UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.
The public will be asked whether scientists should be allowed to create hybrid human-animal embryos, regulators have announced.
In the United States — though not in Britain—families also can use genetic testing to ensure they have children of a particular sex. Still, doctors say, expanded embryo screening probably is not a slippery slope toward designer babies, not only because the process is costly and difficult but because the number of embryos is limited and finding one that includes a number of desired traits would be very difficult.
The former docker was the first UK citizen to take advantage of the more relaxed Swiss laws. Swiss law does not state that assisted suicide is legal but the practice is widely considered as a “humane act”.
The death of 22-year-old Vincent Humbert is just the latest in a series of high profile euthanasia cases that have changed the issue of assisted suicide from a dark secret, to an openly debated topic in many countries around the world.
In a surprising twist to a euthanasia case that has captivated the nation, the head doctor of the intensive care ward where a French paraplegic, Vincent Humbert, died six weeks ago is expected to be charged with premeditated murder for injecting Mr. Humbert with poison.
French feminists, doctors and the leftwing opposition reacted furiously after the conservative majority in parliament passed a bill making it a crime to cause a pregnant woman to miscarry against her will.
A medical ethics adviser has provoked controversy by comparing the morality of abortion with that of infanticide. Professor John Harris said it was not “plausible to think there is any moral change that occurs during the journey down the birth canal”.
Many countries simply make no laws against euthanasia. Swiss doctors are not persecuted if they can prove they acted unselfishly, meaning they must not do it for profit.
Holland was the first European nation to legalize euthanasia and in 2001 and observers believe thousands of cases occur every year. Some pro-life residents of the country where specialized bracelets telling doctors to provide them with lifesaving medical treatment if they are injured and unable to make their own medical decisions.
