‘I felt like a knife had been put into my heart’: Down syndrome woman
The UK Court of Appeal has dismissed a legal challenge brought by a woman with Down syndrome against a provision of the Abortion Act which...
Dutch sperm donor may have fathered 400 children
A Dutch sperm donor who advertised his services online has fathered at least 80 children and possibly as many as 400. He died of oesophageal...
4 women die in Indian sterilization camp. Authorities very sorry.
Double-puncture laparoscopy procedures are very popular amongst Indian women who want permanent sterilization. “The surgery is preferred over other sterilisation techniques because it is highly...
A lonely euthanasia death on Vancouver Island
In assisted dying, it would be unethical to carry out clinical trials. How could you design an experiment in which one person received counselling and...
Should the venerable NEJM be renamed?
The world’s most prestigious medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, is digging its heels in over the controversial issue of transgender medicine. The...
Gender-affirming medicine: what good is evidence anyway?
In another article on the transgender issue, in the blog of The Hastings Center, three academics from NYU Grossman School of Medicine (including the well-known...
New kids on the block: geeky, wealthy, entrepreneurial pro-natalism activists
This month, the 8 billionth child entered the world. Demographers believe that the world’s population is moving towards 10 billion. But at some point, the...
UK judge refuses request for posthumous sperm retrieval
With few laws regulating it, judges often grant permission to grieving partners or parents to retrieve sperm from young men who have died unexpectedly. But...
New world record for the longest frozen embryo – 30 years
Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were conceived in April 1992 and were born in October 2022 in Portland, Oregon. They hold the record as the world’s...
New study revives fears of ‘spermageddon’
Sperm counts around the world appear to have halved between 1973 and 2018. According to a study in the journal Human Reproduction Update, a team...
Is the UK poaching nurses from poor countries to fill shortages?
The United Kingdom is poaching nurses from poorer countries which have nursing shortages of their own, according to a blistering expose by Open Democracy. The...
Teaching the brains of paralysed people to communicate
One of the most terrifying accidents imaginable is to become paralysed and to be unable to speak. Fortunately, scientists are gradually learning how to interpret...