bioethics
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New Details Emerge About The Plan To Build An Artificial Human Genome
Last month, a group of scientists, lawyers and entrepreneurs gathered in secret to discuss the possibility of creating a synthetic human genome from scratch. Details of the plan have finally been made public, and it’s as ambitious as it sounds. But critics say they founders of the new project are avoiding the tough ethical questions.
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Artificial Wombs Just Got One Step Closer To Reality
Scientists have sustained human embryos in a petri dish for 13 days, shattering the previous record of nine days. The breakthrough will allow researchers to study early foetal development in unprecedented detail, and brings us one step closer to viable “artificial wombs”. But it’s adding fuel to an already heated ethical debate.
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Are Sperm Banks In The Business Of Eugenics?
The most prominent sperm bank in the UK is under investigation after turning away donors with dyslexia and other questionable characteristics. This raises an important question: Should sperm banks be in the business of making “better” babies?
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The Doctor Who Infected 1300 Guatemalan Patients With STDs
In the 1940s, a young American doctor went to Guatemala to do medical experiments. He was funded by the venerable US National Institutes of Health, but he did not make anyone healthy. Instead, he deliberately exposed 1300 people to sexually transmitted diseases.