British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life

Read the original article here.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the US Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) have issued new guidelines limiting embryo transfer during IVF procedures to reduce the occurrence of multiple births. Announced at the annual ASRM meeting, held in New Orleans last week, the revised guidelines recommend that no more than two embryos should be transferred to women under 35 during a single cycle of IVF treatment, and that clinics should consider the possibility of transferring only one. For older women the recommended number of embryos increases, but to no more than five. The guidelines state that for women aged between 35 and 37, up to three embryos should be transferred, with up to four recommended for women aged between 37 and 40, and no more than five for women over 40.

Read the original article here.

October 29, 2006

The political strategy of pro-cloners and pro ESCR advocates to conflate “stem cell research” with “embryonic stem cell research”–as Michael J. Fox did in his deceptive ads–may be causing very real, if unintended, harm to human patients. Apparently some people confuse embryonic stem cell research from bone marrow stem cells, to the point that those seeking to add names to the bone marrow donation registry are having trouble meeting their recruitment goals. From the story:

‘Our need is so much larger than the transplants that we do,’ [Julie] Tilbury [coordinator of the National Marrow Donor Program for the Rock River Valley Blood Center] said. ‘The biggest challenge is we just don’t have the donors.’ Tilbury said confusion about the difference between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells is one barrier to convincing people to join the registry. ‘Often times, when you hear stem cells, there’s a belief that there’s only one type of stem cells–those that come from embryos,’ she said. ‘The reality is that there are so many different sources of stem cells. Our marrow is one source.’

The sowing of confusion to win a political debate, so that “stem cell research” is used as a synonym for “embryonic stem cell research” is not only dishonest, but it could be dangerous to sick people’s health.

Posted by Wesley J. Smith

The Big Stem-Cell Breakthrough
That you're not hearing about . . .
by Wesley J. Smith
10/31/2006 12:12:00 PM

DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THOSE HEADLINES? "Stem Cells Used to Create Artificial Liver," the New York Times screamed on its front page. "Breakthrough! Stem Cells to One Day Create Organ for Liver Transplant," was how the Washington Post put it. "Stem Cell Breakthrough Demonstrates Viability of New Science," yelled the Los Angeles Times. "Stem Cell Hope for People with Liver Disease," agreed USA Today. The story was so big that Katie Couric narrated a special report, expressing her profound gratitude for the hope these dedicated stem-cell scientists had brought to suffering humanity.

What's that? You didn't see those headlines? You say you somehow missed the story? Well, don't blame yourself. You are not out of touch. The above headlines never appeared, the stories have not been written.

From issue 2574 of New Scientist magazine, 21 October 2006, page 7. Original here

Don't say cloning, say somatic cell nuclear transfer. That at least is the view of biologists who want the term to be used instead of "therapeutic cloning" to describe the technique that produces cloned embryos from which stem cells can then be isolated. This, they argue, will help to distinguish it from attempts to clone a human being.

But will it? Kathy Hudson and her colleagues at the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC asked more than 2000 Americans whether they approved of deriving stem cells from embryos produced by cloning. For half of the sample they used the term "SCNT" instead of "cloning", and this raised approval ratings from 29 per cent to 46 per cent, Hudson told a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in New Orleans last week.

SCNT would also be used in any attempt to clone a human being, so Hudson also asked about creating babies using SCNT. This too raised the approval rate from 10 per cent to 24 per cent - which is not what scientists had in mind.

The AGM of The British Section of The World Federation of Doctors will be held at 2.30pm on Saturday 28th October 2006 at 27 Walpole Street SW3 4QS

PRI Weekly Briefing, 6 October 2006, Vol. 8, No. 39

Read the original article here.

Official federal spending on overseas 'population assistance,' which means population control, has a slim chance of dropping significantly in fiscal year 2007. The Bush Administration proposed only $357 million for suchfamily planning programs early this year, a significant reduction from the $425 million it typically proposed in previous years. Of course, the usual suspects, unimpressed with the conclusive evidence from secular scientists that birthrates are in free fall in most of the world,immediately geared up to increase the amount in Congress. Since Congress failed to finish work on spending bills before adjourning for the fall campaign season, the matter is still up in the air until a post-election November session. But it doesn't look good.

Conference on the Bill for Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill

All Souls College, Oxford, 26th September 2006

A conference was recently held at All Souls College, Oxford, concerning Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill. The areas of discussion are listed below, along with the protagonists in the debate (anti-Bill individuals are in italics).

LifeNews.com Editor

Copyright 2006 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
All Rights Reserved

Daily Mail (London)

THE ghastly prospect that, as a result of catastrophic illness, doctors might write you off as dead even though you are well aware of what is going on, but can't communicate that you are still alive, is the stuff of nightmares.

Such concern is often expressed about patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), but until now has been pooh-poohed by doctors as fanciful and alarmist.

