Dear NCER Supporter,
The year 2020 has been quite the rollercoaster ride, and we hope you and your families have withstood the barrage of challenges it has brought. We reported the following medical ethics developments to you over the last year:
- The rogue Chinese medical researcher, He Jiankui, was sentenced to prison for unethically creating the world’s first gene-edited children.
- Women who donated their eggs for in vitro fertilization or gene editing research faced detrimental health risks as well as financial losses and psychological harm.
- The continued horrific international practice of euthanizing fetuses and newborns based on potential disabilities was examined.
- We also reported that CRISPR-cas9 continues to be unsafe and unethical for use in heritable human gene-editing due to unintended edits in DNA which would be passed down to future generations.
- We found evidence that this gene editing technique shows great promise in the fight against diabetes and high cholesterol.
Perhaps the most pertinent ethical issues that affect the majority of us revolved around finding treatments for and prevention against COVID-19.
- NCER provided clear guidance on which COVID drugs, therapies and vaccines were created in an ethical manner, without utilizing aborted human fetal tissue/cells.
- We also alerted you to which COVID vaccines actually contain fetal tissue.
We will continue to keep you informed as COVID-19 treatment/vaccine developments occur.
1) Our Website – Over the last 12 months, our ethicalresearch.net website had more than 24,000 unique first-time visits; a 65% increase over the previous year. On average, this translates to 27 first-time visits per day! We are reaching more than 150 countries on a regular basis!
2) Social Media – Over the last year, our Facebook page has reached more than 39,000 people; over 100 unique people each day. That’s a 280% increase over the previous year, and this in turn leads readers to visit our website.
3) Our e-blast is reaching just under 3,000 subscribers on a regular basis.
To reach our goals in 2021, NCER vitally needs your support and recommendations:
- What church, community/business organizations or high schools do you know that could benefit from our customized, non-sectarian presentations on current bioethics?
- Your financial gifts: to continuously update our website and sustain our educational efforts.
- Your sphere of influence: Follow us on Facebook; tell your friends, family and colleagues about NCER.
Thank you,
Carol Szczepaniak, and the Board Members of NCER