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Ethics & Human Research 2024In an earlier essay, I advocated that translational bioethics uses the public's values, determined through social science, in its analysis of translational science...
In an earlier essay, I advocated that translational bioethics uses the public's values, determined through social science, in its analysis of translational science technologies. It may be unclear what those values might be, and whether such a translational ethics would necessarily conclude that cutting edge technologies should not be developed. In this essay, I show the public's values relevant to human brain organoids and argue that a translational bioethics analysis using these values would support continued organoid research.
Topics: Humans; Organoids; Brain; Translational Research, Biomedical; Decision Making; Bioethics; Social Values
PubMed: 38944881
DOI: 10.1002/eahr.500218 -
International Journal of Gynaecology... Jun 2024An arbitrary gestational age limit of viability cannot be set, and in clinical practice the focus should be on a periviability interval-the so-called "gray zone" of...
An arbitrary gestational age limit of viability cannot be set, and in clinical practice the focus should be on a periviability interval-the so-called "gray zone" of prognostic uncertainty. For cases within this interval, the most appropriate decision-making process remains debatable and periviability has emerged as one of the greatest challenges in bioethics. Universally recognized ethical principles may be interpreted differently due to socioeconomic, cultural, and religious aspects. In the case of periviability, there is considerable uncertainty over whether interventions result in a greater balance of clinical good over harm. Furthermore, the fetus or neonate is unable to exercise autonomy and the physicians and parents will act as patient surrogates. When parents and physicians disagree about the infant's best interest, a dialogue without paternalistic attitudes is essential, whereby physicians should only offer, but not recommend, perinatal interventions. Parental choice, based on thorough information, should be respected within the limits of what is medically feasible and appropriate. When disagreements between parents and physicians occur, how is consensus to be achieved? Professional guidelines can be helpful as a framework and starting point for discussion. In reality, however, guidelines only rarely draw categorical lines and in many cases remain vague and ambiguously worded. Local ethics committees can provide counseling and function as moderators during discussions, but ethics committees do not have decision precedence. Counseling assumes the most significant role in periviability discussions, taking into consideration the particular fetal and maternal characteristics, as well as parental values. Several caveats should be observed relative to counseling: message fragmentation or inconsistence should be minimized, prognosis should preferably be presented in a positive framing, and overreliance on statistics should be avoided. It is recommended that decisions regarding neonatal resuscitation in the periviability interval be made before birth and not conditional on the newborn's appearance at birth. Regardless of decision, it is important to assure pre- and postnatal coherence. The present article describes how individual physicians, centers, and countries differ in the approach to the decision to initiate or forgo intensive care in the periviability interval. It is impossible to provide a global consensus view and there can be no unifying ethical, moral, or practical strategy. Nevertheless, ethically justified, quality care comprises early involvement of the obstetric and neonatal team to enable a coherent, comprehensible, nonpaternalistic, and balanced plan of care. Ultimately, physicians will need to adjust the expectations to the local standards, local outcome data, and local neonatal support availability.
PubMed: 38944691
DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.15744 -
Soins. Gerontologie 2024The use of technical aids has a positive impact on the autonomy and quality of life of elderly or disabled people, and is also beneficial for the caregivers and...
The use of technical aids has a positive impact on the autonomy and quality of life of elderly or disabled people, and is also beneficial for the caregivers and professionals who support them. Nevertheless, there are still major obstacles to their use, notably a general lack of information on technical aids. This observation led us to produce a set of information tools to help people better understand these aids and how to use them.
Topics: Humans; Personal Autonomy; Aged; Disabled Persons
PubMed: 38944469
DOI: 10.1016/j.sger.2024.04.008 -
Journal of Industrial Microbiology &... Jun 2024Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 is a promising microbial chassis for industrial production of valuable compounds, including aromatic amino acids derived from the...
Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 is a promising microbial chassis for industrial production of valuable compounds, including aromatic amino acids derived from the shikimate pathway. In this work, we developed two whole-cell, transcription factor based fluorescent biosensors to track cis, cis-muconic acid (ccMA) and chorismate in C. glutamicum. Chorismate is a key intermediate in the shikimate pathway from which value-added chemicals can be produced, and a shunt from the shikimate pathway can divert carbon to ccMA, a high value chemical. We transferred a ccMA-inducible transcription factor, CatM, from Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 into C. glutamicum and screened a promoter library to isolate variants with high sensitivity and dynamic range to ccMA by providing benzoate, which is converted to ccMA intracellularly. The biosensor also detected exogenously supplied ccMA, suggesting the presence of a putative ccMA transporter in C. glutamicum, though the external ccMA concentration threshold to elicit a response was 100-fold higher than the concentration of benzoate required to do so through intracellular ccMA production. We then developed a chorismate biosensor, in which a chorismate inducible promoter regulated by natively expressed QsuR was optimized to exhibit a dose-dependent response to exogenously supplemented quinate (a chorismate precursor). A chorismate-pyruvate lyase encoding gene, ubiC, was introduced into C. glutamicum to lower the intracellular chorismate pool, which resulted in loss of dose-dependence to quinate. Further, a knockout strain that blocked the conversion of quinate to chorismate, also resulted in absence of dose-dependence to quinate, validating that the chorismate biosensor is specific to intracellular chorismate pool. The ccMA and chorismate biosensors were dually inserted into C. glutamicum to simultaneously detect intracellularly produced chorismate and ccMA. Biosensors, such as those developed in this study, can be applied in C. glutamicum for multiplex sensing to expedite pathway design and optimization through metabolic engineering in this promising chassis organism.
