This Series marks an unprecedented scientific collaboration between The Lancet, Peking University Health Sciences Centre, and the China Medical Board. Health System Reform in China brings together the most recent scientific evidence on China’s major health challenges, strategies, and future. The Series was produced by a team of 63 scientists, with Chinese scientists constituting two-thirds of the authors, collaborating with an international team from 10 countries.  (TheLancet.com)

Australasian Biospecimen Network 6th Annual Meeting
“Enabling Medical Research: Opportunities and Challenges for Tissue Banks within Health”
21st November, 2008
Citigate Central, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
For more information see the meeting web flyer

ISIUT 6th International Symposium
Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture
Emerging Issues in Bioethics: Conference & Clinical Ethics Workshop
25-October-2008
Dewan Farooq Medical Complex, SIUT, Karachi, Pakistan
Phone: (92-21) 2726338  Email: bioethics@siut.org  website: www.siut.org/bioethics

Volume 8, Issue 8 of The American Journal of Bioethics is available by subscription only.  Relevant articles include:

“The Green Revolution in Bioethics” by David Magnus, 1-2
“Ethics, Pandemics, and the Duty to Treat” by Heidi Malm; Thomas May; Leslie P. Francis; Saad B. Omer; Daniel A. Salmon; Robert Hood, 4-19
“Ethical Implications of Implantable Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) Tags in Humans” by Kenneth R. Foster; Jan Jaeger, 44-48
“Who Is Buying Bioethics Research?” by Richard R. Sharp; Angela L. Scott; David C. Landy; Laura A. Kicklighter, 54-58

Neuroscience 2008
Annual Meeting of the Society for Neurosecience
November 15-19, 2008
Washington, DC
Website: http://www.sfn.org/am2008/index.cfm?pagename=preliminary_program

Annual Meeting of the Neuroethics Society
The first meeting of the Neuroethics Society will take place on November 13- 14, 2008, in Washington, DC at the headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The meeting will feature an exciting line-up of invited and contributed papers, break-out groups, posters, a business meeting and ample opportunities for informal discussion and interaction.  Email: info@neuroethicssociety.org

Implanted Mind? The Neuroethics of Intracerebral Stem Cell Transplantation
Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Castle Mickeln, November 6-8, 2008

This wide-ranging conference will include plenary lectures from eminent scholars in the field alongside panel seminars, author-meets-critics sessions, outreach activities, and social receptions.
Individual papers are invited in all areas concerned with “Neuroethics of intracerebral stem cell transplantation”, broadly construed. The presentations shall outline the interdisciplinary dimensions and perspectives of the connections between neuroethics and intracerebral stem cell transplantation.

PD Dr. Heiner Fangerau
Institute for the History of Medicine
Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf
Universitaetsstrasse 1
Building 23.12.04
D-40225 Duesseldorf
Tel. +49 (0) 211 81 - 13940
Fax. +49 (0) 211 81 13949
Email: heiner.fangerau@uni-duesseldorf.de

International Congress: “A Gift for Life - Considerations on Organ Donation”, Rome, Italy, 6-8 November 2008
The Pontifical Academy Pro Life (PAV), the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) and the Italian National Transplant Centre (CNT) are organizing an international congress on “A Gift for Life - Considerations on Organ Donation” in Rome, Italy, from 6-8 November 2008.  The Congress will be a meeting of people from all over the world, at which the organ donating activities of five continents will be represented. Papers will be presented pertaining to scientific and medical, as well as to organizational, legal and ethical, aspects of organ donation.

For more information, please contact:
Arianna Caldon (Key Congress & Communication)
Email: a.caldon@keycongress.com
Tel: +39 049 8729511

When: July 18-22, 2009
Where: Veronda, VR. Italy
link: http://www.aimedicine.info

The AIME’09 conference will be a unique opportunity to present and improve the international state of the art of AI in BioMedicine from both perspectives of theory, methodology, and application. For this purpose, AIME’09 will include invited lectures, full and short papers, tutorials, workshops, and a doctoral consortium.  Original contributions are sought regarding the development of theory, techniques, and applications of AI in BioMedicine, including the exploitation of AI approaches to molecular medicine and biomedical informatics.

Regaining a quarter-inch of his missing left index finger makes playing a human guinea pig worthwhile for Army Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris. The first soldier to volunteer for an experimental procedure pioneered by a Pittsburgh researcher, Harris said he knows most people aren’t impressed with his new stub but it represents progress for soldiers maimed in combat. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

A novel medical device could treat eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked a novel treatment for two eye diseases: age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The treatment, developed by the Lincoln, RI, biotech company Neurotech, is a capsule that’s surgically implanted in the eye. Inside the capsule are genetically engineered cells that produce a protein that may prevent light-sensitive cells in the retina from dying–thereby protecting vision. The device is currently in phase II clinical trials.  (Technology Review)

“IVF: stars may have to consider the risk of stolen parenthood” by Christoph Bock.  Nature 454, 938 (21 August 2008).  By subscription only.

