A High Court judge has lifted the ruling he made last year that doctors would not be acting unlawfully if they refused to artificially ventilate seriously ill baby Charlotte Wyatt.

Mr. Justice Hedley said in his ruling that doctors would still have the final decision on Charlotte's treatment, but any decisions should be made within their 'professional consciences' and taking the parents' wishes into consideration.

Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt said that they were happy the ruling which had been 'hanging over' Charlotte has been lifted and do not anticipate any further disagreements with doctors.

Charlotte, despite original pessimistic prognoses, celebrates her second birthday today.

[BBC News 21 October ] A team at the University of Southern California has developed a method of freezing eggs for use in IVF treatments which they claim has a similar rate of successful implantation to treatments using frozen embryos.

From 93 eggs extracted from various patients, Dr. John K. Jain and his team succeeded in implanting 29 embryos, of whom eight survived.

The method could be used by women undergoing cytotoxic cancer treatment, or those wishing to extend their fertility.

[Reuters Health, 20 October ] A study conducted in Britain, Australia and the United States suggests that female twins are up to five times more likely to experience premature menopause, The Times reports.

The cause is thought not to be genetic, but related to the biological effects of sharing a womb on how genes in twins are 'switched' on and off as they develop before birth.

There is not yet any evidence that twinning affects male fertility.

[The Times, 20 October ] The first publicly supported umbilical and placental stem cell bank has been opened in New Jersey by the Acting Governor, Richard Codey.

The project will store umbilical and cord blood cells which will be made available free to stem cell researchers, and also used in the National Marrow Transplant Program. [Research Research, 20 October ]