Assisted Suicide Debate - UK

Former health secretary Patricia Hewitt is urging MPs to change the law to allow people to take terminally ill patients abroad for assisted suicide.

The Labour MP has tabled an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill which would protect them from prosecution.

The amendment which may be debated but not voted on at this stage, is not thought to have much chance of success.

Care Not Killing, which opposes assisted suicide, said the effect of Ms Hewitt's amendment would be "tragic".

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright said the government did not plan to change the law and the amendment, which has been signed by a handful of Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MPs, was unlikely to pass.

http://www.carenotkilling.org.uk/

http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/

A2 Ethics - Criminal Responsibility, Determinsim

Was Joseph Fritzel - determinsined to act this way or was he in full control of his actions?

The court later heard psychiatrist Dr Adelheid Kastner say there was a danger Fritzl would repeat his behaviour if he was left untreated.

"He will remain the same person, and the ways to exercise this control will change and change with his physical abilities, but his needs will remain the same," she told the BBC outside the court.

"So he will be a danger and he has to be kept in prison until he is no danger for others."

She recommended that he be sent to a special facility for deranged criminals, although strictly speaking he was not insane.

"What I told the court was that Mr Fritzl has never been mentally ill," she said, "and that he has always been sane in the legal sense of the word - that he was always able to discern between right and wrong, and that he always knew what he did was wrong."

She said Fritzl had an overwhelming need to dominate and control, which she said stemmed from his childhood.

New guidance on IVF defects risk

Couples seeking IVF are to be warned children born as a result of the fertility treatment may face a higher risk of birth defects.

Guidance from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is to be updated in the light of US research.

Scientists in Atlanta found IVF babies could be up to 30% more likely to suffer from certain health problems and genetic flaws.

Abortion Guidelines For NI

Abortion is illegal in NI, except when the mother's life is at risk.

While the move will not change the law, the guidelines should make clear what is and is not permitted.

It provides guidance on the giving of informed consent from the mother, the provision of counselling both before and after the termination and the responsibility of health and social care organisations to develop and distribute relevant leaflets.

Nursing staff who, on the grounds of conscience, do not wish to assist or perform a termination will also have their rights protected.

Audrey Simpson from the Family Planning Association said the guidelines were the first step towards the government acknowledging that women in certain circumstances had the right to an abortion.

Bernadette Smyth from the group Precious Life, which campaigns against abortion, has not welcomed the guidelines.

"In certain cases where a woman's life in is danger, no doctor will withhold medical treatment from any woman and in some cases a child might lose its life," she said.

"But, as these guidelines are written, it would give doctors full permission to carry out a direct act of violence towards unborn children."

WHEN IS IT LEGAL?

Abortion is only allowed in Northern Ireland if it is necessary to save the life of the woman or if there is a risk of serious, long term damage to her physical or mental health.

HOW IS IT ASSESSED?

Two doctors should normally assess a woman seeking an abortion, though in emergencies one doctor can carry out the assessment. A psychiatrist should be involved if the woman has a history of mental illness.

MUST STAFF CARRY OUT THE PROCEDURE?

No-one should compel staff to participate in an assessment or in performing an abortion. The right to conscientious objection should be respected expect in circumstances when the woman's life is in danger and emergency action needs to be taken.

If a GP feels unable to give advice or assessment in relation to an abortion they should refer the woman to another doctor.

WHAT IS THE WOMAN TOLD?

The woman seeking an abortion must be competent to understand the procedure and its alternatives in broad terms. The decision must be voluntary and made on the basis of sufficient, accurate information.

WHAT HELP IS THERE?

Women who are considering or who have undergone an abortion, regardless of where it is carried out, should have access to counselling services. The counselling should be non-judgmental and non-directive.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER?

Aftercare services should be available to any woman who has complications following an abortion regardless of where it was carried out.

WHAT INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE?

Verbal advice should be supported by accurate, impartial printed information that the woman can understand and may take away to consider further. Boards and Trusts should liaise to develop information leaflets

Right to Life Court Decisions in the UK

This article traces the various court decisions that have been made int eh UK regarding the debate between parents and the medical profession over the sanctity of life and their children.

There have been several cases where parents wanted their child to be treated by doctors but the medical profession has said that treatmetn was futile and was only prolonging the agony and suffering of the children. The High Court has found in favour of medical opinion in several landmark cases.

Baby in right-to-life battle dies

The parents of the child wanted the baby to be kept alive - right to life.

The doctors said the child was in unnecessary pain and so they wanted to remove the life support machine.

His parents had appealed against a ruling at London's High Court that it was in the boy's best interests to withdraw "life-sustaining treatment". They lost the appeal.

Obama Allows Federal Funding of Stem Cell Research

President Obama has removed the ban on federal (government) money being used to fund embryonic stem cell research in USA. He said his decision was based on science and not politics. Obama says that he is a man of great faith but this deceision will put him at loggerheads with the Chrisitian right in the US who think that stem cell research is morally wrong because of the sanctity of life argument - the embryo is a human being with rights that need to be protected.

