This seems a very unusual move from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) they are offering to pay $1000000 to the first group to develop commercially viable vat-grown meat.
While it is understandable why PETA would champion this (since vat meat would remove in principle many (weak) justifications for meat eating.
However it seems in contrast with many of their previous stands, the most obvious issue being that this will almost certainly involve animal testing... Especially since they want it to taste the same as existing meat...
Thursday, May 15, 2008
PETA paying for animal testing?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Conflicts of interest in big business research
Two interesting news articles on different sorts of conflicts of interest in research can be found here in the New York Times:
Doctor Accused of Leak to Drug Maker
Financial Ties Are Cited as Issue in Spine Study
The first piece describes how, Steven M. Haffner of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, leaked an article critical of Avandia to GlaxoSmithKline after agreeing peer-review it for the New England Journal of MedicineA key member of the Senate said Wednesday that a prominent diabetes expert leaked an unpublished and confidential medical journal article to GlaxoSmithKline last year, tipping the company to the imminent publication of safety questions involving the company’s diabetes drug Avandia.
The second piece describes a potential conflict of interest in the study of an artificial spinal disc.“As a surgeon, it is gratifying to see patients recover function more quickly than after fusion and return to their normal activities more easily,” Dr. Jack E. Zigler, a well-known spine specialist and one of the study’s lead researchers, said in a 2006 news release announcing the latest results of the Prodisc clinical trial.
As it turns out, Dr. Zigler had more than a medical interest in the outcome. So did doctors at about half of the 17 research centers involved in the study. They stood to profit financially if the Prodisc succeeded, according to confidential information from a patient’s lawsuit settled last year.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Facebook and Research Ethics
This is a juxtaposition of two things I noticed recently associating social networks and various issues in research ethics.
The first is this thoughtful piece from the PredictER blog: Biomedical Research Ethics 2.0: MySpace and Pediatrics which explores some of the issues that might emerge as more and more medical information is shared by users on these sites.
The second where the delightful picture above was drawn from is an application on Facebook called "I'm a Guinea Pig!" and is described as:
Do you wish to help furthering medicine, while benefiting from state-of-the-art medical care and possibly from a remuneration ? Become a "guinea pig" for medical research!
The spectrum of experiments is very large and includes psychological tests, medical imaging studies, medical equipement testing, genetic tests, drug trials, and evaluation of the safety and efficacy of cosmetics.
Feel free to add Volterys's application and fill your profile in our database. You'll be able to browse offers from research labs. Your contacting details will only be communicated to a researcher upon your approval. At any time will you be able to decline an offer, withdraw your application for a research or unsubscribe from Volterys.
You can see the app for yourself here: Guinea Pig though only if you have a facebook account of your own.
Presently only usable in the EU, while I admire the company's inventiveness obviously it has to be questioned whether this is the best place to be recruited for medical research...
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
CFP: 9th World Congress of Bioethics
The 9th World Congress of Bioethics organized by the International Association of Bioethics will be held in Rijeka, Croatia September 5-8, 2008 with satellite conferences scheduled on September 3-4, 2008.
Abstracts are due January 31, 2008.
Further information about the Congress, the abstract submission process, and registration information is available at the Congress website
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
3 New Journals
That's right 3 new journals focusing on different areas of bioethics
The first is Public Health Ethics edited by Angus Dawson & Marcel VerweijPublic Health Ethics is the first peer-reviewed international journal to focus on a systematic analysis of the moral problems in public health and preventive medicine. It contains original articles, reviews, and case studies about the nature of public health and related concepts (e.g. population, public, community, prevention); discussions of values in public health; and ethical issues in relation to all aspects of public health policy and practice. This includes normative issues in epidemiological research, health promotion, infectious diseases control, screening, population genetics, resource allocation, health care system reform, vaccinations, environmental and lifestyle factors relevant to health, equity, justice and global health. PHE combines theoretical and practical work from different fields, notably philosophy, law, and politics, but also epidemiology and the medical sciences. Contributors are particularly encouraged to discuss the practical impact of their work on public health policies. PHE is therefore an important resource for scholars and students in bioethics and public health, but also for professionals and policy makers.
The second is Neuroethics edited by Neil LevyNeuroethics will provide a forum for interdisciplinary studies in neuroethics and related issues in the sciences of the mind. In particular the journal will focus on the ethical issues posed by the new technologies developed via neuroscience (such as psycho-pharmaceuticals and other ways of intervening in the mind), the practice of neuroscience itself (such as the problems posed by incidental findings in imaging work on research subjects), the problems of legal regulation of neuroscientific technologies, and the ways in which the sciences of the mind illuminate traditional moral and philosophical problems, such as the nature of free will and moral responsibility, the problem of self-deception, weakness of the will and the nature of personhood.
And finally Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology edited by Anthony Mark Cutter and Bert GordijnStudies in Ethics, Law, and Technology is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the ethical and legal issues that arise from emerging technologies. At the intersection of theory and practice the journal combines conceptual analysis and normative deliberations in order to shape academic debates and policy decisions.
Technological advances provide opportunities and challenges that require a policy response. Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology seeks high quality work that explores the synergy between law and ethics and provides a robust response to these opportunities and challenges. More specifically, the journal focuses on technologies that are likely to have a significant impact on the environment, society, and/or humanity.
As always you can get to the home page of each journal from the sidebar, and once they publish an rss feed they will be added to the Motherlode.
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