Bioethics and Film by the Stanford Center of Bioethics

For those interested in bioethics and film documentaries, here are some suggestions for excellent bioethics movies on "how think deeply about important issues in healthcare and improve care" from the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford, CA, USA.

1."Grainger-Monsen’s most recent work, Hold Your Breath, is a haunting documentary that exposes the tragic consequences of cross-cultural miscommunication. This dramatic face off between ancient Islamic traditions and contemporary medical technology follows the dramatic journey of an Afghan refugee family, as cultures collide over medical treatment of their father’s illness. The film, which is scheduled for national broadcast on PBS in Spring 2007, has attracted national media attention, including a Newsweek cover story and a story on ABC World News Tonight with the late Peter Jennings."

2."Hold Your Breath evolved out of Grainger-Monsen’s last project, Worlds Apart, a series of four short films, produced for medical education, that explore cultural conflicts over medical treatment. Shot in patients' homes, neighborhoods, and places of worship, hospital wards and community clinics, Worlds Apart provides a penetrating look at both the patient's culture and the culture of modern medicine."

3."The Vanishing Line, a feature documentary broadcast nationally on PBS’ award winning POV series, poses the question: “When does life become a fate worse than death?” An intensely personal look at sustaining life at any cost, the film takes Dr. Grainger-Monsen on a quest to discover the "art of dying" in a world that taught her how to prolong life, but offered few prescriptions for treating death."

*For more see: http://medethicsfilms.stanford.edu/

Recent Advances in Adult Stem Cell Research

For all interested in recent advances in Adult Stem Cell Research and other alternatives to Embryonic Stem Cell Research see article by DoNoHarm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics, "75 NEW REASONS TO RECONSIDER THE ALLEGED NEED FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH THAT DESTROYS HUMAN EMBRYOS".
See full article at: http://www.stemcellresearch.org/alternatives/75newreasons.pdf

An Vatican conference on Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture

An interesting article to share. I thought this is worth sharing amongst those who's been reading about adult stem-cell research. "A Vatican conference (http://adultstemcellconference.org) could help influence public figures to get behind adult stem-cell research, much in the way Michael J. Fox is lobbying for embryonic stem-cell research. That’s the hope of Dr. Robin Smith, CEO of NeoStem, an international biopharmaceutical firm based in New York. The Nov. 9-11 conference, “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture,” will bring Church leaders, policymakers, government health ministers and ambassadors to the Holy See together with scientists, stem-cell companies and patients who have participated in adult stem-cell trials.

The gathering will feature Tommy Thompson, former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services; Jesuit Father Kevin FitzGerald, a bioethicist at Georgetown; TV medical correspondent Max Gomez; Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, and others. It is the first public event sponsored by NeoStem and the Pontifical Council for Culture since the two entered into a formal partnership last year. The conference is part of a larger plan to foster education and networking in support of ethical research.

“The most important thing we can do now is gather people,” said Father Tomasz Trafny, head of the Science and Faith Department of the Pontifical Council for Culture. “We want to invite scientists, Church leaders, organizations that are working in that field of research to come, to approach us.”

Their efforts are being made at a time when there is still much support for embryonic stem-cell research, both in the public funding of it and the fact that it is a cause célèbre with certain public figures.

David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences in the Family Research Council’s Center for Human Life and Bioethics, is also on the program for this week’s conference.

“It is certainly significant that the Vatican is partnering with NeoStem, since the Vatican fully supports ethical stem-cell research and treatments (adult stem cells) but rejects anything that endangers human life or involves unethical aspects, i.e., embryonic stem-cell research,” he said. “It is very encouraging that the Vatican would place resources toward adult stem-cell research. This is not empty rhetoric, but putting the resources to work to advance ethical and successful adult stem-cell therapies, and should hasten the development of real treatments using ethical adult stem cells.” Indeed, as part of the deal, the Vatican contributed $1 million toward NeoStem’s efforts.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article%20/vatican-n.y.-firm-connect-on-bioethics/#ixzz1dQriQPU8
**Permission from NCR, 2011.

Embryonic stem cells: authorisation of the 1st clinical trial in Europe

For those interested in question concerning the use of human embryonic and adult stem cells:

"On 22 September 2011, the American biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced the forthcoming launch of the first clinical trial to be carried out in Europe using human embryonic stem cells (Cf. Press Review of 22-26/11/10). Authorised by the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee, this trial is designed to find a treatment for Stargardt disease, a form of macular degeneration leading to blindness in young people. It will be carried out at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

In November 2010 in the United States, ACT had already undertaken a first clinical trial, for the same disease, based on by-products of human embryonic stem cells. Two American patients took part. "We are very pleased with the results and we are currently programming two new trials on two other patients", states Bob Lanza, Chief Scientific Officer at ACT.

There is considerable debate in Europe and the United States on the use of human embryonic stem cells in the search for treatments. These cells are in fact taken from the human embryo in the first days of its development and their collection involves its destruction.

