‘There is a Time to be Born and a Time to Die’ (Ecclesiastes 3:2a): Jewish Perspectives on Euthanasia

Reviewing the publications of prominent American rabbis who have (extensively) published on Jewish biomedical ethics, this article highlights Orthodox, Conservative and Reform opinions on a most pressing contemporary bioethical issue: euthanasia. Reviewing their opinions against the background of the halachic character of Jewish (biomedical) ethics, this article shows how from one traditional Jewish textual source diverse, even contradictory, opinions emerge through different interpretations. In this way, in the Jewish debate on euthanasia the specific methodology of Jewish (bio)ethical reasoning comes forward as well as a diversity of opinion within Judaism and its branches

Low CD4/CD8 T-Cell Ratio Associated with Inflammatory Arthropathy in Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type I Tax Transgenic Mice

Human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1) can cause an aggressive malignancy known as adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) as well as inflammatory diseases such as HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). A transgenic mouse that expresses HTLV-1 Tax also develops T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and an inflammatory arthropathy that resembles rheumatoid arthritis. The aim of this study was to identify the primary T-cell subsets involved in the development of arthropathy in Tax transgenic mice. mRNA was strong in the spleen and joints of arthropathic mice, with a 40-fold increase compared with healthy transgenic mice.Our findings reveal that Tax transgenic mice develop rheumatoid-like arthritis with proliferating synovial cells in the joints; however, the proportion of different splenic T-cell subsets in these mice was completely different from other commonly used animal models of rheumatoid arthritis. The crucial T-cell subsets in arthropathic Tax transgenic mice appear to resemble those in HAM/TSP patients rather than those in rheumatoid arthritis patients