Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryMedicine and Health

medical-professional-carefully-carries-an-organ-transplant-c-616236790-stockpack-adobestock
Medical professional carefully carries an organ transplant container down a hospital corridor, hoping to give someone a second chance at life

Organ-Procurement Lapses Threaten Trust in Transplant Medicine

Something appears to have gone badly off the rails in the field of procuring organs after heart death

The push for organs has apparently grown so intense that corners may be being cut, endangering still-living patients and treating them as so many organ farms.

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AI chatbot assisting doctor health care and medical support. artificial intelligence in medicine and robotic chat customer services. futuristic concept in smart healthcare system.

Chatbots Flunk at Resolving Medical Ethics Dilemmas

Surprisingly, despite evident limitations, they are being used in ethics tutorials in medical schools

The researchers discovered a limitation when they tweaked some standard puzzlers and – never short of an answer – bots didn’t pick up on the change.

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Suicide and support

Swiss Death Clinics Celebrated By Suicide Pushers

One Swiss clinic even “prioritizes people who are elderly but not seriously ill”

Geriatric suicides used to be considered a tragedy. But these days, increasingly, they are celebrated.

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Dynamic illustration of electrical currents coursing between neurons reflecting the essential biological processes that drive human thinking emotions and memory formation.

Researchers: Adult Human Brains Can Grow New Neurons

The Karolinska Institutet-based team found early-stage brain cells in older people in the hippocampus, the memory area of the brain

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor urges caution: Making a difference in neurodegenerative diseases will be more difficult than simply growing new neurons.

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Medical and puberty blockers symbol. Medical uniform, white card with words 'puberty blockers'. Beautiful white background. Copy space. Medical and puberty blockers concept.

Journal Article Ignores Medical Objections to Puberty Blockers

Allowing an author to ignorecontrary evidence and increasing doubts about puberty blockers, etc., undermines New England Journal of Medicine’s purpose in being

It’s disingenuous not to at least acknowledge the scientific doubts about treating youthful gender dysphoria that not only persist but are growing.

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Modern IVF micromanipulator with Petri Dish in the laboratory of the in vitro fertilization. for insemination of the egg freezing. Sperm cryopreservation. Ovum fertilization procedure

Michael Shermer Disagrees With Me on the Ethics of IVF

He sees a contradiction between my respect for and embrace of children conceived via IVF and my ethical qualms about the process of IVF: “Another example of how religion clouds rationality”

It is quite possible to seek good ends (children) by bad means (their industrial manufacture). That’s why Christian ethics are needed.

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AI Replacing Doctors: The Rise of Robo-Healers - An Ominous Gaze into a Tomorrow Where Machines Don White Coats, Administering Precision Care and Revolutionizing the Medical Landscape.

Is Microsoft’s New AI System Better Than Doctors? Probably Not.

A critic notes that Microsoft’s AI system didn’t solve the problems, but merely repeated the solutions that it was trained on

Trying to understand the rationale of big monopolists such as Microsoft and Google is often a fool’s errand.

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Coma patient. Young woman with intravenous drip in hospital bed

Update: Brain-Dead Mother’s Baby Is Born

I was surprised at the controversy my plea for the baby’s life generated. I heard the trite “Handmaid’s Tale” trope more than once

If Adriana’s body had been removed from life support, there’d have been two deaths. Can’t we celebrate that, even as we mourn the mother who was lost?

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Close-up of CRISPR technology in action, DNA strands glowing under advanced lab lighting

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and the Human Industrial Revolution

To stand against IVF is not easy, because it provides infertile couples the blessed opportunity to conceive children. But it is the door into new and hellish bioethics

In a world beset by a growing chasm between the strong and the weak, IVF offers technology to manufacture men and women on scale and on special order.

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The beam of light in the path of the magic forest

Excerpt from The Immortal Mind: As Death Nears, a Sudden Light…

These widely recorded lucid episodes imply that the mind is more than the disjointed activities of a failing brain

Should a neuroscience approach to terminal lucidity merely mean reassuring the world that someday we will prove that it is just random brain noise?

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nurse showing something to elderly man on wheelchair..

As Euthanasia Looms, How to Save the Hospice Movement

Often now people approach me after a speech or call in on talk radio to tell me that they do not trust hospice to properly care for their loved ones.

Leading palliative care doctor Ira Byock offers four proposals to address the current problems with hospice care.

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Vial with the word euthanasia on it.

The Callous Cruelty of Canadian Euthanasia Illustrated

A death doctor was willing to kill Paula, despite knowing that many of her problems were social

A church minister quieted her fears and told her that she should “just let go of this empty, empty world.”

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pour ou contre l'euthanasie ?

Wesley J. Smith: Why Is Assisted Suicide So Popular So Suddenly?

Smith argues that the purpose of society itself is shifting for many people

In Canada, many stories attest that euthanasia is now routinely offered to those requesting medical care.

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Multiracial team of professional medical surgeons performs the surgical operation in a modern hospital. Doctors are working to save the patient. Medicine, health and neurosurgery.

Two Neurosurgeons on Life, Death, Eternity and What Truly Matters

Lee Warren interviews Michael Egnor on the just-released book, The Immortal Mind

The two doctors turned out to share a bond of personal pain as well as immortal hope.

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Closeup of paragraph symbol with vaccination injection syringe - euthanasia assisted suicide dying concept

France: Assisted Suicide on the March

Right-to-die campaigners have welcomed the law, though describing it as relatively modest in scope.

“It’s a foot in the door, which will be important for what comes next,” said Stéphane Gemmani of the ADMD association.

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illustration showing a silhouette of a human head surrounded by expressive thought bubbles with various symbols and punctuation marks representing diverse mental processes.

The Mind Beyond the Brain: Insights from a Neurosurgeon

Dr. Michael Egnor argues, “There’s something about the relationship between the mind and the brain that’s not in the textbooks.”

Egnor’s work invites readers to reconsider the mysteries of the mind, urging a more open and curious approach to understanding human consciousness.

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Syringe with anaesthetic drug - Propofol, ready for infusion.

The Lies in New York’s Assisted Suicide Bill

New York is close to passing a bill to legalize assisted suicide. Having passed the assembly, it is currently being considered in the senate

Falsifying death certificates, for example, prevents transparency. Investigators will be unable to access the information they need to conduct independent studies.

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multiracial-team-of-professional-medical-surgeons-performs-t-476716155-stockpack-adobestock
Multiracial team of professional medical surgeons performs the surgical operation in a modern hospital. Doctors are working to save the patient. Medicine, health and neurosurgery.

How a Split Brain Enables a Unified Mind Still Baffles Us

In the comments following Sean McDowell’s interview with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, a viewer asked, are the parts of a split brain still really connected?

We are learning new things about the mind–brain complex every day and not everything is what we expected to find.

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Bioethics And The Law

Bioethics: Just Another Social-Justice Political Movement Now?

A new survey shows how the movement has swung toward pushing woke “social justice” initiatives as its primary purpose

Respondents overwhelmingly wanted an even more monolithic approach to social justice through what could be argued as an indoctrinating approach to education.

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Black dominoes chain on table background

Estonia’s Supreme Court Declares a Right to Suicide

At least these rulings candidly cut through the toxic smoke so often generated by assisted-suicide advocates

Such rulings demonstrate that the real goal/destination is a right to death by any competent person for any cause and assisted by anyone.

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