Articles and Commentary

Of all the genetically determined traits that we might one day hope to control, skin colour is surely one of the most politically explosive. What might the consequences be for society if we could alter our skin colour at will...

The FDA is still considering whether to allow meat and milk from cloned animals into America's food chain, without so much as a warning label. Polls show that Americans oppose cloned foods 3 to 1, and the livestock and dairy...

Melvin Konner's review of Michael Sandel's "The Case Against Perfection" [May 2007] reads like something written by Ayn Rand on steroids. Konner glibly downplays concerns about sports doping, cosmetic surgery, lifestyle neuropharmaceu-ticals, sperm-sorting to guarantee the sex of your child...

Originally published May 17, 2007

WHEN Oprah Winfrey talks, people listen - about 8 million every day. Which is why a recent Ask Dr. Oz segment on "Oprah" is so troubling. An audience member asked: "Why do I sweat so...

Since the 2005 discovery that the SLC24A5 gene variant plays a sizable role in human skin pigmentation, scientists have become increasingly intrigued by the possibility of genetically manipulating skin color. Curiously, however, this research is going on with little mention...

The newly issued International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research (G. Q. Daley et al., Policy Forum, 2 Feb., p. 603) include worthy goals and lofty language about truth and transparency in biomedical...

JENALEE RYAN has just opened the Abraham Center of Life in San Antonio, Texas, billing it as "the world's first human embryo bank ." Put bluntly, Ryan sells infertile couples their choice of designer embryos that, after being brought to...