South Korea is one of the world's most high-tech societies. A recent government report has predicted that robots will be doing surgery by the year 2018 and that every household will have a robot by between 2015 and 2020. As the drive towards scenarios envisaged in science fiction novels and films accelerates, the government wants to set ground rules early. "Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives," said a government spokesman. Some key issues are ensuring human control over robots, protecting data acquired by robots and preventing their illegal use. ~ London Telegraph, Mar 8
In recent years, the burning issues of bioethical debate have been related to euthanasia and various aspects of procreation, like IVF and embryonic stem cell research. But the impact of medical science and technology upon human life is constantly expanding. One new frontier is neuroscience, which has opened up unprecedented possibilities for manipulating the brain. A recent feature in the New York Times gives an idea of its implications for criminal law.
Back in the early 1990s, a 65-year-old Manhattan executive, Herbert Weinstein, strangled his wife and threw her body out of the window of their apartment to make it appear a suicide. Although he apparently knew the difference between right and wrong -- the only admissible insanity defence -- his lawyer found a way out. A cyst had been discovered in his brain and it was suggested that this predisposed him to violence. He was charged only with manslaughter.
Thereafter, neuroscientific evidence has become very common in US courts. Lawyers routinely order brain scans for clients on death row to find defects which made them act upon an irresistible impulse. Legal theorists recognise that there is a danger of reducing all responsibility to brain activity. "To a neuroscientist, you are your brain; nothing causes your behaviour other than the operations of your brain," says Dr Joshua D. Greene, of Harvard. "If that's right, it radically changes the way we think about the law." Stephen J. Morse, of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that "Your reasons for your actions [may be] post hoc rationalisations that somehow your brain generates to explain to you what your brain has already done," In other words, if the mind is purely material, there is no free will. If this is true, of course, the consequences for criminal law would be momentous.
There is more to come. "Neurolaw" proponents says that brain scans will be used to detect lies. Judges and juries could be required to have brain scans to detect possible bias. They could also predict future criminal activity, including screening people who might be attracted to terrorism. It might also be possible to cure "defective" brains -- whatever they are. One scientist has already applied for a patent for a procedure which supposedly suppresses the area of the brain involved in lying, making it difficult for a person not to tell the truth. ~ New York Times, Mar 11
THE COMPLEXITIES OF ABORTION
Two recent stories in the media reflect the difficulty of taking a consistent ethical stand on abortion rights. Susanne M. Sanchez, of Miami, Florida, wrote in the New York Times of her decision to keep all of her IVF triplets even though her doctor recommended "foetal reduction". He told her that if one of her triplets were killed, the other two would have a better chance of surviving pregnancy without serious handicaps.
"While I am a feminist who believes in abortion rights, this was not the choice I had in mind," wrote Ms Sanchez. "To spend years and tens of thousands of dollars trying to conceive a baby only to end with discussions of an abortion seemed to me an especially cruel twist of fate. But what would we do if the triplets were born with serious handicaps?"
As it happened, the triplets are now four years old and healthy, although they were born prematurely and spent a long time in intensive care. ~ New York Times, Mar 4
In the other story, from Boston, a woman is suing an abortion clinic and a doctor for child-raising expenses because they failed to prevent the birth of her two-year-old daughter. In 2004 Jennifer Raper, 45, had an abortion at Planned Parenthood for financial reasons. It was not done properly and she remained pregnant. Three months later, she consulted a doctor and he failed to detect her 20- week pregnancy. Now she has filed a lawsuit for the costs of raising her daughter. Whether the case goes to trial is uncertain. Women have grounds for a lawsuit if their child has medical problems, but Ms Raper's daughter appears to be healthy. ~ International Herald Tribune, Mar 7
STEM CELLS -- BOTH KINDS -- HELP DISEASED MICE
A US study has found that both embryonic and adult stem cells protect mice against a neurogenerative disease. This is the first time, it was claimed, that rodents genetically disposed to a disease lived longer and healthier lives after injections of human stem cells. The researchers, at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, found that the human cells had developed into signalling nerve cells. When the stem cells were used in conjunction with drugs, the mice lived even longer.
