Ted Turner, the billionaire founder of CNN, has claimed in a radio interview that China's one-child policy is not draconian. The interviewer only partially queried Mr Turner's claim. [LifeNews, 8 May] John Smeaton, SPUC director, commented: "The Chinese regime's 30-year record of infanticide, forced abortion, forced sterilisation, torture, imprisonment and other crimes is so voluminous that Turner's comments are analogous to denying the Holocaust." [SPUC director's blog]
The Welsh executive has launched a consultation on presumed consent for organ donation. It is claimed that opt-out systems result in larger numbers of organs being available for transplantation. [Wales Online, 12 May] SPUC has argued against such presumed consent, warning of an increased threat of euthanasia and of state control over people's bodies. [SPUC director blog, 1 August 2008]
An inquest has heard that a woman with multiple sclerosis killed herself after watching a television programme about assisted suicide. Angela Harrison, of Eynesbury, England, took an overdose of paracetamol and other drugs after viewing the BBC drama "A short stay in Switzerland". The drama was based on the case of Dr Ann Turner, who committed suicide at the Dignitas suicide centre in Zurich. [Telegraph, 8 May]
The Spanish government plans to allow morning-after pills to be sold in pharmacies without prescription. Trinidad Jimenez, the health minister, denied that morning-after pills were abortifacient. [Irish Examiner, 12 May] The Spanish government of Jose Luis Zapatero is strongly anti-life.
Swedish health authorities have ruled that abortion on the grounds of the unborn child's sex is not illegal. The authorities had been asked to rule on the permissibility of sex-selective abortion following concerns by a hospital at a request for it. [The Local, 12 May] There is concern in Australia about the availability of a pregnancy test-kit which, it is claimed, can indicate the unborn child's sex. [LifeNews, 11 May]
Israeli scientists have found a dramatic fall in male fertility. Recent semen samples at an Israeli fertility centre contained 40 per cent fewer sperm cells than a decade ago. An increased presence of oestrogen in the environment is suspected as the cause in the fall. [Middle East Online, 11 May]