South Korea to loosen restrictions on abortion despite low birth rate
Old law deemed unconstitutional A bill to decriminalize abortion up to the fourteenth week of was tabled in the South Korean parliament this week. South...
A modern sultan boasts his virtual harem
Some women shun fertility clinics In the age of the Reproductive Revolution, it’s an antiquated approach, but it works. An American named “Joe” claimed on...
Quick and faulty research a problem for journals in Covid-19 pandemic
"No research team is exempt from the pressures and speed at which Covid-19 research is occurring” The Covid-19 pandemic has created a flood of potentially...
CRISPR scientists win Nobel Prize in chemistry
What about the ethical implications? To no one’s surprise, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded this year to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna...
More family secrets unveiled in Netherlands
Fertility fraud files. Another success for family reunions through genetic databases! A woman looking for her sperm donor father on the internet has discovered that...
Netherlands prepares for child euthanasia
There will only be 5 or 10 cases a year, says health minister It hardly comes as a surprise, but doctors in The Netherlands may...
Strange, strange times
These are strange, strange times. Today I read an editorial in The New York Times headed, “Get Well, Mr. President”. I don’t recall ever reading...
After months of Covid-19 scepticism, President Trump is hospitalized with the virus
Should he have access to experimental medicines? President Trump on his way to Walter Reed Hospital One day before testing positive for Covid-19, President Trump...
Assisted dying round-up
New Zealand, Massachusetts, Portugal, Austria, Ireland, Tasmania Assisted suicide is on the legislative agenda in a number of jurisdictions. Here is the latest news on...
BBC airs Harold Shipman doco
Britain’s biggest serial killer was a family doctor A mugshot of Dr Harold Shipman There is assisted dying and there is assisted dying. The former...
Dwarfism drug criticized
“People like me are endangered and now they want to make me extinct.” A drug to improve the quality of life of children with achondroplasia,...
Are open letters by scientists worth the paper they’re written on?
Stanford epidemiologist John P.A. Ioannides says no. In late September a number of scientists wrote an open letter to the chief medical officers in the...