Category: Social issues

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In September 2023, the second xenotransplantation of a genetically-modified pig heart into a living human patient was performed by surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Due to the risks of xenotransplantation, researchers have become increasingly interested in testing the procedure in brain-dead subjects. Visual: University of Maryland School of Medicine

The Allure and Dangers of Experimenting With Brain-Dead Bodies

For scientists who perform medical research on the recently deceased, there are few regulatory or ethical guardrails. This article, written by Jyoti Madhusoodanan, is based on her 2023 Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship research on human experiments and greater openness behind clinical trials. It appeared in

Many of the homes on the island of Gardi Sugdub, in Panama’s Guna Yala province, sit right at the edge of the sea. MICHAEL ADAMS

How an Indigenous community in Panama is escaping rising seas

The Indigenous Guna people of Gardi Sugdub have plans to move to Panama’s mainland this year Many of the homes on the island of Gardi Sugdub, in Panama’s Guna Yala province, sit right at the edge of the sea. MICHAEL ADAMS In pictures from high

María Zapata Escamilla stands outside Mexico's Congress holding a photo of her missing son. Credit: Oscar Lopez

Land of no return: the Mexican city torn apart by cartel kidnappings

What woke María Zapata Escamilla was the sound of shattering glass. Armed men in military fatigues had burst into her home: they dragged her disabled husband outside, along with her 14-year-old son, still in his pajamas. Then they drove away into the night. Two weeks

Relatives and classmates of the missing 43 Ayotzinapa college students march in Mexico City, on 26 September 2022. Photograph: Marco Ugarte/AP

Mexico army ignored cartel warnings before mass student kidnapping, emails show

Relatives and classmates of the missing 43 Ayotzinapa college students march in Mexico City, on 26 September 2022. Photograph: Marco Ugarte/AP Months before 43 Ayotzinapa students vanished, army was repeatedly warned of criminal gang presence The Mexican military received nearly a dozen complaints about cartel