Legacy Matters

On the Bioedge

A clearinghouse of legal and medical bioethical news and opinion, the Australasian Bioethics Information (ABI)  is a rich source for finding out current stories that illustrate complex bioethical questions.  We will all face some of these issues.  Legal and health professionals will see a lot more of them in the coming years.(I'm having trouble creating a working link so here's the url to cut and paste. http://www.australasianbioethics.org/Newsletters/currentbioedge.html#lisbon )

Take a look at the sampling of stories in just one week's newsletter. You must remember you're not  reading crazy stories from the  News of the World or the Onion,  but from a respectable newsletter.  It just shows  you how far we've come into an unimaginable future, how close we are to the bioedge.

• Healthy patients deserve euthanasia too, say Dutch doctors.  Just being alive is suffering enough apparently.
• Lobotomised Kennedy sister dies at 86 after 60 years in an institution.
• Alabama man lives in coma for 23 years because his family refuses to let go
• Some doctors "offensive" towards Down syndrome infants
• Grandmothers overturn age-old conceptions. More on the 67 year old Romanian woman who's seven months pregnant with twins.

UPDATE: The 67 year old Romanian woman, Adriana IIiescu gave birth to twin girls today.  One died shortly afterwards, the other is in good health