News,

New Jersey has become the second US state to legalise human cloning, LifeSite reports. The new legislation permits embryonic stem cell research, cell nuclear transfer and the development of human clones until birth. Prof. Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame Law School has pointed out that a woman carrying a cloned baby would be legally required to have an abortion and that the bill permits the creation of a market in foetal body parts. [LifeSite, 5 January ] A baby has been taken into care by the social services after her mother was arrested for allegedly selling her to three different couples via a US surrogacy website. She allegedly told all three couples that she was pregnant with their child and is currently on bail pending further inquiries. The biological father of the child has not yet been identified but genetic testing may become necessary in the event of custody proceedings. [Yorkshire Post, 6 January ] A new charity entitled Infertility Network UK is to be launched for couples considering IVF treatment, alongside a government-funded video about IVF. The video films IVF patients and doctors, and includes footage of a woman having eggs collected. [Telegraph, 6 January ] The president of the pro-abortion NGO International Women's Health Coalition has accused the Bush administration of following 'its own fundamentalist Christian ideology and its correspondingly rigid conservative world view.' Adrienne Germain urged Europe to 'counter and redress' US policies in the UN. [CWNews/C-Fam, 5 January ] The BBC began the New Year with reports on maternal death in the developing world placed into the context of human rights. [BBC, January 2]. A recent editorial in the Lancet, the BBC reports, links maternal death during childbirth with a failure to live up to the "reproductive rights" agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). France Donnay of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) describes maternal illness as "the result of gross societal and institutional neglect of women that is, by any standard, an issue of rights and equity." However, Population Research Institute President Steven Mosher says this emphasis of "rights" over health has kept maternal mortality rates high throughout the developing world. "Reproductive health programs must first treat the pathologies of the reproductive system within the context of the overall health of the human person," he said. Mosher criticised the UNFPA for "Advancing its anti-woman, anti-natal agenda under the cover of international human rights. The UNFPA's radical reproductive rights agenda is an attempt to hijack genuine health programs throughout the developing world." [PRI source]