News, The Republican party's national convention in Philadelphia yesterday approved the policy statement, or platform, which includes calls for a total ban on abortion and a pro-life amendment to the US constitution. It had been thought that opponents of the platform might force a public debate on...

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News, The Irish attorney general has said that changing the law to allow abortion in cases of rape would be unworkable. Mr Michael McDowell, who was criticised by the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva earlier this month for Ireland's ban on all abortions except to save the mother's life, said th...

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News, The Irish attorney general has said that changing the law to allow abortion in cases of rape would be unworkable. Mr Michael McDowell, who was criticised by the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva earlier this month for Ireland's ban on all abortions except to save the mother's life, sai...

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News, The British government's science minister has effectively pre-empted the publication of the Donaldson committee's report on human cloning by saying that "the important benefits which can come from this research outweigh any other considerations one might have." Lord Sainsbury said that h...

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News, The British government's science minister has effectively pre-empted the publication of the Donaldson committee's report on human cloning by saying that "the important benefits which can come from this research outweigh any other considerations one might have." Lord Sainsbury said that his c...

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News, The French government has proposed a set of measures to liberalise the country's abortion laws. The reform would include the extension of the legal abortion time limit from 10 to 12 weeks' gestation, the abolition of any need for parental consent before girls under 18 have abortions or buy t...

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News, The French government has proposed a set of measures to liberalise the country's abortion laws. The reform would include the extension of the legal abortion time limit from 10 to 12 weeks' gestation, the abolition of any need for parental consent before girls under 18 have abortions or b...

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News, The head of the Scottish firm which cloned Dolly the sheep has called for genetic experiments on brain-dead human patients. Dr Ron James would like to see genetically modified pig organs transplanted into the patients to see if they are safe. His firm, PPL Therapeutics, has already clone...

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News, The head of the Scottish firm which cloned Dolly the sheep has called for genetic experiments on brain-dead human patients. Dr Ron James would like to see genetically modified pig organs transplanted into the patients to see if they are safe. His firm, PPL Therapeutics, has already cloned pi...

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News, The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill prohibiting states from executing pregnant women. The Innocent Child Protection Act, which bans the execution of pregnant women by any state or federal authority, including the military, passed by 417 votes to none. A law passed i...

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News, The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill prohibiting states from executing pregnant women. The Innocent Child Protection Act, which bans the execution of pregnant women by any state or federal authority, including the military, passed by 417 votes to none. A law pass...

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News, A member of the British parliament has announced plans to introduce legislation to allow embryo stem cell research. Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat member for Oxford West and Abingdon, will introduce his ten minute rule bill on 31 October. There will be insufficient parliamentary ti...

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News, A member of the British parliament has announced plans to introduce legislation to allow embryo stem cell research. Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat member for Oxford West and Abingdon, will introduce his ten minute rule bill on 31 October. There will be insufficient parliamentary time f...

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News, It has been reported that more than 2,500 women have so far been given morning-after pills from pharmacists without prescriptions in Manchester, England, since a pilot scheme was launched there last Christmas Eve. One in five of these women were teenagers, and concerns have been raised that ...

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News, It has been reported that more than 2,500 women have so far been given morning-after pills from pharmacists without prescriptions in Manchester, England, since a pilot scheme was launched there last Christmas Eve. One in five of these women were teenagers, and concerns have been raised t...

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News, In written parliamentary answers to a series of questions about the so-called morning-after pill, Yvette Cooper, the British minister for public health, has confirmed her government's support for the drug. She wrote: "Emergency contraception is a safe and effective method of preventing p...

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News, In written parliamentary answers to a series of questions about the so-called morning-after pill, Yvette Cooper, the British minister for public health, has confirmed her government's support for the drug. She wrote: "Emergency contraception is a safe and effective method of preventing pregn...

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News, Researchers in the UK have discovered that stem cells in adult bone marrow can turn into liver tissue. Professor Nick Wright of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund said that the discovery held out the possibility of using a patient's own stem cells to generate new liver tissue and thus avoid t...

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News, Researchers in the UK have discovered that stem cells in adult bone marrow can turn into liver tissue. Professor Nick Wright of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund said that the discovery held out the possibility of using a patient's own stem cells to generate new liver tissue and thus avo...

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News, The British Pregnancy Advisory Service has announced that it arranged abortions in Britain for 2,460 Irish women last year. 12 of these were under 16, while 933 were aged between 20 and 24. The figures were released jointly by the BPAS and the Irish Family Planning Association, which cla...

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