Bioethical news articles for January 27th:
European Assembly Slams Euthanasia: “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has given a big boost to opponents of legalised euthanasia. This body, which (somewhat confusingly) is not part of the European Union, is an advisory body in Strasbourg with more than 300 delegates whose pronouncements on human rights are highly influential in the EU. This week PACE passed a resolution on living wills (or advance directives) which states as a fundamental principal: ‘Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.’ Furthermore, an amendment was passed stating that ‘surrogate decisions that rely on general value judgements present in society should not be admissible and, in case of doubt, the decision must always be pro-life and the prolongation of life.’”
Assisted Suicide Debate Revived: “to legalise assisted suicide, just a year after her last effort was roundly defeated in the Scottish Parliament. The Independent Lothians MSP unveiled a new consultation on the issue—which pushes for ‘a friend at the end’—at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday despite the failure of her first bid to make it legal for the ill and the dying to seek help to kill themselves. Prior to the defeat of Ms MacDonald’s last bill Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s most senior Catholic clergyman, warned that it would inevitably lead to repeated attempts to change the law. Ms MacDonald’s new proposals come in spite of the comprehensive defeat of the previous End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill in a free vote at Holyrood just over a year ago. The Catholic Church was instrumental in the successful campaign against her legislation.”
Surrogacy not so Taboo Anymore: “Ask any couple their deepest desire, and the answer is sure to sound clichéd but true – a wish to cradle the tiny body of their first child, within the warmth of their arms. And as technology today enables childless couples to realise this dream through a number of invasive and non-invasive procedures, nature’s own alternate remedy- that of surrogacy- remained a topic so taboo, even wishful thinking of it was all but done beneath hush-hush tones. All that though, is going in for a toss. Fertility clinics in the city today are flooded with enquiries by childless couples wanting to have atleast one of their bloodline carried forward by way of a child. And as surrogacy remains the safest option for the same, better awareness and understanding of how to handle oneself in society during the nine months of surrogacy have only helped promote the cause further.”
Parents’ Mixed Nationality Led to Surrogacy Chaos: “US citizen J Pearllinda Vanburen Green had contacted the Ameerpet-located Rama Fertility Centre 18 months ago, after having gone to Mumbai and Goa looking for surrogacy service, for which the country has currently become synonymous with for couples the world over. She had come to the fertility centre with her husband, Eric Dalton Green’s semen sample from a New York-based Cryobank. While the husband’s name was there on the semen sample, she had failed to inform the clinic that her husband was only based out of the US but was not a US citizen himself. He was a Jamaican. It was this missing piece of information that led to much chaos, that climaxed on Wednesday evening when she abandoned the baby at regional passport office (RPO). Green, on her part, always believed that like in America, a child born on Indian soil would be an Indian and thus entitled to an Indian passport. Officials of the fertility clinic found out about the father’s nationality only after the child was born and the process of the birth registration was initiated. ‘Although only the names of the mother and father are needed for birth registration, we also give nationality of the parents and their passport numbers to facilitate movement when it comes to the child’s passport application. She could not give the passport copy of her husband and said he was a Jamaican,’ said PSN Prasad, chairman of Rama Fertility Clinic, Ameerpet.”
Surrogate Baby to Soon get ID Paper: “Running from pillar to post to get clearance to fly home with her seven-week-old baby boy, US national J. Pearllinda Van Buren may finally have something to look forward to. According to officials, she may soon get an identity certificate for her baby, named Emperor, who was born through surrogacy at a city clinic on December 7. The identity certificate will help Ms Van Buren, 48, fly with her baby to Jamaica, where she is based. The baby was denied an Indian passport because he is not an Indian national. What has compounded problems for Ms Van Buren is the fact that her husband, Eric Dalton Green, a Jamaican national and the only person with biological connection to the baby, cannot come to India. Ms Van Buren explained that her husband developed a fear of flying as a child, after his father died in an air crash, and cannot fly out here at any cost.”

J. Pearllinda Van Buren with Emperor
Sex-Change Husband to File Suit to Register Son as Legitimate Child: “A 29-year-old man, who was born a woman but has legally changed his sexual status due to gender identity disorder, plans to file a lawsuit demanding that the government acknowledge his son born by artificial insemination as his legitimate child, he told Kyodo News Thursday. ‘I want (the country) to recognize him as our child,’ the man, who resides in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, said. ‘I have decided to file a suit in Tokyo so that the Justice Ministry will take this issue seriously.’ The man changed his sex from female to male in 2008 and got married. His wife gave birth to the boy the following year through artificial insemination using his younger brother’s semen. But when the couple submitted the birth registration at a municipal office in Hyogo Prefecture where they lived at that time, they were told the boy cannot be registered as his legitimate child because he is not the biological father.”
Call for Providers to Set Out Assisted Suicide Policy: “Protection advisers have called on life companies to clarify whether they will pay out in cases of assisted suicide. Zurich, Aviva, Aegon, Friends Life, PruProtect, Bright Grey, LV= and Ageas Protect all confirm they do not have any exclusions for assisted suicide cases and say each case would be treated on an individual basis.It is illegal in the UK to help someone with a terminal illness end their life, meaning many people travel to Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe where there are more liberal laws. Earlier this month, the Independent Commission on Assisted Dying published a report calling for assisted suicides to be legalised for people with certain terminal illnesses.”
Hungary Passes Law Promoting New Pro-Life Constitution: “As one of the eastern European nations seeing high abortion rates, a pro-life Hungary would be a huge victory for women and unborn children. Susan Yoshihara of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, says that is happening. Excerpts from her report: Hungarian leaders have passed a law protecting the traditional family, defying ongoing criticism that their new constitution would curtail abortion… The new law says … ‘Embryonic and foetal life shall be entitled to protection and respect from the moment of conception,’ and the state should encourage ‘homely circumstances’ for child care. It obliges the media to respect marriage and parenting and assigns parents, rather than the State, primary responsibility for protecting the rights of the child. The law enumerates responsibilities for minors, including respect and care for elderly parents. The purpose of the law is ‘to create a predictable and safe regulatory environment for family protection and the promotion of family welfare, and to enforce the Fundamental Law,’ the nation’s new constitution, which came into force on January 1st and was passed by a vote of 262-44 last April. The Fundamental Law nullified Hungary’s communist-era constitution and dates its democracy from the revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956 and Soviet collapse in 1990. Hungary is the last Central European nation to pass a post-communist constitution. The constitution calls for the protection of life from conception and bans torture, human trafficking, eugenics, and human cloning.”