Abstract:

‘Life after SuperBabe’ (Nature 454, 253; 2008) and Special Report ‘Making babies: the next 30 years’ (Nature 454, 260–262; 2008) summarize the far-reaching social and ethical implications that arise from progress in in vitro fertilization (IVF) and stem-cell research.

“IVF: tight regulation may not be suitable for all cultures” by David Adamson. Nature 454, 938 (21 August 2008) By subscription only.

Abstract:

In her Essay ‘30 years: from IVF to stem cells’ (Nature 454, 280–281; 2008), Ruth Deech reminds us of the role that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has played through regulation in guiding the practice and scientific investigation of assisted-reproduction technology in the United Kingdom. But I disagree with her opinion that assisted reproduction in the United States is “nearly an unregulated black market”.

A New Issue of Science and Engineering Ethics (14:3; September 2008) is available by subscription only.
Relevant articles include:

“Facing up to Creating Life: Synthetic Biology Unfolds its Wings” by Raymond E. Spier (p 299-300)
“The Emergence and Evolution of the Expression “Conflict of Interests” in Science: A Historical Overview, 1880–2006″ by Yves Gingras, Pierre-Marc Gosselin (p 337-343)
“Gene Concepts and Genethics: Beyond Exceptionalism” by Péter Kakuk (p 357-375)
“But is it Unique to Nanotechnology?” by Marion Godman (p 391-403)

By subscription only
Abstract:

Genome instability (GI) and centrosomal alterations are common traits in human cancer. It is suspected that centrosome dysfunction may cause tumors by bringing about GI, but direct experimental proof is still lacking. To explore the possible functional link between centrosome function and overgrowth, we have assayed the tumorigenic potential of a series of mutants that affect different centrosomal proteins in Drosophila. We have found that a significant number of such mutant conditions are tumorigenic in larval brain tissue, where self-renewing asymmetric division of neural stem cells is frequent, but not in symmetrically dividing epithelial cells. We have also found that mutations that increase GI without causing centrosome dysfunction are not tumorigenic in our assay. From these observations, we conclude that the tumors caused by centrosome dysfunction cannot be explained solely by the resulting genome instability. We propose that such tumors might be caused by impaired asymmetric division of neural stem cells. These results show that centrosome loss, far from being innocuous, is a potentially dangerous condition in flies. (Current Biology)

Unesco Chair in Bioethics

First Announcement and Call for Abstracts

May 17-20, 2009

Canaan Spa, Zefat, Israel

(Brochure)

Students on the UC Berkeley Campus were asked for their comments on an ad run in their school paper, The Daily Californian.  The ad offered $100,000 for the “right” donor.

Berkeley Students Respond to Egg Ad on YouTube

August 8, 2008, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

As the Beijing Olympics get underway, one issue that is unfortunately on many minds is doping. In light of the scandals that have rocked major league baseball, the Tour de France, and past Olympic gold medalists, the Center for American Progress will host a discussion that aims to go past the headlines and put doping into a broader context. Sports doping is just one aspect of a larger discussion about human biological enhancement that has been taking place among those in the medical, bioethics, and sports communities.  (Center for American Progress, Washington, DC)

In the health care ministry, difficult ethical problems often arise that threaten human dignity and demand enlightened and informed responses and interventions. Living wills, physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, organ donation, withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from PVS patients, and allocation of limited health care resources are only a few examples of the many complex situations that arise
in modern clinical and research settings.  (Certification Program Brochure)

Representatives of different faiths frequently intervene in debates around fertility and assisted reproduction, with religious perspectives cited in recent months both in support of and in opposition to the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill. But religious attitudes towards the human embryo are not always well understood, and can be counterintuitive. This is particularly true when views of the embryo differ not only between the world’s major religions, but also according to different denominations and traditions within each religion.  (Conference Website)

9.30am-5pm, Wednesday 19 November 2008

Clifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank St, London, E14 5JJ

Conference on Biomedicine and Human Rights

During the conference eminent scholars from a variety of disciplines (medicine, law, ethics, philosophy) will discuss the meaning of the Convention’s underlying principles and fundamental rights in health care, contemporary dilemmas in health care (policy) and the Convention’s impact on national health legislation and daily practice. The conference provides an opportunity for discussion among scholars and practitioners in Europe on emerging issues in biomedicine and human rights. (Conference Website)