We tend to give utilitarianism a hard time in “Pointed Remarks”. But sometimes we could do with a bit more utilitarianism. It might keep the media – and many doctors, too – from being so dewy-eyed about apparent successes. Take IVF, which celebrated, so to speak, its 40th anniversary this week, with the birthday of Louise Brown.
In some respects, IVF has been quite a success. An estimated 8 million IVF children have been born since then. A thriving industry has grown up, worth some US$15 billion, making lots of doctors, scientists, technicians and administrators very wealthy. That is the happiness side of the ledger.
But how about the women who endured cycle after cycle of IVF without conceiving? Their lives have been filled with suffering as a result. And there are far more of them than women who eventually conceived. How about the destruction of millions upon millions of human embryos? And how about the disturbing future of IVF – designer babies and genetically-engineered children? That is the pain side of the ledger. It hasn’t been quantified, of course, but it must be acknowledged. I would venture to say that the balance is negative.
Whether I’m right or wrong about that, I do think that we need a clearer vision of the negative side of assisted reproductive technology.
In some respects, IVF has been quite a success. An estimated 8 million IVF children have been born since then. A thriving industry has grown up, worth some US$15 billion, making lots of doctors, scientists, technicians and administrators very wealthy. That is the happiness side of the ledger.
But how about the women who endured cycle after cycle of IVF without conceiving? Their lives have been filled with suffering as a result. And there are far more of them than women who eventually conceived. How about the destruction of millions upon millions of human embryos? And how about the disturbing future of IVF – designer babies and genetically-engineered children? That is the pain side of the ledger. It hasn’t been quantified, of course, but it must be acknowledged. I would venture to say that the balance is negative.
Whether I’m right or wrong about that, I do think that we need a clearer vision of the negative side of assisted reproductive technology.
 Michael Cook Editor BioEdge |  |  |  |
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Predatory journals masquerade as legitimate, mainstream journalsUS psychologists to revisit ban on participation in interrogations
by Michael Cook | 28 Jul 2018 |
US psychologists are returning to the debate over participating in military interrogations. After humiliating revelations that members of the profession had colluded in abusive techniques during the “war on terror” after 9/11, the American Psychological Association (APA) banned participation in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and other national security facilities.
But some psychologists feel that the new rules went too far. “It was the first time I can recall that APA outlawed a setting rather than a behavior,” says Mark Staal, president of APA’s Division of Military Psychology. “Nobody is in favor of illegal interrogation techniques, and [the ban] may have sounded good at the time. But it was an overreaction,” he says.
“We were put between a rock and a hard place,” Staal observes says about the 1100 members of his specialty. “International law requires the [authorities] to provide health care to detainees under their control. And it’s part of our job ... We weren’t doing anything illegal or unethical, So I’m not sure that it’s appropriate for a professional guild to restrict free trade like that.”
There is strong opposition to the proposed changes. “Clinical psychologists are already allowed [to provide mental health services] under the current policy, but they must be working directly for the detainee or a human rights organization,” says Stephen Soldz, a co-author of a 2015 report, All the President's Psychologists: The American Psychological Association's Secret Complicity with the White House and US Intelligence Community in Support of the CIA's 'Enhanced' Interrogation Program. He believes that the line between mental health treatment and abusive interrogation could easily be overstepped.
The Pentagon would also like to see a change in the APA’s policy. In 2016, a Defense Department spokesman put the case for participation:
“The context of future conflicts — whether a traditional international armed conflict like World War II or the Korean War, a defense of the homeland against international terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or something entirely unpredictable — is today unknown. A code governing psychologists’ ethics in future national security roles needs to fit all such contexts. We respectfully suggest that a blanket prohibition on participation by psychologists in national security interrogations does not.”
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