Monthly Archives: February, 2011
The chair’s request: A single good idea
At the end of a long meeting today, Dr. Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania and Chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, had one question for a group of experts on the ethics of genetics testing and neuro-imaging: “What could we most productively take on as a commission? [...]
Interpreting your genetics test results: No easy feat
Vanderbilt University recently asked its second-year medical students to take personal genetics testing through the company 23andMe in order to better understand how to counsel patients who take the test. Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, the Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt, also decided to join in. Clayton, a medical doctor, [...]
Ethics of prenatal genetic tests
What could be an explosive ethical issue in genetic testing in the years ahead? One possibility: prenatal genetic testing. Hank Greely, the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, told the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today that just 1 to 2 percent of pregnancies now involve [...]
Read your mind? Not in a ‘million light years’
The members of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues received a primer today on recent advances in the use of medical technology on neuro-imagery. It was a session that Dr. Gregory House of the TV show House would have found fascinating – especially the multiple uses of MRI machines to help detect [...]
DNA sleuthing: OK to snatch a wine glass?
The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is considering today whether to take up an examination now of ethical issues surrounding neuro-imaging and genetic testing. If it decides to do so, Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, had some advice on where to focus. Collins, the lead speaker [...]
Live-blogging from the President’s Bioethics Commission
Welcome to the live-blog from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues’ fourth meeting, held at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C. Today’s topics will include the ethics of neuro-imaging and genetic testing. Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, will be the first speaker and his topic [...]
Synthetic Biology and Beyond: Commission’s Goal: keep the dialogue going
Washington, D.C. – On December 16, 2010 the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released its report on Synthetic Biology, fulfilling its first charge from President Obama. Prompted by the J. Craig Venter Institute’s announcement that it had created the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell, President Obama tasked his Commission to review the [...]
