Brazilian cosmetic surgeons have become world leaders in reducing the size of bellies and buttocks, says a report in the UK Guardian about the biannual meeting of the International Society of Aesthetic Surgery. There are 4,000 cosmetic surgeons in Brazil working in this lucrative industry, not far behind the US, which has 5,000. Although no figures are available on the size of the market, it is probably not far behind the US$12.4 billion spent in the US. As in other countries, it is no longer a taboo subject -- celebrities talk openly about their operations and several glossy magazines are dedicated to the topic.

Surgeons explain that Brazilian society is particularly congenial to their trade. "Brazilians have a much greater ease in seeking out plastic surgery," says the outgoing president of ISAPS. "It is a tropical country, where people enjoy exposing their bodies. This helps stimulate people to have surgery." New, less invasive techniques offered by walk-in clinics are making… click here to read whole article and make comments

Doctors and drug companies in the US fear that the nation's elaborate system for trialing new drugs could break down if an unexpected court decision is upheld. In May the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that patients with life-threatening diseases have a constitutional right to drugs whose efficacy is still in doubt.

"It's a huge, huge, devastating decision," William Schultz, a former deputy commissioner for policy at the US Food and Drug Administration told the New England Journal of Medicine. "It would be very hard to figure out which drugs work," says Schultz; the incentive for conducting clinical trials "would seriously diminish"; and permitting companies to market drugs without evidence of efficacy would create "massive opportunity for fraud, involving people who are very sick and very desperate."

The other side of the question is the right of patients who may die anyway to grasp at the straw of extending their lives. "Dying people ought to have… click here to read whole article and make comments

When they pick up a pair of surgical scissors, doctors may be supporting child labour in Pakistan, a British doctors claims in the British Medical Journal. London-based surgeon Mahmood Bhutta says that Pakistan produces about 20% of the world's surgical instruments, mostly in the city of Sialkot. About 50,000 people work there producing stainless steel instruments, of whom about 7,700 are children. A pair of scissors may cost about US$80, but the German companies which market them pay the manufacturer only about $1.25. Dr Bhutta proposes that adult employees receive a fair wage so that their children will not have to work. He opposes a boycott because this could send workers deeper into poverty. click here to read whole article and make comments

THAILAND: Fertility tourism is booming in Thailand, with the cost of IVF a mere one-third of rates in Europe or the US. The largest clinic, the Jetanin Institute for Assisted Reproduction, has started offering sex selection, as well as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Six weeks ago, the Ramkhamhaeng hospital group also began offering a range of reproductive services aimed at foreigners from countries where such practices are banned. click here to read whole article and make comments

The rumours about non-voluntary euthanasia in the chaotic conditions of Hurricane Katrina last year were all too true, the Attorney-General of Louisiana has claimed. A New Orleans ear, nose and throat specialist and two nurses have been arrested over the deaths of four patients, ranging in age from 61 to 90. If convicted of second-degree murder -- which is far from certain, as none of the three women has actually been charged under Louisiana law -- they face life in prison without parole.

Attorney-General Charles Foti Jr explained that "we feel they abused their rights as medical professionals. We're talking about people that were maybe pretending they were God." According to Foti's affidavit, Dr Anna Maria Pou, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry deliberately injected four acute-care patients with lethal doses of painkillers. At the time, conditions at the Memorial Medical Center were atrocious, with communications and electricity cut, sweltering heat, lack of medical supplies, and an apparent breakdown in… click here to read whole article and make comments

 Supporters of embryonic stem cell research are regrouping after setbacks in the US and Australia. In the US, President George W. Bush has been lambasted for vetoing a bill -- the first veto of his administration -- which would have authorised funding for research on "spare" IVF embryos. The leading journal Nature described this as a monumental error". It points out that the issue is now dead in the water, until 2009, after the next election, although some states, notably California, plan to provide funding. "The scientific opportunities squandered in that time are irretrievable; the years of human life and health lost, unknowable," it laments. It advocates, instead, a funding model like "America's uneasy but workable abortion policy": grants for stem cells, but none for destroying embryos.

With the US heading towards mid-term elections, , saying afterwards that his boss "would not use that term". (What Bush did say was that he opposed "the taking of innocent human life… click here to read whole article and make comments

One of the most persuasive weapons in the arsenal of supporters of embryonic stem cell research is fear of losing highly qualified scientists to countries or states with more liberal regulations. It is often claimed that the US will experience a brain drain because of its policies are, in the main, more restrictive than in the UK or Europe. Similarly, Australians fret about a brain drain to the US, and UK scientists have been lured to Singapore.

An article in Nature Biotechnology has attempted to turn anecdotal evidence of this into hard statistics. The researchers found that US stem cell scientists are significantly more likely than biomedical colleagues in less contentious fields to have received job offers, especially from overseas institutions. However, "too few international offers were reported to draw firm conclusions". In any case, the mere offer of a job does not necessarily result in a job change. Surprisingly, despite some high-profile moves, the fear is still not a… click here to read whole article and make comments

The climate for embryonic stem cell research is also favourable in Europe after an agreement reached in Brussels this week. The EU has agreed to fund research on the stem cells, but not for "projects which include research activities which destroy human embryos". This compromise was opposed by Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Lithuania and Malta, but they did not have the numbers to block the measure. The EU meeting did decide, however, that no funding would be available for reproductive cloning, human gene line modification or creating embryos solely for research.

A Vatican spokesman, Bishop Elio Sgreccia, said that "Europe has committed itself appropriately and collegially to halt acts of violence and war in the nearby Mediterranean region. But it is seriously incoherent in not opposing destructive research. This, too, is violence, even if it is happening at the beginning of life." click here to read whole article and make comments

The activities of disgraced Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk are looking stranger and stranger. More details are emerging as his trial proceeds on charges of misappropriating public funds, embezzlement and illegally purchasing human eggs. It turns out that some of these funds were diverted into a project for cloning extinct mammoths. His team tried three times and failed. However, he says, Not a single penny was spent for personal use." Hwang still insists that he did not realise that his cloned human embryos were fakes. "I am also a victim who was deceived," he told the hearing. "I am the biggest victim." click here to read whole article and make comments

Should research ethics boards be run for profit? Known as institutional review boards in the US, these have traditionally been staffed by volunteer committees of scientists and clinicians who are working in an institution. More and more, however, for-profit IRBs are being hired to conduct efficient, high-quality ethical reviews. The oldest of these, the Western Institutional Review Board, has been in business since 1968. Nonetheless, not everyone is happy with the idea. Critics say that for-profit IRBs have an inherent conflict of interest because they derive their income from clients who have a direct financial stake in obtaining approval.

A debate in the journal Public Library of Science between Ezekiel J. Emanuel, of the National Institutes of Health, and Trudo Lemmens, of the University of Toronto, and Carl Elliot, of the University of Minnesota, suggests that the issue will not be settled soon. Dr Emanuel complains that critics are blindly prejudiced against private enterprise. He says that outcomes -- in… click here to read whole article and make comments