Copyright 2006 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
All Rights Reserved

Daily Mail (London)

Breakthrough intensifies ethical dilemma over switching off life support

A BRITISH woman left in a vegetative state after a road accident has astonished doctors by responding to their voices even though she appears unconscious.

Using brain scans, experts discovered the 23-year-old can imagine playing tennis when she is asked because the part of the brain linked to upper body movement goes into action.

Copyright The Weekly Standard 2006.

Original article is available here.

More hype from stem cell entrepeneurs

"NEW STEM CELL METHOD avoids destroying embryos," the New York Times headline blared. "Stem cell breakthrough may end political logjam," chimed in the Los Angeles Times. "Embryos spared in stem cell creation," affirmed USA Today. Reporting the same supposed scientific achievement by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), the Washington Post quoted the company's bioethics adviser Ronald Green: "You can honestly say this cell line is from an embryo that was in no way harmed or destroyed."

Unfortunately, you can't "honestly" say that. The above headlines - like Green's statement and innumerable similar press accounts around the world - are just plain wrong. While ACT did indeed issue a press release heralding its embryonic stem cell experiment as having "successfully generated human embryonic stem cells using an approach that does not harm embryos," the actual report of the research led by ACT chief scientist Robert Lanza, published in Nature, tells a very different story. In fact, Lanza destroyed all 16 of the embryos he used, just as in conventional embryonic stem cell research.

J Med Ethics 2005; 35: 406-409

The "standard position" on organ donation is that the donor must be dead in order for vital organs to be removed, a position with which we agree. Recently, Robert Truog and Walter Robinson have argued that (1) brain death is not death, and (2) even though "brain dead" patients are not dead, it is morally acceptable to remove vital organs from those patients. We accept and defend their claim that brain death is not death, and we argue against both the US "whole brain" criterion and the UK "brain stem" criterion. Then we answer their arguments in favour of removing vital organs from "brain dead" and other classes of comatose patients. We dispute their claim that the removal of vital organs is morally equivalent to "letting nature take its course", arguing that, unlike "allowing to die", it is the removal of vital organs that kills the patient, not his or her disease or injury. Then, we argue that removing vital organs from living patients is immoral and contrary to the nature of medical practice. Finally, we offer practical suggestions for changing public policy on organ transplantation.

Copyright 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

Original article available here.

A hospital doctor who admitted suffocating a severely disabled baby 34 years ago is being investigated by murder squad detectives.

The junior doctor wrote a magazine article in which she claimed to have placed a pillow over a newborn girl for 20 minutes at a hospital in north London.

The then senior house officer in paediatrics said that she had killed the baby, which was born without a brain, to spare the parents the trauma of having to watch the child die.

(NEW YORK -- C-FAM) The just-concluded UN meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities was on balance a success for pro-lifers. Negotiations came down to the wire on the last day of the proceedings, after delegates hammered out the issue of "reproductive health" round the clock for the last two days. The ad hoc committee adopted the full treaty late on Friday night, completing four years of negotiations.

Pro-life nations managed to keep some of the worst language out of the treaty, despite enormous pressure from liberal governments. Any new right for persons to "experience their sexuality" and "have sexual and other intimate relationships" was completely rejected. Also, delegates largely replaced the ambiguous word “gender” with the word "sex". While UN documents have never defined the term as meaning anything other than "male" and "female," Muslim countries urged the change to avoid misinterpretation of the word "gender" to advance the growing homosexual agenda at the UN.

Copyright © 2006 Focus on the Family.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Published research shines light on a common pro-abortion lie.

Pregnant teens who carry their babies to term do better psychologically than those who choose abortions, according to a study by Bowling Green State University.

That finding flies in the face of contentions by pro-abortion advocates that teenagers are better off if they choose abortion. One fourth of U.S. abortions each year are done on teenagers.

Copyright 2006 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
DAILY MAIL (London)

NEW courts with the power to decide whether a hospital patient lives or dies will be allowed to sit in secret.

The decision by ministers means the first legal tribunal for more than 40 years with the right to take a life will hear cases behind closed doors if a judge thinks the proceedings should not be made public.

The rules apply to the Court of Protection, which will police the workings of 'living wills' and ' powers of attorney' introduced under Labour's controversial Mental Capacity Act.

LONDON (Reuters) - A terminally-ill patient has lost the last stage of a legal challenge for the right to receive nutrition and drink when he is close to death, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

Leslie Burke, 46, who has a degenerative brain condition, fears artificial nutrition could be stopped against his wishes when he cannot talk anymore.

A CORONER investigating the death of a woman allegedly starved and deprived of fluids in hospital has been asked to hold an inquest into the death of a patient on the same ward.

Relatives of Harold Speed believe that he died of dehydration, not pneumonia as his death certificate says. The 84-year-old former music teacher had been examined by the same doctor who treated Olive Nockels, who died after her drips were removed.

"The whole of my husband's stay in hospital was a nightmare," Kate Speed said.