News,

A husband has abandoned legal attempts to have his comatose wife starved to death after she showed signs of consciousness. Mr Neil Lane of Staffordshire, England, asserts that Mrs Lorraine Lane and he had concluded a "right to die" pact. Mrs Lane had been unconscious since February of last year but recently moved her foot and clenched her fist. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has welcomed Mr Lane's decision. [today's Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Metro]


Pharmacists in the north-west of England have given morning-after pills to five girls under 16, including one of 14. [today's Daily Mail] The French government is using television and radio advertising to promote the morning-after pill, implying that it is a contraceptive. [this month's Catholic World Report]


Scientists at the University of Utah have grown human ovarian tissue on mice. The technique may be an alternative to freezing ovaries when, for example, a woman is about to undergo a hysterectomy. [yesterday's Times]


A senior member of the human genome project has criticised Celera, a company which is said to be patenting gene-mapping with a view to charging royalties to anyone who uses the results. Professor John Salston of the Sanger Centre, Cambridge, UK, accused Celera of misappropriating information which the human genome project had published. [Monday's London Evening Standard]


The British public health minister has launched a campaign which will include making teenage boys aware of the consequences and responsibilities of teenage pregnancy. [yesterday's Mirror] Television producers persuaded parents to let 13-year-old children look after their babies as part of a programme designed to discourage under-age sex. [today's Times]


One woman in three who has an abortion in Alberta will have already had at least one other termination, according to government statistics. [Calgary Herald reported in yesterday's Pro-Life E-News]


The health subcommittee of the US House of Representatives' commerce committee today begins investigating the alleged trade in aborted babies' body-parts.


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To subscribe to SPUC's email information services, please visit www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2018