Court rules surrogate children have no right to German passport
A German court ruled this week that a child born to a surrogate mother in India has no right to a passport even though the...
China considers financial incentives to promote organ donation
The Chinese government is considering offering financial incentives to people to voluntarily donate organs. In 2007 China banned organ transplants from living donors, except spouses,...
Convicted rapist next in line for organ transplant
Convicted rapist Kenneth Pike, of New York, was expected to undergo a life-saving heart transplant that could have cost as much as US$800,000, a price...
US legislators seek ban on chimp experiments
Three US senators have called for medical research on chimpanzees to be banned. The US is the last major industrialised country which still uses the...
“Baby Joseph” returns to Canada, breathing on his own
Joseph Maraachli, the boy whose family refused to accept a Canadian hospital’s recommendation to remove his breathing tube and allow him to die, is now...
Billboard promotes right to die
The US activist group Final Exit Network (FEN) has erected billboards all over the US to support the right to “Die With Dignity” – what...
Fearful elderly people carry “anti-euthanasia cards”, campaigner says
Elderly people in the Netherlands are so afraid of being killed by doctors that they carry cards saying they do not want euthanasia.Elderly people in...
Debate rages over circumcision in the US
While there has been heightening debate in recent years about the ethics of circumcision, the procedure has become less popular in the US and some...
Mental illness “in a dish”
Before he committed suicide at age 22, an anonymous man with schizophrenia donated a biopsy of his skin cells to research. Regrown as neurons, the...
Chinese women arrive as pregnant tourists, leave with American babies
California officials have closed a makeshift ward for Chinese “maternity tourists” who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to deliver their babies in the...
Woman who attempted suicide while pregnant is charged with murder
After her boyfriend betrayed her, Bei Bei Shuai, a 34-year-old pregnant Chinese immigrant living in Indianapolis, ate rat poison to end her misery. She survived,...
Expert urges caution before “jumping on euthanasia bandwagon”
Bioethics expert Megan-Jane Johnstone, of Deakin University, has said there are reasonable concerns why health advocacy organisations should not take a definitive position on euthanasia....