Evaluating medical marijuana use during pregnancy
In 2020, Amanda Aguilar was arrested after using marijuana while pregnant, and, after her son tested positive for marijuana at birth, was charged with child neglect. She fought the charge, arguing that ...
The most serious miscalculation of all?
Physician-assisted suicide, according to its advocates, offers a good way to wrap up our life as we face extreme suffering. When we think we have reached the limit of what we can bear in terms of pain ...
Poking the hornet's nest of IVF
A sweeping decision by the Alabama Supreme Court in February sent shockwaves through the world of assisted reproduction. Justice Jay Mitchell, writing on behalf of the court's 7-2 majority, concluded ...
The ethics of neuroimplants and brain-computer interfaces
Neuralink, a company run by Elon Musk, announced in September that it had received approval to implant wireless brain-computer interfaces (BCI) into human volunteers. A BCI is a neural device that translates ...
Genetic privacy: Should law enforcement have access to your newborn's blood?
Many parents and concerned citizens would probably be surprised to learn that their children's blood samples are being accessed by law enforcement agencies without their knowledge or consent. In ...
Rapid onset gender dysphoria
In recent years, the number of young people with gender dysphoria, or extreme discomfort in one's biological sex, has skyrocketed in the U.S. and Western Europe. Professor Lisa Littman, a researcher ...
What about synthetic embryos?
Embryonic stem cells have held out a certain appeal and promise because they are remarkably flexible. Researchers can make various cell types out of them, whether nerve cells or pancreatic islet cells, ...
Setting a moral vision as parents
When I was recently visiting with friends, a group of young girls was playing in a neighboring yard. Every few minutes, for more than an hour, one of them would scream at the very top of her lungs. A ...