Controversial becasue embryonic stem cell research hasn't yet produced a known cure but scientists say they need more time and money. Meanwhile adult stem cell research has produced some known cures.

Stem Cells Generate Working Organs

EDITED

From medicalnewstoday.com, for a direst link click the title.
News realeased on the 4th of March.

The article states that stem cells, once extracted from enbyos/humans, can then be connected to the circulatory system in animals in rder to grow working organs that can be used in the human body. Meaning patients needing serious liver or stomach transplants have less to wait. But will this also lead to further animal testing and could there be long term effects for these patients?

Stem Cells on TV - about Bangkok Clinic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTtcTQYVOyU

This video shows us inside the labs of a cardiology (probably not spelt right) clinic in Bangkok.

It shows interviews with the Doctors and even some views of people outside of the program.

But what are the ethicl issues.

Chinese Take Lead Role In Stem Cell Research

The Head of China's human embryonic research team, Professor Li Jianyuan, explains that he and his team have found a new way to collect human stem cells.
Their method is to inject some of the donor's skin cells into a human egg.
He says that this could cure currently untreatable illnesses and could possibly provide organ transplants for those who need them.
His 'new' method still causes the cloned embryo's to be destroyed but most of the people in China are not worried by this as it is Chinese tradition that a person is a person only at birth.

The team to date have currently cloned 5 embryos

Not everyone hold the same value of human life however. Professor Zhai Xlaomei says, "Even though it is not considered as a human it is still a human embryo and we must treat it in a proper way according to ethics."

Ross McC

Ground-breaking stem cell therapy trial

A Glasgow-based team has announced plans to trial a pioneering stem cell therapy, which they hope could help reverse the symptoms of stroke. The article said: 'The trial has been fiercely opposed by pro-life groups, who believe that an embryo has equivalent moral status to a child or adult human, because the stem cells involved are obtained from aborted embryos,' implying that the stem cells used were sourced from pre-implantation embryos.Throughout the article, the stem cells are referred to as 'embryonic', however it has been brought to our attention that the research in fact involves stem cells derived from aborted fetuses, which, although still viewed as controversial by some anti-abortion groups, do not involve the creation of embryos for the sole purpose of harvesting stem cells.

'Ethical' Stem Cell Research Hope

BBC News

The ability to create stem cell treatments without using embryos is a step closer, say researchers.

A UK and Canadian team have manipulated human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells without using viruses - making them safer for use in humans.

The cells are reprogrammed by the insertion of four genes which are then removed once the process is complete, they report in Nature.

While a significant step it is early days, the Edinburgh-based experts say.

Much of the work on stem cells has focused on those taken from embryos as they have an unlimited capacity to become any of the 220 types of cell in the human body - a so-called pluripotent state.

But campaigners have objected to their use on the grounds that it is unethical to destroy embryos in the name of science

Ethical Issues:

• would avoid the destruction of embryos if successful - this is one of the main objections people who believe in the sanctity of life have to stem cell research
  

Octuplets mother Nadya Suleman: I longed for a huge family

Nadya Suleman, 33, a single mother who already had six children before becoming pregnant with octuplets, admitted in an interview with NBC that each of her 14 children were born through IVF and sperm donations.

She said that she had continued to seek fertility treatment to extend her family and make up for being an only child.

"That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family. I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I really lacked, I believe, growing up," Ms Suleman said.

Christian groups lose legal challenge over human and animal embryos

February 20, 2009

UK High Court has rejected challenges by Christians to halt research involving human-animal hybrid embryos.

The experiments with inter-species embryos, which involve inserting a human cell nucleus into an empty egg, are ultimately intended to create powerful laboratory models for investigating conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease.

Professor Stephen Minger, of King's, who holds one of the licences, welcomed the ruling. He said: “It is gratifying that Mrs Justice Dobbs recognised that the science behind the creation of hybrid embryos was always about creating unique cloned human cell lines that could accelerate the development of therapies for a number of important neurodegenerative conditions.

Ethical Issues:

• creating hybrid embryos with part human and part animal DNA for research into diseases
  
• involves the destruction of life (the majority of the DNA is atill human)

Stem Cell research

The Guardian, Monday 2 February 2009

The potential of stem cell research is almost biblical in its scale. The capacity for these cells to transform into whatever the body needs to regenerate itself could, in the lifetime of the next generation, make the blind see, the crippled walk, and the deaf hear. It could cure cystic fibrosis and arrest muscular dystrophy. Yet it also raises one of the most difficult dilemmas in medical research.

Ethical Issues:

• possible cures for diseases and conditions that at present have no cure, stem cells will allow the regeneration of damaged 'body systems', etc.

• but many object because to carry out the research and harvest the stem cells involves the destruction of embryos - for those that believe life begins at conception this means the destruction of countless numbers of people
  

IVF available on NHS for Gay and Lesbian Couples

A lesbian couple have won the right to NHS treatment to help them have a baby after threatening to sue health chiefs.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) had denied Caroline Harris and Julie McMullan IVF treatment as they were not classified as an infertile couple.

The health board said it had reviewed its position in light of regulations, including the Equality Act.