PubMed: 38944415
DOI: 10.1093/jimb/kuae024 -
The American Journal of Medicine Jun 2024
PubMed: 38944230
DOI: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2024.06.015 -
Reproductive Biomedicine Online May 2024What is the attitude of Belgian women of reproductive age towards enucleated egg donation? Does the willingness of women to donate differ when they would donate...
RESEARCH QUESTION
What is the attitude of Belgian women of reproductive age towards enucleated egg donation? Does the willingness of women to donate differ when they would donate enucleated or whole eggs?
DESIGN
In 2022, an online survey was conducted among a representative sample of 1000 women in Belgium aged 18-50 years. The item on willingness to anonymously donate enucleated eggs was dichotomized into those willing to donate and those not willing to donate or uncertain.
RESULTS
No statistically significant difference was found between the willingness to donate enucleated eggs and whole eggs (whether anonymously or identifiably). Anonymity, however, affected the willingness to donate, with considerably fewer women willing to donate identifiably. The respondents were divided about their parental status if they were to donate enucleated eggs, with less than one-half (44%) not considering themselves to be a genetic mother. Women willing to donate enucleated eggs anonymously were less likely to view themselves as a genetic mother of the child compared with others. Fewer than one in five considered the technique unacceptable because the resulting child would carry genetic material of three persons.
CONCLUSIONS
Women in the general population did not show a greater willingness to donate enucleated eggs than whole eggs. The fact that the respondents were strongly divided on whether or not they would consider themselves to be a genetic mother of the resulting child may explain this result. Other factors, such as the potential high risk for the child, may also have contributed to less willingness.
PubMed: 38943811
DOI: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2024.104101 -
Cell Jun 2024A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains...
A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains precarious due to the potential genetic consequences of population declines, which are poorly understood on a timescale beyond a few generations. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary processes leading up to the mammoths' extinction, we analyzed 21 Siberian woolly mammoth genomes. Our results show that the population recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable during the ensuing six millennia. We find that mildly deleterious mutations gradually accumulated, whereas highly deleterious mutations were purged, suggesting ongoing inbreeding depression that lasted for hundreds of generations. The time-lag between demographic and genetic recovery has wide-ranging implications for conservation management of recently bottlenecked populations.
PubMed: 38942016
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.033 -
Gaceta Sanitaria Jun 2024
PubMed: 38941884
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2024.102411 -
Cognition Jun 2024Why were women given the right to vote? "Because it is morally wrong to deny women the right to vote." This explanation does not seem to fit the typical pattern for...
Why were women given the right to vote? "Because it is morally wrong to deny women the right to vote." This explanation does not seem to fit the typical pattern for explaining an event: rather than citing a cause, it appeals to an ethical claim. Do people judge ethical claims to be genuinely explanatory? And if so, why? In Studies 1 (N = 220) and 2 (N = 293), we find that many participants accept ethical explanations for social change and that this is predicted by their meta-ethical beliefs in moral progress and moral principles, suggesting that these participants treat morality as a directional feature of the world, somewhat akin to a causal force. In Studies 3 (N = 513) and 4 (N = 328), we find that participants recognize this relationship between ethical explanations and meta-ethical commitments, using the former to make inferences about individuals' beliefs in moral progress and moral principles. Together these studies demonstrate that our beliefs about the nature of morality shape our judgments of explanations and that explanations shape our inferences about others' moral commitments.
PubMed: 38941763
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105860 -
Boletin Medico Del Hospital Infantil de... 2024This essay challenges the idea of progress as technological development in relation to medicine by focusing on people rather than things. It analyzes how the prevalence...
This essay challenges the idea of progress as technological development in relation to medicine by focusing on people rather than things. It analyzes how the prevalence of such an idea of progress leads contemporary societies to a technofetishism that degrades community life and medical practice, contributing to the medicalization of social life. It is argued that the realization of technological potentialities depends on their forms of use, that the main motive of technological development is unlimited profit, and the priority developments are those that enhance social control which maintains the status quo. Intelligence as an intelligence quotient is criticized by proposing it as an attribute of the human being as a whole, manifested in the ways of thinking and acting of human beings in their circumstances, where affectivity and critical thinking are essential for their development; it is emphasized that its antecedent is the harmonic concert of planetary life, which contrasts with the prevailing human disharmony. It is proposed that artificial intelligence is the latest creation of technofetishism, which deposits vital attributes in technology, and that its use will accentuate the degradation of human and planetary life. Another idea of medical progress is proposed, based on forms of organization that is conducive to the development of inquisitive, critical, and collaborative skills that promote permanent improvement, whose distant horizon is dignified progress: the spiritual, intellectual, moral, and convivial sublimation of collectivities in harmony with the planetary ecosystem.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence; Humans; Medicalization
PubMed: 38941644
DOI: 10.24875/BMHIME.M24000071