News, An English hospital is seeking permission to create a designer test-tube baby using in vitro fertilisation and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in order to provide a two-year-old boy with a compatible bone marrow donor. Dr Simon Fishel, a fertility expert at the Park Hospital in Nottin...

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News, Official abortion statistics released today indicate that there were 1.2% more abortions performed under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act in England and Wales last year than in 1999. The official report on abortion published by the Office for National Statistics , updating provisional ...

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News, The government of Estonia has proposed legislation to allow under-age girls to obtain abortions without parental consent. The social ministry explained that the proposal was based on an assumption that a girl who was capable of becoming pregnant would also be capable of making her own de...

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News, The RU-486 abortion drug will be tested in Italy for the first time within a few weeks. The trials will take place at the Sant'Anna hospital in Turin, which already carries out the highest number of abortions in the country. [FT Information via Northern Light, 25 September ] A judge in O...

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News, A British pro-life newsletter has drawn attention to the partnership established between the BBC World Service and the pro-abortion International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). The Sexwise project, which consists of a website, a book and accompanying radio programmes, is a "global...

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News, The supreme court of Alaska has ruled unanimously that there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide. In upholding a state law which equates the act of assisting suicide with manslaughter, the court stated last Friday that the right of the vulnerable to be free from deadly coercio...

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News, Health chiefs in Scotland have admitted that there is no evidence to suggest that easier access to the abortifacient morning-after pill will actually reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Alison Strath, general secretary of the Royal College of Pharmacists in Scotland, said: "We don...

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News, A health authority in Scotland has decided to make the abortifacient morning-after pill available from pharmacists free of charge and is considering whether to apply the scheme to girls under the age of 16. At present, women over 16 throughout the UK can obtain the morning-after pill fro...

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News, A three-year-old boy has been cured of a fatal disease by the use of stem cells extracted from his sister's placenta. Tom Stretch suffered from chronic granulomatous, an inherited defect of the white blood cells which would probably have led to his death in his 20s. No suitable bone marr...

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News, Revised ethical guidelines agreed by the Irish Medical Council on Wednesday have been welcomed by pro-lifers in Ireland. The council voted to accept new wording which allows the "termination of pregnancy" when there is "a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother". However, in ...

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News, Clinics run by Britain's largest private abortion provider in London sent 700 women home after they had taken abortion drugs last year. A conference on abortion organised by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) heard yesterday that the women were given the RU-486 abortion drug a...

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New abortion pill system could threaten third world women Westminster, --The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has suggested that the introduction of home-alone abortion indicates that there are poor facilities and unhelpful staff attitudes at many abortion clinics. The procedure ...

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Bishops to give evidence in Northern Ireland abortion case Westminster, --The judge considering whether the Northern Ireland health department should issue guidance on the availability of abortion services is to look at evidence from the Irish Catholic bishops. He will decide in four weeks' time whe...

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News, Pro-life organisations have been among the many groups to express shock and horror at yesterday's terrorist attacks in the United States. Jacki Ragan, an official at the National Right to Life Committee based in Washington DC, said: "All I can think of are the countless lives lost this m...

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News, A coalition of British pro-life groups has been given permission by the High Court in London to intervene in the judicial review being brought by Mrs Diane Pretty. Mrs Pretty, who suffers from motor neurone disease, is seeking the legal right to be helped to commit suicide by her husband...

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Pro-lifers allowed in on Pretty case but seeking leave to submit evidence Westminster, --The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has welcomed today's high court decision to allow it and other pro-life groups to intervene in the case of Mrs Diane Pretty, though the pro-life coalition...

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SPUC conference addressed by head of Life and by UN pro-life campaigner Newcastle upon Tyne, --SPUC's 2001 national conference was addressed by Professor Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of Life, and by Miss Jeanne Head, the most experienced pro-life campaigner at the United Nations. Professor Scarisbrick...

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SPUC to warn on abortive effects of some birth control methods Westminster, --The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is to expand the scope of its educational work to include warnings about the abortion-inducing nature of mini-pills, combined [contraceptive] pills, intra-uterine de...

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SPUC launches booklet in defence of Northern Ireland's pro life culture SPUC launches booklet in defence of Northern Ireland's pro-life culture Newtownabbey, --The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has launched Affirming a pro-life culture in Northern Ireland, a booklet which ...

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News, The RU-486 abortion drug has been approved for use in New Zealand. The country's ministry of health has announced that the drug, known as Mifegyne, can now be prescribed by doctors licensed to perform abortions. RU-486 was first approved in France more than 10 years ago and is now in use...

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