Australasian Science: Australia's authority on science since 1938
Quandary
Quandary column
The Unspoken Limits of Liquid Biopsies
By Ainsley Newson
Liquid biopsies promise early detection of cancer, but some of their current limitations risk being overlooked.
Ethical Challenges About Voluntary Assisted Dying
By Ian Haines
Much of the focus on new voluntary assisted dying laws is centred on patient autonomy, but it is only one of the four pillars. Does the legislation also satisfy the other three tenets of beneficence, non-maleficence and justice?
Will voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation provide compassionate physician-assisted dying, as hoped, or are we providing state-sanctioned euthanasia and assisted suicide? It certainly raises some important ethical questions.
Many of the submissions in Victoria were about tragic cases of desperate and suffering people with incurable illness who had taken or attempted to take their lives in sometimes very horrific circumstances. There was also a focus on high-profile celebrities and politicians who had watched on feeling helpless as a loved one suffered and died.
The Man with the DNR Tattoo
By Michael Cook
Should doctors follow the instructions of a tattoo when facing end-of-life decisions?
Doctors at a Florida hospital’s emergency department were startled to discover the words “DO NOT RESUSCITATE” tattooed on an unconscious man’s chest. The word “not” was underlined. Beneath this imperative was his signature, also tattooed.
“We’ve always joked about this, but holy crap, this man actually did it,” one of the doctors who treated him said. “You look at it, laugh a little, and then go: Oh no, I actually have to deal with this.”
Get Your Head Screwed on Right
By Michael Cook
Claims of the successful transplant of a human head may have been met by derision but they also reveal bioethical blindspots among ambitious surgeons.
What can you do if you become a quadriplegic after a catastrophic injury, or if you’re getting old, weak and fat? One solution is head transplantation – once the theme of very bad science fiction films and now the theme of press conferences.
Controversial Italian neurosurgeon Dr Sergio Canavero announced to media in Vienna recently that a team from Harbin Medical University led by his colleague Dr Ren Xiaoping has carried out the world’s first head transplant experiment. (In his line of business, they call it cephalosomatic anastomosis.)
Last-Minute Complications
By Michael Cook
Botched executions provide a timely warning that assisted suicide does not necessarily lead to a peaceful death.
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Ethics for an Edited Embryo
By Michael Cook
Editing of a gene in a human embryo may have ticked some regulatory boxes but this does not address some huge ethical issues.
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The Facts About Surrogacy
By Michael Cook
The dismal death of Brooke Verity illustrates the need for longitudinal studies of the long-term outcomes of surrogacy.
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Turning Psychopaths into Nice Guys
By Michael Cook
If moral bioenhancement of psychopaths becomes obligatory, who will benchmark standards?
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Locked-in’s Challenge to Autonomy
By Michael Cook
Four patients with locked-in syndrome have communicated that they are happy as long as they receive adequate care at home.
The craze for Marvel superheroes encourages us to think that merely being human is too easy. We need to exceed our limitations by adding superpowers – breathing underwater, eternal youth, colossal strength, regeneration, flying, spinning spider webs and so on. Of course, that’s just comic book stuff, but the same dynamic is at work in the Olympic goal of going “faster, higher, stronger”.
Frozen Stiff
By Michael Cook
Cryonics is a growing industry even if its feasibility is questionable and its ethics murky.
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