June 1, 2003 Compassion, information are antidote to fear

EEvents over the last several weeks in Canada, and particularly in Toronto, have reminded us of the power of infectious disease to disrupt far more than the lives of those infected. In addition to the tragedies of sickness and...

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February 1, 2003 Patenting life a dangerous step

Last December, the Supreme Court ruled that a higher life form could not be patented under existing patent law in Canada. In a 5:4 decision they argued that the current law could not be stretched to include higher life forms....

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April 1, 2002 Report on stem cell research flawed by lack of religious voice

LAST MONTH, the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), the largest source of public funding for medical research in Canada, released its long-awaited guidelines on the use of embryonic stem cells for research. Needless to...

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June 1, 2001 A failure of maturity

Web ExclusiveIt was like entering a time warp. As I watched the images of young protesters clashing with police in Quebec City, I felt as if I had been transported back to my youth, to the days of student activism and political...

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May 1, 2001 Biotech calls out for integrity, transparency

RECENT developments in the biological sciences, including genomics, the science of gene mapping and manipulation, have the potential to change human life in ways that make the industrial revolution look like a Sunday school...

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March 1, 2001 Would the Prince of Peace ever counsel violence?

IT MAY BE inevitable that the beginning of the World Council of Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence should be marked by the question of whether it is ever appropriate to use violence to end violence. The moderator of the WCC's...

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November 1, 2000 The ethos that lies behind the ethics

AS I LOOK over my columns for the Journal I realize that I have fallen into a pattern that I have often criticized. Almost every column has focused on a particular moral problem. There is a great deal to be said for this...

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June 1, 2000 'Yuck' factor in organ transplants ought to be heeded

YOU MAY remember the story of Baby Fae. She was the newborn who received an emergency heart transplant in 1984. What made the operation memorable was that the heart used was a baboon's. The procedure turned out as most highly...

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March 1, 2000 Image of tiny hand does not resolve abortion debate

IT IS A poignant picture. A tiny hand reaches out of an incision made in a womb in order to undertake corrective surgery on a fetus that has been diagnosed with spina bifida. In fact, although it looks as though the tiny hand is...

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October 1, 1999 The ethical implications of genetically modified food

IN THE BOOK of Genesis God instructs humankind to, "fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over ? every living thing that moves on the earth." From earliest times we have done just that. We have adapted the natural world to...

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