Three small steps toward genomically sensible healthcare

Three small steps toward genomically sensible healthcare

Sailing a close reach, San Francisco Bay. (Image copyright Nathaniel Pearson) A talk at the Clinical Genome Conference resonated with some folks, who suggested sharing…

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The Shock of the New: What we can say about HeLa's novel variants

The Shock of the New: What we can say about HeLa’s novel variants

A human genome, remixed, and gone viral. In a nutshell, that’s the conditionally re-published genome of HeLa cells, which flourish in labs worldwide, but trace…

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Genodicy: sequencing, in pain but in vain, to understand violence

Genodicy: sequencing, in pain but in vain, to understand violence

Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Massachusetts (Image copyright Nathaniel Pearson) A journalist asked me last week to comment on reported plans to sequence — and ostensibly…

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Cloning, Epilogue

Cloning, Epilogue

In an insightful essay (published in an excellent anthology edited by Martha Nussbaum and Cass Sunstein, which also includes other sources cited in this series…

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The new emperor's clones: Obama's refreshing but tepid embrace of reasoned sci/tech policy

The new emperor’s clones: Obama’s refreshing but tepid embrace of reasoned sci/tech policy

On 9 March, President Obama issued an executive order to lift hobbling restrictions on embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor, George Bush. In…

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Cloning, part one: The ballad of bill S.812

Cloning, part one: The ballad of bill S.812

Two years before Obama’s executive order to rescind limits on stem cell research, Senator Orrin Hatch introduced bill S.812, the ‘Human Cloning Ban and Stem…

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Cloning, part two: Hearsay, hearsay!

Cloning, part two: Hearsay, hearsay!

The trouble started back in December 2002, when the BBC aired a documentary film that openly probed the tenets of a popular sect. The day…

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Cloning, part three: Eve

Cloning, part three: Eve

The same winter that saw controversy over the BBC documentary on Crispian Hollis’s sect, another claim was foisted on the world by another sect, who…

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Cloning, part four: Our genomes, ourselves

Cloning, part four: Our genomes, ourselves

Let’s start with the worn chestnut of identity. Ethicist Robert Williamson has posited ‘that there is a personal right, ethically based, to individuality, autonomy, and…

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Cloning, part five: Eugenics

Cloning, part five: Eugenics

But in assessing the fear that cloning will lead to eugenics, note that human mate choice is already eugenic. Lest you doubt, take an extreme…

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