Just four short years ago, scientists first learned how to coax human embryonic stem cells to grow into a mass of brain cells called brain organoids. Like all embryonic research, the endeavors required the killing of human embryos. Now, secular science, undaunted by the destruction of human life, faces another ethical hurdle—research with the organoids is exploding, and some of the studies involve implanting human brain cells into rodents.

The clumps of cells are tiny, about the size of a lentil or an unborn baby at six weeks of gestation, but they pulse with the same kind of electrical energy that stimulates actual brains, they spawn new brain cells, and they develop the six layers of the cortex, the brain region that controls thought, speech, judgment, and other advanced functions, STAT News reported. Researchers hope doctors eventually will use the organoids to treat brain injury, stroke, schizophrenia, and autism.

But the whirlwind advances in these experiments place researchers in a quandary: Is it ethically right to implant human brain cells in an animal and, if so, how far should they be allowed to develop? It is entirely new ground, and “the science is advancing so rapidly, the ethics can’t keep up,” said Christof Koch, president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

Researchers have already conducted numerous studies involving human brain organoids, 21 of which were…

A married Canadian couple is suing the Alberta government after being rejected for adoption because of their Christian beliefs. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, alleges the province denied their application for adoption because of their religious beliefs on sexuality and gender.

In October 2016, the couple—known only by their initials in court documents—applied to adopt with Alberta’s Child and Family Services. They had struggled with infertility and were interested in adopting a hard-to-place older child or sibling group. Their case was assigned to Catholic Social Services in Edmonton, Alberta, which completed psychological and financial evaluations and prepared a home study report.

During the home study, the social worker who managed their case asked them about their beliefs regarding homosexuality. The couple said they held Biblical views on marriage and sexuality but would unconditionally love and respect a child questioning his or her sexuality or gender. The social worker noted their answers in her report and otherwise enthusiastically recommended to Child and Family Services the applicants be approved for adoption.

But in March, Catholic Social Services told the couple that Child and Family Services had additional questions for them about homosexuality based on their answers during the home study.

“Biblical principles are the foundation of our home,” wrote the couple in…

The Pentagon paid for a sex change surgery for a transgender military member last week.

The head of the Defense Health Agency signed a waiver for the surgery on Nov. 13, and it took place on Nov. 14, according to Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White. She said the surgery was approved because the service member had already begun a “sex-reassignment course of treatment,” and so the surgery was deemed medically necessary. The surgery was done in a private hospital and paid for by the military’s health coverage.

The announcement came weeks after a federal judge in Washington halted a ban signed in August by President Donald Trump on transgender people enlisting in the military. At the time, Trump also directed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to stop taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries except in cases where it was necessary to protect the health of an individual who had already begun treatment. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who issued the preliminary injunction in October, said she did not have jurisdiction to rule on the issue of taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries because the plaintiffs did not establish they would be impacted by that prohibition.

Eight transgender individuals, both active-duty military members and military academy students, sued the administration in August. Their suit is still pending, though Kollar-Kotelly said in her decision that…

Researchers have discovered why babies’ cries affect their mothers differently than everyone else, including their fathers: Moms’ brains are hardwired to respond to their infants’ wails in certain ways. The sound of a baby crying activates areas in the mother’s brain that motivate her to move and to speak, researchers with the National Institutes of Health found. And, the scientists discovered, all mothers respond the same way regardless of culture.

The researchers studied 684 mothers from 11 countries. First they observed new mothers interacting with their 5-month-old babies in their homes for one hour. An analysis of the mothers’ responses showed that across cultures the women picked up their crying infants and talked to them far more often than they attempted to distract, feed, diaper, or show affection like kissing the child.

Then the scientists conducted MRI studies of another group of multicultural women, both new and experienced mothers, and found that an infant’s cries activated the same areas in all mothers’ brains. The researchers also found that the brains of women who are not mothers respond differently to the sounds of a crying baby. The study builds on former research that shows fathers’ neurological responses to their crying infants also differ from those of the mother.

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

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