Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryMedicine and Health

modern-ivf-micromanipulator-with-petri-dish-in-the-laborator-527688674-stockpack-adobestock
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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hands holiding red heart with kidney, world kidney day, organ donor day

Human Kidney Suppliers Should Be Donors, Not Vendors

The government would be, essentially, paying people to harm themselves. People who are already disadvantaged would be most likely to volunteer

There are ample reasons why only one country in the world — Iran — allows kidney-selling. Not everything should be a sellable product.

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Sunrise on mountain with foggy in Medicine lake at Jasper

Here’s Neurosurgeon Mike Egnor on Sean McDowell’s Show

With a couple of revealing excerpts from the transcript

The soul can seem a bit of a mystery because the popular idea of the soul, as a sort of “ghost” is not the traditional philosophical (or Christian) one.

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Epilepsy Concept An illustration represents epilepsy with brain wave patterns

Brain vs. Mind: A Very Revealing Fact About Epileptic Seizures

I have treated thousands of patients with epilepsy. Seizures can result in a variety of unexpected behaviors and emotions. But let me tell you what they DON’T do…

The fact that seizures never result in abstract reasoning implies our reason is not a material power of the body but an immaterial power of the spiritual soul.

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little bald girl after chemotherapy session with her caring and supportive brother in a hospital room, supporting family, hope and recovery from cancer

A Compassionate Doctor Keeps Hope Alive

As this story shows, sometimes the hope is not for a cure so much as for assurance that the patient has not been abandoned

There are signs of a needed pushback against a bioethics-driven “just check all the boxes” approach to terminal care where the need for hope is brushed aside.

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view form medical partition taiwanese female in vegetative state resting alone on bed in bright hospital.

Are People in a Persistent Vegetative State Mindless? Maybe Not

They often can and do think. Research in the area helps us understand the relationship between the mind and the brain better

While none of this research is decisive, the materialist paradigm is challenged by awareness in PVS. The dualist perspective better fits the evidence.

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