Many of the controversies in bioethics and medicine today stem from differing views on life: when it begins, when and how we should protect it, and what our views on life say about our culture and society as a whole. 

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Given the current state of technology, reproductive cloning is not a safe and effective means of human reproduction. Cloning reduces genetic diversity, is beneficial neither for the child nor the parent, and without restrictions could create many legal and social problems.

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Cosmetic plastic surgery (CPS) gets a bad rep for the obvious reasons. It brings to mind superficial wealthy women living in glamorous places and spending someone else’s money on self-beautification. In a way it seems to be cheating—reversing the normal Darwinian structure of survival based on genetic fitness. However, cosmetic plastic surgery is an inevitable and expected outcome given psychology, natural selection, and changes in technology.

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We are pleased to introduce the five members of our revised IEET intern program: Akansha Bhargava, Diana Deca, Kris Notaro, Ben Scarlato, and Priyamvada Sivasubramanian.

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In the realm of moral and legal debates, the right to life holds a highly esteemed position.  However, the overwhelming support for an individual’s right to live appears to be one sided. The antithesis: the right to die is often neglected.  In both the medical and scholarly communities alike the idea of a right to death is often scorned or brushed aside.  There seems to be an underlying assumption in favor of life and an implicit belief that those that wish to end their lives are misinformed or mentally incompetent.  This paper will defend the position that there are legitimate reasons and justifications for a person to request the right to die and that under certain circumstances it is morally obligatory that these rights be upheld. 

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Akansha is an aspiring scientist, philosopher and science journalist who joins us from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  She is currently completing her senior thesis on Alexander’s disease at the Waisman Center.