News,

A South Korean pioneer of human cloning has apologised and resigned from all his official posts after admitting that he used ova from paid donors and donated by women from his research team. Earlier in the month, a researcher from the University of Pittsburgh ended his collaboration with Hwang Woo-Suk over concerns about the origin of ova. [Interactive Investor, 24 November]

Researchers from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and the Monash Institute of Medical Research have found a link between reduced levels of a protein found in placenta and miscarriage. The study of 400 women found that protein levels began to drop between four and six weeks before a miscarriage occurred, leading to hopes that women at risk of miscarriage could be identified and treated in future. Whilst welcoming the research, the professor of obstetrics at the maternal and foetal research centre at St Thomas's Hospital in London warned that treatment is a long way off. [The Telegraph, 24 November]

US drug investigators are to examine the safety of the RU-486 abortion drug after it was discovered that four Californian women who died after taking it contracted a fatal bacterial infection. It was initially thought that the pills that caused the four deaths might have been contaminated as the deaths occurred in the same state, but this has since been ruled out. The director of the Food and Drug Administration's centre for drugs said that the risk of death from infection was similar to the risks after surgical abortion. [New York Times, 23 November]

Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged pro-life activists in their campaign against the legalisation of abortion in Brazil. Brazil's bishops have described plans to legalise abortion as "a frontal attack on the basic right of every human being: the right to be born." [Lifenews.com, 23 November] The erroneously named pro-abortion group 'Catholics' for a Free Choice and the Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development have invited a group of Members of the European Parliament to promote abortion in Brazil and Peru. [Lifenews.com, 22 November]

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