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Is there a right not to know in psychiatry?
Some information that is relevant to our health and future prospects may bring us psychological harm. Do we have a “right” not to know? Lisa Bortolotti explains. As part of a Wellcome Trust-funded...
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The appeal of ‘unsexy’ ethics
When you think of biomedical ethics, probably the first things that spring to mind are ‘sexy’ topics like human enhancement or eugenics. But what actually helps patients and doctors? Medical student...
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Deus Ex: Medical Revolution
What does the future hold for the human body? Where will advantages in medical technology take us? Tomas Rawlings, Video Game Consultant for the Wellcome Trust, takes a look at a new gaming blockbuster...
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A New Academy for Scotland’s Rising Stars
Dr. Martyn Pickersgill, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) has appointed the first members of the Young Academy of Scotland, a new forum intended to stimulate...
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Does it matter where your genes come from?
The Progress Educational Trust (PET) project ‘Genes, Ancestry and Racial Identity: Does It Matter Where Your Genes Come From?’ was conceived as a response to the increasing prominence of controversies...
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The Human Body: Its Scope, Limits and Future
What do shark’s teeth have to do with human enhancement? Or how about sea horses with reproductive technologies? Come along to Manchester Museum this autumn to find out! Over the last few months, we’ve...
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What are your views on what happens to your genomic information?
A screengrab from one of the videos We’re closer than ever to harnessing whole genome sequencing for everyday medical use. But what would you want to know – and what would you not? Anna Middleton...
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Have your say: Mitochondrial donation in IVF
As reported here a couple of weeks ago, we’re funding research into a novel in vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique that may prevent inherited mitochondrial disorders from being passed from parents to...
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‘It’s Not Fair!’
Is rectifying a physical or mental deficiency the same as giving someone an ‘unfair’ leg up in life? Medical student Frances Butcher considers both sides. ‘Fair’ is not a word widely used by...
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“Three parent” headlines distract from the real issues of mitochondrial...
Three mitochondria surrounded by cytoplasm The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published a report titled Novel techniques for the prevention of mitochondrial DNA disorders: an ethical review. Geoff...
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Freeing us from our cells: debating mitochondrial disease
A human ovum ready for in vitro fertilization ‘What’s that you say? They’re filming for BBC2? And it’s being presented by Brian Cox….?’ Before we all started craning for a glimpse of the famous...
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Everyday enhancements
Oscar Pistorius We’re publishing the shortlisted entries to the 2012 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. Today, David Lawrence on the common forms of human enhancement. I should warn you: I took a...
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Issues of identity and disclosure in donor conception
Shirley Brailey was 12 years old when she found out she was donor conceived. Her father, who she had thought was her biological parent had Huntington’s disease, and her parents needed to let her know...
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Is it okay to use smart drugs?
In the past 5 years or so, there has been a huge increase in lifestyle use of prescription drugs that can enhance cognitive function in various ways. These so-called “smart drugs” include the...
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Choosing tomorrow’s children: the ethics of selective reproduction
By Stephen Wilkinson, Lancaster University Biomedical science is capable of giving people more choice than ever before about what their future children will be like. Such possibilities raise important...
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