Animal rights activists are aghast at the news that their intellectual godfather, Australian philosopher Peter Singer, is prepared to support animal experimentation in some cases. The British website Arkangel for Animal Liberation said that he had fallen for vivisectionist lies: "the man talks rubbish and the sooner the notion that he has any place in the modern animal rights movement is dispelled the better".

Singer responded to the growing controversy amongst his erstwhile admirers with letters of clarification to British publications. In these he attempts to correct the mistaken impression that he believes that experimentation can never be justified. As a utilitarian, he contends that actions are justified by their consequences. Hence, if animal experiments could lead to immense benefits, they could be defensible, at least in theory.

However, he does not accept that humans are more worthy than animals, so the bar has to be set very high. His letter says: "a test for whether a proposed experiment on… click here to read whole article and make comments

Governments should get out of the stem cell research business, argues the bioethics expert at the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Sigrid Fry-Revere contends that stem cells do "hold the promise of incredible medical progress". But government funding for them is "bureaucratic, wasteful, fickle and divisive". Where philanthropists and investors step in, however, money flows into labs. Geron has invested twice as much as the US Federal Government and Harvard University has received more money than the National Institutes for Health. Governments should legalise embryo research, but should not fund it, she says.

Ms Fry-Revere holds up Missouri as a regulatory model. Last month voters gave embryo researchers a guarantee that their work could continue without political interference. A private foundation was able to commence work immediately with US$2 billion in funding from philanthropists Jim and Virginia Stowers. She also describes American IVF as a case study in the libertarian model of… click here to read whole article and make comments

One of the most potent political arguments for legalising stem cell research is the threat of job losses. In Australia's recent debate over therapeutic cloning, for instance, its supporters harped on the departure for the US and Singapore of talented researchers. But is this biotech brain drain a result of hostile laws or part of a natural movement towards offshoring? A recent feature in the Union Tribune, of San Diego, home to a thriving biotech industry, highlights the giant sucking sound of jobs flowing east to China and India.

Recent studies have shown that drug companies are farming out jobs to American contract research groups or cheaper offshore companies. A survey of 186 top global companies with a combined R&D budget of US$76 billion found that by the end of 2007 China and India will account for 31% of global R&D staff, up from 19% in 2004. "Companies are increasingly looking abroad to spur innovation and build new markets. In… click here to read whole article and make comments

A turf war is building up in the US over the lucrative field of cosmetic surgery. Lured by a better lifestyle and higher pay for less work, doctors are deserting conventional specialties and hanging up shingles as "cosmetic surgeons", "aesthetic surgeons" and laser surgeons". Established doctors are upset by the newcomers. Dentists are doing Botox, and urologists are doing hair transplants and vein removal," says New York dermatologist Ellen Gendler. Everyone wants to be a plasticologist [sic]."

Established doctors claim that the field requires specialist training, but squatters say that beauty treatment is far less complicated than Caesareans or appendicectomies and that professional development classes can quickly bring them up to speed. One obstetrician and gynaecologist told the New York Times that she and her business partner refer difficult procedures to a dermatologist. Specialists, however, tell horror stories of patients who received botched treatments from doctors practicing out of their scope. The root of the conflict appears to be money.… click here to read whole article and make comments

A 51-year-old woman with advanced muscular dystrophy is trying to get the Spanish government to legalise euthanasia. Inmaculada Echevarria has been in a hospital bed for 20 years and says that she wants to die. Euthanasia supporters are hoping that her case will spark a debate in parliament. The present government appears to be broadly in favour of euthanasia, but legalising it would provoke huge opposition. The health minister, Elena Salgado, says that Ms Echevarria's case is a matter for the courts.

In an October press conference, Ms Echevarria said that "the loneliness is worse than the physical pain. People treat me well, with kind words, but in the end no one helps me." Her partner died in a car accident and she gave her son up for adoption. She has a brother in the northern city of Logrono, but he has not contacted her for years. click here to read whole article and make comments

Buoyed up by the news that a Dutch animal rights party won two seats in parliament last month, activists in the UK have launched a party of their own, Animals Count. Their Dutch colleagues' success was made possible by a proportional representation system, so they will contest elections first in Wales, where this is used to elect the Welsh Assembly. Party leader Jasmijn de Boo refused to rule out standing against Greens candidates. click here to read whole article and make comments

 British doctors have been told that they risk jail or lawsuits for damages if they fail to allow patients who have made living wills to die. A senior cabinet minister, Lord Falconer, has set out guidelines to the Labour Government's Mental Capacity Act, which become effective next year. Living wills, which can be made years in advance, often stipulate that if a patient becomes incapacitated, doctors should withdraw food and water. The new act gives their wishes legal force. Conscientious objectors are required to pass the patient to another doctor who will carry out the living will.

Critics of the act say that it raises the possibility that a doctor who refuses to kill a patient could go to jail, or that relatives could sue him for not killing a patient, or even that a patient who recovers could sue because he did not die.

Dr Peter Saunders, head of the Christian Medical Fellowship, says that "we… click here to read whole article and make comments

 The UK's most prominent IVF researcher, Lord Robert Winston, has taken a strong stand as a supporter of social sex selection. Writing in the London Daily Mail, he writes that every parent has a right to choose their baby's sex. Although this practice is currently banned in the UK, he feels that the justification for this is flimsy.

He even argues that in countries like India and China, where the sex ratio has become grossly distorted because of abortions of girls, IVF sex selection would be beneficial. "Pre-conception sex selection might reduce the incidence of selective abortion and female infanticide. Of course, sex selection is hardly the ideal way of dealing with such an iniquitous practice but, in the short term, it would be a far better option until there was a radical change in a culture which seemingly prefers boys to girls," he argues. In the UK, he says, sex selection is unlikely to lead to an imbalance… click here to read whole article and make comments

After a 14-year moratorium, US cosmetic surgeons may now use silicon breast implants. In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration imposed a moratorium on their use because many women had complained that silicone from leaky or faulty implants made them ill. However, several subsequent studies claim that they are safe, although there is always a chance of rupture or infection. "I think this is a huge victory for women," says Dr David Song, of the University of Chicago, "not just for those seeking cosmetic surgery but also for many reconstructive patients after breast surgery". It is also a victory for the cosmetic surgery industry. Breast augmentation is the second-most popular procedure in the US, after liposuction, with nearly 365,000 patients in 2005.

The FDA's decision has savage critics. Dr Sidney Wolfe, of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group, told the New York Times that the breast implant was "the most defective medical device ever approved by the FDA. The approval… click here to read whole article and make comments

 Peter Singer has blindsided his many critics by backing some medical experimentation on animals. In a BBC documentary on the controversial issue, he says: "It is clear at least some animal research does have benefits. I would certainly not say that no animal research could be justified and the case you have given sounds like one that is justified." Singer, an Australian bioethicist now working at Princeton, is the author of the well-known book Animal Liberation.

His unexpected flexibility may offset remarks he made back in May to an Australian gay magazine. He asserted then that chimps were too social and sensitive to be used in AIDS research. He suggested that patients in a persistent vegetative state could be used instead. "Maybe we could keep them alive for another month or two to do some research that could save millions of lives potentially, and then allow them to die," he told an interviewer.

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