more likely to get it.

November 16, 2018 9:00 am

When Hospitals Merge to Save Money, Patients Often Pay More (The New York Times)

The mergers have essentially banished competition and raised prices for hospital admissions in most cases, according to an examination of 25 metropolitan areas with the highest rate of consolidation from 2010 through 2013, a peak period for mergers.

November 13, 2018 9:00 am

Genetics research 'biased towards studying white Europeans' (The Guardian)

People from minority ethnic backgrounds are set to lose out on medical benefits of genetics research due to an overwhelming bias towards studying white European populations, a leading scientist has warned.

Prof David Curtis, a geneticist and psychiatrist at University College London, has called on funding bodies to do more to address the emerging issue that genetic tests developed using samples from white Europeans can give meaningless results when applied to other ethnic groups. The problem could intensify as the clinical applications of genetics expand over the next decade.

November 2, 2018 9:00 am

Aging can be hard for those in the trans community (The Washington Post)

“We were both aware that in the LGBTQ world, there’s a fair amount of ageism and lack of awareness about aging, and in the aging world there’s a fair amount of homophobia and transphobia and lack of awareness of LGBTQ issues, especially trans identities.”

October 23, 2018 9:00 am

Why White Supremacists Are Chugging Milk (and Why Geneticists Are Alarmed) (The New York Times)

Worry about how new tools are allowing us to home in on the genetic basis of hot-button traits like intelligence will be misconstrued to fit racist ideologies.

October 20, 2018 9:00 am

The culprit’s name remains unknown. But he licked a stamp, and now his DNA stands indicted. (The Washington Post)

There was just enough spit on the back of the 9-cent stamp to piece together the identity of the person who licked it. Everything except for his name.

October 3, 2018 6:00 pm

Race, Ancestry, and Medical Research (JAMA)

The discussion of race and medicine in the United States is challenging and emotionally charged. Substantial disparities in health outcomes, based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, continue to exist; additional reports of racial bias and profound insensitivity in research continue to emerge in the popular media. A renewed discussion of race as a biological vs social construct has begun and is complicated by emerging data on genetics, race, and ancestry.

September 6, 2018 1:37 am

Blood-Testing Firm Theranos to Dissolve (The Wall Street Journal)

Theranos Inc., the blood-testing company accused of perpetrating Silicon Valley’s biggest fraud, will soon cease to exist.