Hungary Passes Law Promoting New Pro-Life Constitution
Stem Cells – Where are We Now?: “STEM CELLS: two small words that can invoke enormous hype, hope and sometimes confusion. In theory harnessing them could open up new therapies for a range of medical conditions. In practice it’s a complex field, strewn with technical and, in some cases, ethical difficulties, but progress is being made, a small number of clinical applications have already been proved and more clinical trials are under way. But first, in any discussion of stem cells there’s an important set of distinctions to make. Not all stem cells are the same – and how they are classified depends on where they came from. The most adaptable – and ethically contentious – are stem cells derived from early-stage embryos. These embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into over 200 cell types, so in theory they could offer the most latitude for developing cells for therapies.”
Picture a Technology Revolution. In Contraception. It’s Here: “default on human fertility, so that accidental pregnancy is a thing of the past and women become fertile only when they want to become pregnant. By nature, adolescence switches our fertility default to “on” and it is stuck there for the next 40 years. Globally, 100 million women want to delay, space or limit child bearing but have no control over their fertility. Even women who are lucky enough to have contraceptives like Pills or patches or injections have to keep switching fertility back off. The latest generation of long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are game-changers. On the Pill –1960s technology with minor tweaks — one in 12 women gets pregnant each year! With condoms, it’s one in eight. (No contraception would be eight out of ten.) With the most effective hormonal IUD available, that number is one in 700. That’s the same as sterilization, and yet fertility can be restored by a five-minute procedure and returns within a few cycles.”
Kylie Minogue Considers Egg Donor in Baby Battle: “op star Kylie Minogue has reportedly considered using an egg donor to have a baby after cancer treatment affected her fertility. The Spinning Around hitmaker was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and underwent surgery and chemotherapy to beat the disease. She was given the all-clear the following year (06), but discovered her treatment would affect her chances of being able to conceive naturally. Minogue, who is in a longterm relationship with Spanish model Andres Velencoso, admits she would consider using a donor egg in a bid to have a child, but is open to other methods of becoming a mother. Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Chrissy Iley, she says, ‘I’ve looked into various other options, but I don’t know if I’m going to go down any of those roads yet.’”

Kylie Minogue
New Life Agency Rolls Out Assisted Reproduction Insurance Program: “New Life Agency has announced a new Assisted Reproduction Insurance Program(R) (ARI). The Program will be spearheaded by infertility nurse, Ellen Argall, RN. New Life Agency, the only company specializing exclusively in Assisted Reproduction Insurance(R), thus far has partnered with three Fertility Centers to provide insurance for fertility patients. The ARI program provides a tremendous cost savings, as well as a peace of mind, to patients in need of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The average IVF cost is roughly $12,000 and is generally only for one cycle. Also, frozen embryos are typically not included in the cost and could result in another $3,000 for a frozen embryo transfer (FET). The ARI program includes both FET, as well as fresh cycles, and ensures that the patients pay one global fee upfront for their IVF treatments. And patients pay nothing else out of pocket for the entire IVF fertility program (18 months and includes insurance, consults, fertility treatment, testing and service within the chosen ARI Program Plan).”
Illinois Couple Implants Frozen Embryos, Gets Second Set of Twins: “A month after Anabella and Matteus Potter were born in 2009, their parents, Adriana and Robert, agreed to disagree on what to do with two other embryos created in the same petri dish as their twins. Grateful for the in vitro fertilization that enabled the Elmhurst, Ill., couple to become parents, Adriana Potter, 38, believed donating the embryos to advance reproductive technology or treat debilitating diseases would be the most life-affirming choice. Robert Potter, 44, imagined having more children or donating the embryos for another couple to do the same. Anabella and Matteus made up their parents’ minds. Watching the brother and sister blossom into beautiful toddlers compelled them to have both embryos implanted last November.”

The Potter Family
Wolverhampton Couples Limited to One Round of IVF: “Plans to save £175,000 to be ploughed into other health services have been approved following consultation by Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust (PCT). Currently childless couples can get two cycles of IVF, at a cost of up to £5,000 a time, or other treatments but this will be halved from April 1. People currently on the waiting list will still get the full two cycles. National guidelines recommend health chiefs allow for three rounds of IVF. But keeping the existing treatment levels would deprive other services of funding, health bosses said in a report to councillors. Women must be aged 23-39 to qualify, have no other children and both partners must be non-smokers. Tim Jones, commissioning development manager for Wolverhampton City PCT, said people had accepted the plans when consultation took place.”