News,

A mother has decided against getting her 18-year-old daughter to carry her unborn child, reportedly because she believes the girl is too young. Mrs Celena Anderson, 37, of Edinburgh, Scotland, was considering having an embryo created with sperm from her second husband. Her daughter, Miss Nicola Hunter, who has a child, had offered to be implanted with such an embryo or to undergo artificial insemination with Mrs Anderson's husband's sperm. Mrs Anderson has miscarried twice after conceiving naturally and has four children from a previous marriage. A psychiatrist in Scotland warned of the potential emotional problems of such an arrangement. [Times, 4 April, and Scotsman, 5 April]


President Bush's bioethics council has recommended the prohibition of research on human embryos who are more than 14 days old. It also wants a ban on the creation of cloned humans who would be allowed to be born. The council does not make any recommendations on what might be done in the first 14 days to embryos who have been created through in vitro fertilisation or cloning. Council members do not agree on the ethics of cloning and embryo research and have consequently only made recommendations in limited areas. The council's role is advisory. [New York Times, 2 April, and ]Scientist, 5 April[ A ban on cloning for birth would not exclude research on cloned humans.


England's highest court has approved a man's attempt to be recognised as the father of an IVF child who was conceived with an anonymous donor's sperm after the man's relationship with the child's mother had ended. The House of Lords has allowed the unidentified 41-year-old man to challenge an appeal court ruling. In 1996 the man and woman applied for IVF which was not successful with the litigant's sperm. It would appear that treatment continued after they had split and, while another man's sperm was then used, the first man was still deemed to be participating. The female child is now four years old and the man has sought parental responsibility and contact with her. ]Times, 6 April[


A Polish member of the pro-abortion Ipas group has refuted the organisation's claim that the law restricting abortion in Poland has led to 200,000 illegal abortions. The matter was raised at a meeting hosted by Ipas, based in North Carolina, and Population Action International of Washington DC. Participants complained about opposition from the US government and the Catholic church, and agreed to use public relations to further their cause. ]Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, 2 April[


People's tastes in food could be determined by what their mothers eat in pregnancy and while breast feeding. American researchers detected aniseed, garlic and vanilla in human milk. Offspring of women who ate a lot of carrots enjoyed the vegetable when weaned. ]NetDoctor, 5 April[

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