The UK Government is to launch a campaign to attract egg and sperm donors, amid fears that the number of donors will drop following the ending of donor anonymity in April. The campaign, entitled Give Life, Give Hope, aims to persuade people that gamete donation is a positive and charitable act.
[Sky News, 26 January ] The island of Jersey's Health and Social Services have lodged a proposal to amend abortion legislation to include eugenic abortion, This is Jersey reports.
The Health and Social Services claim that protecting unborn babies with disability is 'unfairly restrictive and causing extreme distress to Jersey women and their families.'
[This is Jersey, 26 January ] Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine have reported marked improvement in patients with severe heart failure after injecting adult stem cells into their hearts through tiny incisions in the chest.
Dr Amit N Patel who led the study, stated that all 15 of the patients shown some level of improvement, though it is not yet clear precisely how the cells function when transplanted in this way.
[Medical News Today, 26 January ] The UN Population Division has reported a decline in fertility trends in the developing world, with women marrying later and having children later in life.
The fertility rate in the developing world is approximately 2.9 children per woman, but in 20 developing countries it has fallen to below replacement level. 52% of women worldwide who are involved in relationships use some form of artificial contraception, 40% of whom are in the developing world.
[Reuters, 26 January ] A pro-abortion group has asked supporters to write to lawmakers requesting a chastity belt to coincide with the annual Chastity Awareness Week.
The suggested letter by NARAL Pro-Choice America reads: "Until you give us real choices, please rush me the only thing that the Pennsylvania State Legislature seems to want to provide to protect my reproductive health: a chastity belt. My address appears below."
[The Guardian, 26 January ] In an attempt to appeal to pro-life and faith-based groups, Hilary Clinton spoke of the need to find 'common ground' in the abortion debate during a speech to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Pro-abortion activists allegedly gasped and shook their heads as she made comments such as: "We can all recognise that abortion in many ways represents a sad, even tragic, choice to many, many women".
Campaigners on both sides of the debate regarded the speech as an attempt to curry favour with traditionally Republican states.
[The Telegraph, 26 January ] The acting Governor of New Jersey has called upon President Bush to end the ban on federal funding of research on new embryonic stem cell lines.
Richard Codey, a Democrat, used the news that current embryonic stem cell lines are contaminated with animal feeder cells to argue for a policy change. A spokesman for the White House pointed out that scientists have always known that the stem cell lines contained 'animal traits.'
[Reuters, 25 January ] An Italian woman has died of cancer after giving birth to a baby boy she refused to have aborted. Rita Fedrizzi, 41, has been compared with St Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian paediatrician who died in 1962 after refusing to kill her child.
Mrs Fedrizzi's husband Enrico said that whenever anyone suggested abortion she said: "It's as if they're asking me to kill one of my other two children to save my skin." [The Guardian, 25 January ]