Abortion has always been a
hotspot in the
culture wars. But of late, the anti-abortion movement has had some huge wins, often sliding in under the radar of pro-choice supporters. Idaho bans abortions after the 20th week, claiming that mother's
shouldn't have the right to make a fetus uncomfortable. Nebraska also banned abortion after the
20th week, so did
Oklahoma.
Oregon,
Minnesota,
Georgia,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Florida,
Missouri, and
Ohio are also considering joining the
31 states that currently have such a ban.
Virginia passed a law that will
shut the doors of almost every abortion clinic in the state. And various areas are now enacting laws that suggest a fetus is
significantly more important than the
carrier of said fetus. One judge ruled that a girl couldn't have an abortion because she had
bad grammar.
It is quite possible that women who are in their 40s right now may be the only generation of American women that possessed full reproductive rights for their entire child bearing years.
posted by dejah420
on Mar 18, 2011 -
213 comments
A doctor at Cornell and his research team have been performing
clitoroplasties on female infants and little girls who show "gender ambiguity." This involves cutting away the shaft of the clitoris on girls whose clitorises are deemed
too large .
[more inside]
posted by ms.codex
on Jun 17, 2010 -
253 comments
Want your genome on a hard drive but don't have the money?
23andMe can give you almost that: a scan of your SNPs, presented online and complete with analyses derived from up-to-date medical research (and a few educated guesses). Eight months ago, blogs were rife with speculation of
who 23 could be and what the
connection with Google could mean.
[more inside]
posted by artifarce
on Feb 3, 2008 -
33 comments
You stink, therefore I am. Philosophers and psychologists have been
studying the
science of
disgust, and its proper place in the law. Leon Kass, the chairman of the president's
council on bioethics, cites
"the wisdom of repugnance" in arguing against cloning. More recently,
Martha Nussbaum has written a new book,
"Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law," which rejects disgust as a moral guide. She has also written on the role of disgust in the
mutilations of women in Gujarat.
posted by homunculus
on Jul 17, 2004 -
8 comments
If you were a lab worm [with some modifications], you could live five times longer than a human. This news will likely be celebrated by folks like
these and their ilk, while bioethicists and others
cringe. Regardless of right or wrong, the ideas of life extension/biological immoratality pose some mighty difficult
questions.
posted by moonbird
on Oct 23, 2003 -
49 comments
Required Reading from the President's Council on Bioethics.
Each of the readings that follow - which include poetry, short stories and more - is accompanied by a brief introduction and questions about the bioethical implications of the work. The new booklist includes James Watson, Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Ovid. Via the WSJ.
posted by turbodog
on Apr 18, 2003 -
2 comments