Scientists were intrigued by the fact that both types of cells worked well. (The adult stem cells came from the brains of aborted human foetuses.) However, lead researcher Evan Snyder noted that embryonic stem cells were easier to use, even if they were ethically more controversial. "They just grow quicker and in greater quantities," he said. ~ New Scientist, Mar 12
GENETIC ENGINEERING MAY BE LESS DISCRIMINATORY
A British bioethicist has come up with a novel argument in favour of genetic engineering: it is non-judgemental. Currently parents in the UK are only allowed to use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for serious medical ailments, not for sex and not for minor traits such as eye colour. Writing in BioNews, Dr Colin Gavaghan, of the University of Glasgow, argues that, paradoxically, restricting parental choice sends a message to children that their DNA was so flawed that without PGD they would be better off never having been born.
It would be more sensible and less discriminatory, he contends, to allow screening for all traits, whether or not they are related to a disability. In that way, "it might be possible to argue that the value society is upholding is that of reproductive choice, whatever that choice may be". No judgement would be passed on the value of disabled lives. Dr Gavaghan pursues this line of thinking at greater length in his new book, "Defending the Genetic Supermarket: The Law and Ethics of Selecting the Next Generation". ~ BioNews, Mar 12
SOUTH CAROLINA'S SOLUTION TO ORGAN SHORTAGE
Legislators in South Carolina are mulling over a creative way of coping with the state's shortage of organ donors. A panel in its Senate has proposed that prison inmates could trade their organs for time off their sentences. If they donated a kidney, for instance, prisoners would have 180 days shaved off their time in jail.
"We have a lot of people dying as they wait for organs, so I thought about the prison population," said Senator Ralph Anderson, the bill's main sponsor. "I believe we have to do something to motivate them. If they get some good time off; if they get out early, that's motivation."
Before the bill goes further, lawmakers are seeking legal advice, because Federal law bans giving organ donors "valuable considerations". They want to confirm that time off from jail will not be deemed a valuable consideration. ~ Columbus Dispatch, Mar 9
AUSTRALIAN EUTHANASIA ACTIVISTS FACE MURDER TRIAL
Two women in Sydney have been granted bail after a week in custody for the mercy killing of a former pilot. Shirley Justins, 58, and Caren Jenning, 74, are accused of poisoning of Ms Justin's long-time partner, Graeme Wylie, 71. He was suffering from severe dementia. Police allege that she convinced him to change his will for his A$2.5 million estate before administering the lethal barbiturate Nembutal.
Mr Wylie's death, in March 2006, came a year after his application to die in a suicide clinic had been rejected by Swiss authorities because he was no longer capable of making responsible decisions.
Ms Jenning, a supporter of the euthanasia activist group Exit International, travelled to Mexico to obtain the Nembutal at a wholesale vet store. The case is becoming a cause celebre for the euthanasia movement. Australia's leading activist, Dr Philip Nitschke, joined other supporters in the women's court appearances. ~ Sydney Morning Herald, Mar 6
IN BRIEF: organ trading; medication errors; ADHD; egg donors
Organ trading: After a three year investigation, two California men have been charged with conspiracy and grand theft for stealing body parts from UCLA's cadaver donor program. The director of the program sold body parts for US$43,000 to a businessman who on-sold them for more than US$1 million. ~ New York Times, Mar 8
Medication errors: Children are the most likely victims of hospital mistakes, a study of medication errors has found. The study was limited to surgery patients, where the rate of error is much higher -- 12 per cent for children. Most mistakes were related to pain killers and antibiotics. Because many drugs have never been tested on children, their doses are often based on guesswork. Occasionally bad arithmetic, bad handwriting, or careless listening resulted in patients receiving doses 10 or even 50 times higher than normal. ~ New York Times, Mar 7
ADHD: The use of drugs to treat hyperactive children nearly tripled between 1993 and 2003, a study has found. Global spending on it increase nine-fold, 83% of it in the US. Researchers believe that ADHD could become the leading international childhood disorder treated with medications. ~ BBC, Mar 7
Egg donors: Ethics experts have recommended that the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology approve payment to women who donate eggs for research. They regard it as another form of clinical research and that, like participants in drug trials, women should be remunerated for their trouble. ~ Human Reproduction, Mar 8
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Hospitals scrambling for patients and TV stations hungry for cheap and easy stories are creating "fake health news", complains a leading health reporter. Writing in the 
Although South Korea has still not recovered from the bioethics scandal of Hwang Woo-suks's faked cloning data and coercive egg donation, it is busy drawing up an ethical code for dealing with robots. "The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to develop strong intelligence [sic] in the near future," says a spokesman.