11 January 2008
South Africa - Abortions ‘rush’ on
South Africa’s largest abortion services provider, Marie Stopes, is gearing up for what they describe as “the post-holiday abortion rush”. Call centre coordinator, Patrick Mndaweni, said yesterday that they were expecting anything from a 10 to 14 percent increase in the demand for pregnancy terminations in the first few weeks of this year. He said the biggest target risk group were teenagers and schoolgirls He also urged women not to pursue “backstreet” abortions because these could lead to disease, infertility and even death. ...[more]
UK - British Physicians Oppose Government Plan for Abortions at Doctors' Offices
A new survey finds 86 percent of British physicians oppose a plan by the government to let doctors do abortions at private offices instead of following current regulations requiring them at hospitals. About 20 percent of the physicians interviewed in the survey said they are pro-life and would not do abortions. Most of the physicians said that doing abortions would compromise women’s safety and add to an already-overwhelming workload. They said women who experience complications following an abortion may not be able to reach a doctor after hours. The physicians also said the doctor relationship with existing patients would be violated by requirements to do abortions in their private practices. ...[more]
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UK - Deaf demand right to designer deaf children
Deaf parents should be allowed to screen their embryos so they can pick a deaf child over one that has all its senses intact, according to the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID). Although the vast majority of deaf parents would want a child who has normal hearing, a small minority of couples would prefer to create a child who is effectively disabled, to fit in better with the family lifestyle. A clause in the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, which is passing through the House of Lords, would make it illegal for parents undergoing embryo screening to choose an embryo with an abnormality if healthy embryos exist. Prof Gedis Grudzinskas, medical director of the Bridge Centre, a clinic in London that screens embryos, said: “This would be an abuse of medical technology. Deafness is not the normal state, it is a disability. To deliberately create a deaf embryo would be contrary to the ethos of our society.” ...[more]
USA - New Embryonic-Like Stem Cell Method Uses Abortion Tissue
Concerns have been raised over the new and much appraised method in which human skin cells can be used to make pluripotent stem cells sharing essentially all the features of human embryonic stem cells. Unlike “normal” embryonic stem cell research, they did not destroy human embryos to obtain the cells. However, the skin cells are obtained from foetal tissue of aborted foetuses. Though the use of foetal tissue from babies killed in abortions is morally repugnant, Dr. David Prentice, former Life Sciences professor, said that the rest of the technique is ethical because it doesn’t have to involve the use of it. “They could have used adult or newborn cells exclusively and there would have been no criticism,” he said. ...[more]
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Canadian judge to rule on Jew facing euthanasia
A Canadian judge is due to decide this week whether to renew a temporary injunction against Winnipeg's Grace General Hospital, whose doctors want to detach an 84-year-old Orthodox Jew from a respirator and hasten his death, against his family's wishes. This despite the fact that Samuel Golubchuk regained consciousness several days ago and appears to be improving. Prof. Shimon Glick, a leading Israeli medical ethics expert and former dean of Ben-Gurion University's Health Sciences Faculty, said: "From a halachic point of view, removing a feeding tube from a patient who has any brain function is active euthanasia, equivalent to murder... But here, in addition, unless the patient has specifically indicated by advance directive that such is his desire, one has a violation of the patient's autonomy, as well." A Grace General Hospital lawyer told the court that doctors "have the sole right to make decisions about treatment - even if it goes against a patient's religious beliefs." ...[more]
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USA - AIDS Patients Face Downside of Living Longer
There have been only small, inconclusive studies on the causes of aging-related health problems among AIDS patients. Without definitive research, which has just begun, that second wave of suffering could be a coincidence, although it is hard to find anyone who thinks so. Instead, experts are coming to believe that the immune system and organs of long-term survivors took an irreversible beating before the advent of lifesaving drugs and that those very drugs then produced additional complications because of their toxicity. “The sum total of illnesses can become overwhelming,” said Charles A. Emlet, an associate professor at the University of Washington at Tacoma and a leading HIV. and aging researcher, who sees new collaborations between specialists that will improve care. The greying of the AIDS epidemic has increased interest in the connection between AIDS and cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression. The number of people 50 and older living with HIV., the virus that causes AIDS, has increased 77 percent from 2001 to 2005, according to the federal Centres for Disease Control, and they now represent more than a quarter of all cases in the United States. ...[more]
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USA - Sperm goes up in smoke
The smoking of marijuana is being linked to increasing low fertility in Jamaican men, health officials have revealed. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the man is responsible in about 60 per cent of infertile couples. Worldwide, it is believed that the male sperm count has decreased by 50 per cent over the past 50 years. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine notes that while studies on how marijuana affects male fertility are inconclusive, smoking does in fact lower sperm count and reduces motility. It also increases abnormalities in sperm shape and function that can lower fertility. A 2003 study by researchers at the University of Buffalo in the United States also found that frequent marijuana smokers produced less seminal fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behaved abnormally. ...[more]
USA - Researchers Work on Cocaine Vaccine
Two Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston are working on a cocaine vaccine they hope will become the first-ever medication to treat people hooked on the drug. The vaccine, currently in clinical trials, stimulates the immune system to attack cocaine when it's taken. The immune system, unable to recognize cocaine and other drug molecules because they are so small, can't make antibodies to attack them. To help the immune system distinguish the drug, the researchers attached inactivated cocaine to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins. In response, the immune system not only makes antibodies to the combination, which is harmless, but also recognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive. ...[more]
UK - The Disastrous Outcome Of The UK Drug And Treatment Strategy
The UK Drug Strategy is the responsibility of the Dept of Health. Key issues in the Treatment Strategy include 'Harm Minimisation' defined as 'a public health approach to dealing with drug related issues that aim to reduce drug related harm, while also promoting abstinence'. The Harm Minimisation strategy is predominantly based on substitute drug treatment. The target was 'to reduce drug related deaths by 20 per cent by 2004'. The National Statistics Agency states that in 2004 there was a 6% increase in drug related deaths. Other prestigious, universal evidence indicates that as many as fifty per cent of substance abusers have at least one severe psychiatric disorder. There is substantial evidence that many drug users in the UK with mental health problems are in prison. 'Drug offences': increased by 23%, violent crime linked to drug use increased 2%. and violent crime against the person, also linked to drug use, showed an increased by 1%. Personal robbery increased in excess of 33 percent. The foregoing facts show that the current drugs strategy is failing in all its objectives. According to Medical News today, "what passes for 'Harm Reduction' is confined to Drug Consumption Rooms, Needle Exchanges, and in some instances prescribing heroin for heroin addicts. Not only is society being let down but those addicted, the majority of whom claim they want to be drug free, are not having their needs met". ...[more]
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SURROGACY
Commercial surrogacy booming in India
India has developed another unique outsourcing service, surrogate mothers to carry babies on behalf of couples with fertility problems. In a small clinic at Kaival Hospital in Anand, infertile couples worldwide could be matched with local Indian women who could deliver their babies at a cost of around $10,000. More than 50 women in Anand are now pregnant with the children of couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond. The women earn more than many would make in 15 years. The surrogate mothers and the parents sign a contract that promises the couple will cover all medical expenses in addition to the woman's payment, and the surrogate mother will hand over the baby after birth. According to clinic operator Dr. Nayna Patel, no exploitation is involved and only people with serious fertility issues are accepted. Some fear, however, that this service may move from a service of medical necessity to one of convenience. ...[more]
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