Muslim doctors in Britain are protesting over proposals to cause patients to die according to so-called living wills. Under the new Mental Capacity Act, patients with life-threatening diseases will be allowed to refuse life-saving treatment and give their friends and relatives the power to stop thei...

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weekly update, 18 to 24 September weekly update, 18 to 24 September Muslim doctors in Britain are protesting over proposals to cause patients to die according to so-called living wills. Under the new Mental Capacity Act, patients with life-threatening diseases will be allowed to refuse life-savi...

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China's one-child policy is very unlikely to be relaxed to allow people to have more children, Chinese officials have declared. Calls for the policy to be changed have followed reports that it has caused widespread demographic problems such as an ageing population and a gender imbalance of boys to g...

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News, The Pope has urged Slovakia to ratify a treaty that includes a clause allowing citizens to refuse to act contrary to Catholic teaching. It is thought that this would allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions. Speaking to Jozef Dravecky, the new Slovakian ambassador to the Holy See, Benedi...

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News, SPUC has applauded the Vatican's statement on the treatment of patients in a permanent vegetative state. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's political secretary, said: "Everyone, particularly Catholics, should be made aware that the Church teaches definitively that no advance directive, nor court decisio...

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An unborn baby in Argentina could die after his or her grandfather's legal attempt to stop an abortion was thwarted. After an outcry from pro-abortion groups, a decision to save the child, whose mother is mentally ill, was overturned last week. The girl's father said: "One understands the complexity...

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Vatican statement affirms that mentally incapacitated patients must be fed and hydrated London, 18 September - A new Vatican statement against the denial of food and water from mentally-incapacitated patients has been welcomed by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). The Congrega...

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The Observer reports that British pro-life campaigners are questioning MPs on their stance on abortion in the run-up to the proposed amendments to the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill. Regarding the time limit for some abortions, Mr Jim Dobbin, MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, s...

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weekly update, 12 to 17 September weekly update, 12 to 17 September The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has responded to the US bishops on the withholding and withdrawing of food and water from patients who can assimilate food and fluids but are in a so-called 'permanent veg...

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News, The Observer reports that British pro-life campaigners are questioning MPs on their stance on abortion in the run-up to the proposed amendments to the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill. Regarding the time limit for some abortions, Mr Jim Dobbin, MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life ...

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News, Catholic bishops in Scotland have urged MPs to vote against plans to allow human-animal hybrid embryos for research. In a statement, the bishops said: "Human beings are unique and distinct from all other creatures. Our natural distaste at the prospect of mixing species reflects a natural int...

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President Bush has withheld funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for the sixth year running because it continues to support forced abortions and sterilisations. Mr Bush's decision was based on research by the Population Research Institute between 1998 and 2001, which found that th...

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Medical Council of Ireland asked to uphold the right to life London, 14th September 2007 - The body which regulates the medical profession in the Irish Republic has been asked to uphold the right to life from conception to natural death as it reviews its ethical guide for doctors. The Society for th...

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The chief scientific advisor to the British government has set out a universal ethical code for scientists, which includes a call to minimise the impacts of research on people. Professor Sir David King has outlined a seven point code, which is being called science's equivalent of the Hippocratic Oat...

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News, The British government is to fund a scheme in which women who donate their eggs for research are to be offered cut-price fertility treatment. A course of IVF costs around £1500 of which the Medical Research Council will pay half, in return for half the eggs that are produced. Josephine Quint...

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News, The US senate has voted by 53 to 41 to lift a 1984 ban, known as the Mexico City Policy, on providing so-called family planning aid to overseas organisations that promote or perform abortions. It is likely that President Bush will veto the decision. He wrote in May: "I will veto any legislat...

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The US senate has voted by 53 to 41 to lift a 1984 ban, known as the Mexico City Policy, on providing so-called family planning aid to overseas organisations that promote or perform abortions. It is likely that President Bush will veto the decision. He wrote in May: "I will veto any legislation that...

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weekly update, 3 to 11 September weekly update, 3 to 11 September SPUC has responded to a new UK public opinion poll on abortion. Anthony Ozimic, political secretary, commented: "SPUC welcomes the evidence of continuing deep-seated concern about the alarming numbers of abortions, reflected in th...

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SPUC has responded to a new UK public opinion poll on abortion. Anthony Ozimic, political secretary, commented: "SPUC welcomes the evidence of continuing deep-seated concern about the alarming numbers of abortions, reflected in the poll conducted on behalf of Life, a leading pregnancy support charit...

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News, SPUC has responded to a new UK public opinion poll on abortion. Anthony Ozimic, political secretary, commented: "SPUC welcomes the evidence of continuing deep-seated concern about the alarming numbers of abortions, reflected in the poll conducted on behalf of Life, a leading pregnancy suppor...

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