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Author of the Father Brown mysteries and political essayist, GK Chesterton perceptively said, ‘We can be almost certain of being wrong about the future, if we are wrong about the past’. The American eugenics movement is an historical epoch that we can ill afford to be wrong about. Our future...
The battle over stem cells intensified throughout 2004 becoming a major issue in the US election won by Republican George Bush on 4 November. Much of the controversy centred around different views on the status of the human embryo, and the fact that embryos have to be created and destroyed...
(published: bbc.co.uk 2004; 12 November, AFP 2004; 8 October, Times 2004; 8 October, Independent 2004; 8 October)
Thirty years ago less than 20% of babies born before 28 weeks of gestation survived. But over the last 30 years advances in medical care at the beginning of life have transformed the prospects of survival for babies born extremely prematurely. Currently in major centres in the UK more than...
Edwin Black painstakingly traces the development of eugenic ideology, from its early days in British academia to the take over by wellfunded American institutions, and its later disgrace in Hitler's Third Reich. Eugenic ideals about the superior white 'Nordic' race were so unquestioningly accepted in governmental and 'society' circles, that...
Peter Singer is arguably the world's most famous contemporary philosopher. He is currently Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and well known for his support of abortion, euthanasia and infanticide. He has also been vocal about his opposition to 'speciesism' - the preference of human interests over those of other...
A special study module (SSM) is designed to provide medical students with an extended opportunity to work independently on a topic that interests them. They achieve this by exploring and critically evaluating the literature on the subject, producing a written report and presenting a seminar. Although the focus is on...
Until recently there has been very little debate about the relative status of humans and animals. This has largely been because both Christians and humanists believe that human beings hold a special position in the natural world. Christians see humans as special because we are created by God in his...