The Sunday Times this weekend reported that ‘the number of babies born with Down’s syndrome has fallen by 30% in NHS hospitals that have introduced a new form of screening.’ This new test, NIPT (non- invasive prenatal testing), is safer than amniocentesis, but Down syndrome […]
What happens when a rat has a drug induced medical abortion?
The rat is a valuable animal model of human disease. Humans and rats share many common genetic features and by examining the physiology, neurology, neurophysiology and the resulting behaviours such as the response to stress, of a rat, scientists can gain valuable insights into how […]
Will a robot look after you one day?
This is not a theoretical question. Robots are already widely used as ‘carers’ in Japan, the UK has a rapidly ageing population, an average of 900 care workers per day are leaving the profession due to low wages and tough conditions and there is a severe […]
Prenatal Screening and Down Syndrome – million-dollar ethics
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent think tank on bioethics, launched their report on the ethical issues of NIPT(non-invasive prenatal testing) in 2017. NIPT, a new more accurate way of screening for Down syndrome, is part of the genetic testing market, predicted to grow […]
Some Big Public Policy Challenges in Bioethics we can expect in 2018
As we look forward to the challenges that 2018 will bring I am struggling to think of a time when we have faced more major public policy challenges in bioethics in so many areas all at once. This is perhaps inevitable given the march of […]