Wilmut to seek egg donors for his research
The creator of Dolly, the first cloned sheep, Professor Ian Wilmut, plans to ask British women to donate eggs for his research into motor neurone...
Lancet denounces consumerism in medicine
Are health professionals supermarkets and their patients customers in a commercial transaction? If so, what scope is there for refusing their customers' demands? This week's...
IN BRIEF: older fathers; British euthanasia
Older fathers are up to five times more likely to have children with birth defects, according to a study in the US and Denmark. A...
Kids could have three parents with new Australian proposal
Some children could legally have three or more parents if the Law Reform Commission in the Australian state of Victoria has its way. It has...
Couples using IVF as a safety net
Couples are delaying having children and using IVF as a safety net, according to Australian government-sponsored research into fertility decision making. The results of a...
Don’t misuse Nazi analogy, says bioethicist
It demeans the suffering of the Holocaust Dragging images of Nazi atrocities in science and medicine into contemporary bioethical issues blights the debate and demeans...
Referendum on Massachusetts stem cell law scuppered
A proposed referendum to repeal a new law authorising embryonic stem cell research in the US state of Massachusetts has been dismissed by the state's...
Stem cell developments
Canadian researchers have found that skin cells obtained from newly circumcised foreskins can differentiate into muscle cells, neurons and glia, including those which support the...
Stem cell alternatives criticised by leading scientists
Three leading scientists have criticised proposals by opponents of embryonic stem cell research to fund unconventional methods of obtaining ESCs and bypass the moral issue...
OBITUARY: Dame Cecily Saunders
The founder of the modern hospice movement, Dame Cecily Saunders, died early this month in London. She discovered her vocation to care for the dying...
IN BRIEF: RU-486; statistics
RU-486: Two more women have died in California after using the abortion pill RU-486. At least five women have died in the US since the...
Dutch doctors unanimous on non-voluntary euthanasia for children
Dutch paediatricians have unanimously approved a set of guidelines for euthanasing incurably ill newborn children. The Dutch Paediatric Society now accepts that "in exceptional circumstances...