The New York Times looks (briefly) at conversations parents are now having with children born to surrogates with donor eggs and sperm: “No Stork Involved, but Mom and Dad Had Help.”

Every child has a birth story. The story of Simmie, who was born to a surrogate, is different from the stories of the three children in the movie. But her story, which is also the story of her 11-year-old twin brothers, Andrew and Benjamin, is less unusual than it used to be.

My friend Sarah recently presented at the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity’s Global Bioethics: Emerging Challenges Facing Human Dignity conference. Her presentation was entitled “Women’s Discipleship: A Pathway for Bioethics in the Local Church,” and is available on her website, Women of Faith in Culture.

I know I feel like we’ve been overwhelmed with Michael Jackson news, but here’s an article that looks at his life from a slightly different perspective: “Was Michael Jackson a Transhumanist?”

Jackson [defied] his biological limitations in terms of his transformation of his inherited features — his cosmetic surgery and his change of skin color (he might also have included his cross-genderish style of dress and makeup).

From MercatorNet:

So the question provoked by Terminator Salvation is this: is being plain old Humanity 1.0 worthwhile — in spite of our messy emotions, cloudy intelligence, imperfect bodies and unavoidable death? Or should we aspire to move forward to Humanity 2.0?

Interesting article on a recent meeting about possible limits on the development of Artificial Intelligence.

Where have I heard this before?

“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”

Oh yeah, that’s right.

“Sisters Face Death With Dignity and Reverence,” New York Times:

Dr. McCann’s long relationship with the sisters gives him the time and opportunity, impossible in the hurly-burly of an intensive-care unit, to clarify goals of care long before a crisis: Whether feeding tubes or ventilators make sense. If pain control is more important than alertness. That studies show that CPR is rarely effective and often dangerous in the elderly.

“It is much easier to guide people to better choices here than in a hospital,” he said, “and you don’t get a lot of pushback when you suggest that more treatment is not better treatment.”

. . .

“This is what our culture, our society, is starved for, to be rich in relationships,” Sister Mary Lou said. “This is what everyone should have.”