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CRISPR-Cas9: “Ethical catastrophe?”
In March 2015, two groups of scientists warned the scientific community of the possible spin-offs of using a new genome modification tool, namely CRISPR-Cas9. Albert Barrois explains how this new technique was developed: The first discovery dates back to 1987,...
Can animal rights be modelled on those of human beings?
Isn't it surprising to witness the interest fuelled in legislation dealing with "animal rights" when human life is threatened from conception right through to the end? However, the rights which codify our human relationships and links with those around us are...
France’s injunction against European MPs on abortion: and subsidiarity?
Whilst a motion for a resolution "on the European Union strategy for equality between men and women after 2015" is currently being worked on at the European Parliament, the GSEA (General Secretariat for European Affairs) – the Prime Minister's department responsible...
Arizona: Abortion – a reversible choice?
Yesterday, Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, signed a bill obliging physicians to tell women wishing to undergo or about to undergone a medical abortion that the procedure could still be stopped by using strong doses of hormones. This bill also prohibits...
Heading towards new WHO recommendations for medical abortions?
Two studies published in The Lancet by scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden refer to the management of medical or illegal abortions that have failed and miscarriages. One focuses on the use of a urine test, a "home test" which means that women do...
The United Kingdom claims the first transplant of a “stopped” heart in Europe
The medical team at Papworth Hospital (Cambridge, United Kingdom), is claiming a European first: the successful transplantation of a "stopped" heart. This technique was introduced in Australia in 2014. The team "restarted" the heart a few minutes after it had stopped...
Ohio: Parliament adopts the law banning abortion after 6 weeks
On Wednesday, Ohio Parliamentarians adopted a draft bill, by 55 votes to 40, aimed at banning abortion six weeks after conception, i.e. the time at which a foetal heart beat can first be detected. Any doctor carrying out an abortion after 6 weeks will be found...
Iceland: the sequenced genetic code of an entire nation
The team of genetic code scientists published an article in the Nature Genetics journal updating "a series of discoveries including the age of mankind's last common ancestor". By combining the genomes of 10,000 individuals from all over Iceland and having...
Two Nobel Prize winners are worried about the creation of genetically modified embryos
A team of eighteen American scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners [1], have published a warning on the potential uses of the new tool, "CRISPR-Cas9", in the Science journal. They echo the sentiments of five scientists who published an appeal for a moratorium...
Spain: A new draft law to restrict access to abortion
On 23 September 2014, Mariano Rajoy's government abandoned a draft law seeking only to authorise abortion in cases of danger to health, life-threatening situations to the woman or following rape. There was strong international opposition to this draft law. A...
The Hague Conference: feminist associations join forces to “abolish” surrogacy
The Hague Conference, an intergovernmental organisation responsible for ensuring co-operation in terms of family law, must decide today whether it accepts to work on a future text "for shaping international law in relation to transnational surrogacy, and facilitate...
Chile: the adolescent who requested euthanasia changes her mind
Valentina Maureira, aged 14, is suffering from cystic fibrosis. At the beginning of March, she turned to Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet, for permission to undergo euthanasia, claiming that she was "tired of living with this disease". Since euthanasia and...