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Archive for May 20th, 2008|Daily archive page

New Artificial Cornea Could Restore Vision For Millions Worldwide

In Bionic, Disabled People, Health on May 20, 2008 at 10:37 pm

An improved artificial cornea, which could restore the vision of more than 10 million people worldwide who are blind due to diseased corneas, finally is moving toward reality, scientists in California conclude in a new analysis of research on the topic.

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Oscar Pistorius and the Future Nature of Olympic, Paralympic and Other Sports

In Ableism, Bionic, Disabled People, nano on May 20, 2008 at 10:31 pm

in SCRIPT-ed – A Journal of Law, Technology & Society
Gregor Wolbring, pp.139-160

Oscar Pistorius is a Paralympic bionic leg runner and record holder in the 100, 200, and 400 meters who wants to compete in the Olympics. This paper provides an analysis of a) his case; b) the impact of his case on the Olympics, the Paralympics and other –lympics and the relationships between the –lympics; c) the impact on other international and national sports; d) the applicability of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. It situates the evaluation of the Pistorius case within the broader doping discourse and the reality that new and emerging science and technology products increasingly generate internal and external human bodily enhancements that go beyond the species-typical, enabling more and more a culture of increasing demand for, and acceptance of modifications of the human body (structure, function, abilities) beyond its species-typical boundaries and the emergence of new social concepts such as transhumanism and the transhumanisation of ableism.

online open access here
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Who’s afraid of a synthetic human? If we can enhance our species – make it live longer and resist disease – we should do it

In Ableism, Bionic on May 20, 2008 at 5:13 pm

John Harris

In the future there will be no more human beings. This is not something we should worry about.

Much of today’s scientific research may enable us eventually to repair the terrible vulnerability to which our present state of evolution has exposed us. It is widely thought inevitable that we will have to face the end of humanity as we know it. We will either have died out altogether, killed off by self-created global warming or disease, or, we may hope, we will have been replaced by our successors.
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World First Discovery: Genes From Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Function In A Mouse

In Animal, Genetic on May 20, 2008 at 4:50 pm

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