by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Canadian bioethicist Margaret Somerville discusses the film Never Let Me Go (warning: spoilers):Here are some of the lessons we can take from it.

  The cloned children are regarded by the people who run their school as repositories of organs rather than as individual persons, as objects, not human subjects. This dehumanization is inflicted both through the way in which the children are treated and language.

They are constantly monitored with electronic bracelets, like animals are with computer chips. One supervisor, obviously meaning to be empathetic, remarks, “you poor creatures”. “Creatures” is a word we use to refer to animals, usually when we are differentiating them from humans. And someone queries whether they have a soul. What is clear is that in dehumanizing the children, these people dehumanize themselves more.
• A UK woman is claiming her sight is returning after undergoing a stem cell treatment in China.
• A NC man has agreed to plead guilty to a “charge of distributing information pertaining to the manufacturing and use of an explosive.” Justin Moose gave bomb making instructions to an informant who said he was planning on attacking an abortion clinic.
• Looks like Canadian stem cell researchers are taking the same path as their American counterparts: Show us the money or we’ll fall behind!!