In an opinion column in the French medical daily Le Quotidien du Médecin, Prof. Claude Huriet comments on the discovery made by Prof Luc Douay and his team who managed to produce blood from adult stem cells (Cf. Press Review of 02/09/11). He writes that this will put an end to the confrontation in the field of regenerative medicine between those in favour of the use of human embryonic stem cells and those working on adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). This second approach, writes Prof. Huriet, "was rejected by researchers whose often aggressive reactions, reported in the media, were marked more by ideological considerations than based on objective scientific argument. (...) Twenty years later, with research on the embryonic cells having shown their limits for therapeutic uses, adult stem cells are henceforth ‘the cells of hope’". This opposition between researchers in France had the "indirect consequence in our country of delaying awareness of the advantage of using placental blood cells, now proven." Prof. Huriet notes that the current results clearly confirm "the expertise acquired by researchers in reprogramming the mechanisms of cell division." They also show that "while innovations in the field of the life sciences arouse ethical reactions often regarded as obstacles to innovation, it sometimes happens that these ethical objections stimulate the imagination of researchers and finally lead to progress! Who could quarrel with that?" he asks."

Source: AFP 22/09/11 - Le Quotidien du médecin.fr 22/09/11
Permission: Gènéthique/Press review-19/09/11 - 23/09/11

Anti-Depressants and the Dying

"What are some ethical issues surrounding the taking of anti-depressants? Does their mood-altering affect raise moral problems for people preparing their consciences for death? -- K.N., Augusta, USA."

"E. Christian Brugger, a Senior Fellow of Ethics at the Culture of Life Foundation offers the following response: The principal purpose of legitimately prescribed medications is therapeutic, that is, ordered toward the restoration of health. People suffering from major depression, dysthymia (low level chronic depression), chronic anxiety, panic attacks or bipolar disease are suffering from real health disorders. Medicine has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that these conditions have a distinct biological dimension. Data indicates that that dimension can be positively benefited by antidepressant medications.

These conditions might also have what clinical psychology calls a behavioral dimension. And I firmly believe that one's voluntary choosing and thinking can contribute to the exacerbation or minimization of the effects of many psychic disorders. It is unquestionably the case that for persons diagnosed with these types of disorders, some behavioral changes will be necessary to restoring long-term therapeutic health. But antidepressants can and should sometimes be part of a comprehensive therapeutic plan.

That said, antidepressants can cause significant side effects that burden one's life, affect one's relationships and limit one's range of activity. Moreover, similar to wearing glasses, one's neurochemistry after taking antidepressants for extended periods can establish new levels of normality on the medication. And so people who cease taking the meds will sometimes feel worse than before going on them. Finally, the newer classes of antidepressants are very expensive and can burden one's budget especially during economic downturns such as our own.

In making a good morally informed decision about beginning or continuing treatment with one of these drugs, consideration of these possible burdens should be factored in."

For more see http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/671/98/, or http://www.zenit.org/article-30718?l=english
Reprinted with permission, CLF, 2011.

3 Arguments Against IVF

ZENIT - 3 Arguments Against IVF "How can it be wrong to bring a child [by IVF] into the world, a child whom a couple intends to love and cherish and perhaps even raise as a good Christian? The answer gets at the heart of the Catholic Church's teachings on both the dignity of human life and of marriage. The question rightly identifies the wrongness of creating and destroying (and we should add freezing) human embryos in and through the process of IVF. But even if IVF was chosen only by married couples, and those couples intended to create only as many embryos as they implant, and they rejected the eugenic screening and destruction of disabled embryos, IVF still would be gravely wrong."

E. Christian Brugger, a Senior Fellow of Ethics and director of the Fellows Program at the Culture of Life Foundation: "Two Vatican "Instructions" on bioethical issues address this, both published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF): "Donum Vitae" (1987), Section II, B, 4, and "Dignitas Personae" (2008), No. 12. The documents set forth three basic arguments, or sets of reasons, to explain why children are licitly conceived only through a marital act (defined in Canon law as a "conjugal act which is per se suitable for the generation of children to which marriage is ordered by its nature and by which the spouses become one flesh," Canon 1061, § 1). I will refer to them as the "unity-procreation" argument, the "language of the body" argument, and the "begotten-not-made" argument."

Source: http://www.zenit.org/article-32247?l=english, ZE11040608 - 2011-04-06

John Haas Discusses the Greatest Bioethical Challenge Today

ZENIT - Demoting Humans "What are the most important subjects in bioethics today? Haas: From my point of view it is the de-personalization and de-humanization of health services. Human beings are being regarded as lacking rights. Organ donation has become an international business. The same happens with in vitro fertilization that, in the United States, moves close to $5 million every year. Men and women are not being regarded as human beings, but as material to use for scientific experiments, even on some occasions for experiments that, on the surface, have the very good intention of helping others.
Source: http://www.zenit.org/article-33335?l=english, ZE11090106 - 2011-09-01.

NaProTechnology approach of the Catholic Church to issues related to reproductive medicine

I just recently found 2 important and insightful speeches/transcripts from the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals meeting in Rome, Italy, on June 9-10, 2008. It was a meeting targeting towards members of the American Academy of Fertility Care Professionals and other Allied Health Providers, as well as to anyone interested in the Natural Procreative Technology approach of the Catholic Church to issues related to reproductive medicine. I highly recommend two speeches offered by Rev. Dr. D. Vincent Twomey,SVD and Rev. Wojciech Giertych,OP at that meeting for physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, medical and nursing students, bioethicists, clergy, religious and natural family planning teachers.

(1) The Rev. Dr. D. Vincent Twomey, SVD -- Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age (http://www.popepaulvi.com/PDF/AAFCP2008_Rome_FrTwomey.pdf)
(1) The Rev. Wojciech Giertych, OP -- Sending You on Your Way: The Sending by the Lord, the Giver of Life, and Fertility-Related Issues (http://www.popepaulvi.com/PDF/AAFCP2008_Rome_FrGiertych.pdf)
Source: http://www.popepaulvi.com/forms.htm.