How goes bioethics in the Brave New World, a world in which technological advances, the lust for profit and scientists' egos have been freed altogether from prior constraints? Indeed, can we even speak anymore of bioethics?For if there are no limits whatsoever, if every scientist or doctor or common citizen is "free to do what he likes in his own eyes" without any concern for the sanctity of human life, individual human rights, or a fear of almighty God, we could end up in a bizarre, ugly, and highly dangerous post-modern mess.
Oh, wait. We're already there.
Here's a few of the headline stories you'll find in just the latest edition of Bioedge:
* Only half of Belgium’s euthanasia cases are reported.
* When a Vancouver couple discovered that the child they had commissioned had Down syndrome, they urged their surrogate mother to abort it. She did.
* Leading British doctors who support assisting the terminally ill to die launched an unprecedented campaign for change in legislation on the right to die last week.
* Looking for publicity to boost sales of his autobiography, actor Michael Caine is boasting of having his own father euthanized.
* Surrogacy has become an unregulated industry in India. IVF clinics implant embryos couriered from abroad into surrogate mothers’ wombs. Soon this may become completely legal. The draft bill states that government accredited “banks” will register prospective surrogates on a database and warehouse sperm and eggs.
