Months ago, the violent shooting at The Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut stunned the nation. Since then, debates have resurfaced regarding the role of guns, videogames and the media in creating violence in American society. As people continue to process the events that occurred in their own ways, one gamer has chosen an extreme method to do this. A gamer going by the handle Gizmo01942 created a videogame in which users can shoot the leaders of the NRA. Fox News aired a story on the game and its implications.  Even more appalling, Gizmo01942 is now making another game called “Class Warfare” in which the user plays as Adam Lanza and can virtually shoot children in the Sandy Hook elementary school. Gizmo01942 explains his motives for creating these games: More…

Below is an assignment for one of my biomedical engineering classes. We were told to write (in groups of 3) a half page single-spaced description on an ethical issue related to BME. In the following class, we broke into four groups representing the “perpetrators,” “defendants,” “sponsors,” and “regulators” and we then discussed these ethical issues through a role-playing exercise. The assigned theme for my group was “Regulation,” and here is the issue we decided to write about: Regulation – what is the role of regulation? Who is responsible? The Revolving Door: FDA and the Monsanto Company Link: http://ivn.us/2013/02/11/the-revolving-door-fda-and-the-monsanto-company/ Several senior members of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and private-sector company, Monsanto, a producer of agricultural biotechnology, have recently come under regulatory scrutiny in response to allegations of collusion. Among More…