Scientists see nothing wrong in cousins getting married

By Neharika Sabharwal
Published on December 26, 2008


London, United Kingdom, December 24: Even in the age of sexual liberation, both from a social and scientific perspective, marriage between cousins has been frowned upon.

An International team of scientists discovered that giving birth to children with genetic defects as a result of wed lock between cousins was no greater risk than in case of women becoming pregnant after 40 years.

Professor Diane Paul of Massachusetts University and Hamish Spencer of the University of Otago in New Zealand, leaders of the study, said "Women in their forties are not made to feel guilty about having babies and the same should apply to cousins who want to marry."

The scientists believe that the laws against cousin marriage are based on false fears. An over all review of the studies show that birth defects in children of cousins is significantly smaller than the general assumption.

Spencer clarified that, “Neither the scientific nor social assumptions behind such legislation stand up to close scrutiny. Such legislation reflects outmoded prejudices about immigrants and the rural poor and relies on over-simplified views of heredity. There is no scientific grounding for it."

Both the scientists reported that birth defects are 1.7 percent to 2 percent higher in children born to first cousins than the risk of congenital defects in the general population. Though, there is a 4.4 percent higher risk than the usual of dying in childhood, it still does not justify the ban. This was approximately, the same risk women take to bear children when in their forties and no one ever “suggests they should be prevented from reproducing.” more

British Social Services turned deaf ear to case of rape and incest

From Times Online
December 19, 2008
I reported incest of 'British Fritzl' a decade ago, says son
David Byers
The son of the man referred to as the 'British Fritzl,' who fathered nine children by raping his two daughters, disclosed today that he had reported the matter to police and social services more than a decade ago but no action was taken.

The man, who did not want to be identified, said that he had lived in terror because of the abuse he, his mother and his sisters faced when he was a child in Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, claiming he still has 49 scars on his head from the beatings he suffered.

The father, 56, was last month sentenced to a life term for a total of 25 rapes and will serve 19 and a half years. Sheffield Crown Court heard that his rapes had caused his daughters to get pregnant a total of 19 times.

He held his daughters virtual prisoners for 25 years, the court was told, moving them around houses in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to avoid detection.


British Fritzl jailed for 30-year rape regime over daughters
Speaking for the first time about the ordeal on BBC Radio 5 Live, the son said that he had lived in terror of repeated beatings and torture until he left home at the age of 15.

However, he said did not know about his father's incestuous rapes with his sisters – and who fathered the children which resulted – until having a conversation with his mother, who at that stage had also left home, at the age of 18.

He said he told police, who reported the matter to social services – but nothing was done after he was interviewed by social workers.

"I thought it would all be taken care of – you know, when an allegation like that's put forward you'd think they'd investigate it, wouldn't you. But somehow nothing's ever got done," he said. more

Surrogacy succour for gay couples

Tue, Nov 18 02:15 AM
LESS THAN a year ago, Omer and Yonathan Gher dropped a rose in to the Arabian Sea with a silent prayer, just as a fortune teller had told them to do. The Israeli gay couple's prayers were answered on Monday as they boarded a flight home with a son in their arms - a month after he was born to a surrogate mother at Mumbai's Hiranandani Hospital.

"I couldn't believe my luck when the doctor called from India announcing that we were pregnant," said Yonathan, 30, a social activist. The gay couple had been living together for seven years and desperately wanted a child, but the laws in Israel did not allow them to adopt or beget one through a surrogate mother. more

The ‘right to die’ or the Right to be Killed?

From The Sunday Times

December 14, 2008

The ‘right to die’ is a fashionable nonsense

Dominic Lawson

It is traditional, when mounting a coup, to seize control of the airwaves. Last week the supporters of euthanasia did their best. Monday’s Panorama was entirely given over to a “report” on this topic by the Lothians MSP, Margo MacDonald; but since Ms MacDonald has already launched a campaign to legalise “assisted suicide” north of the border, the BBC’s attempt to promote her as an impartial reporter was disingenuous, at best.

Two days later, Sky broadcast Right to Die?, a 90-minute documentary that told the story of Craig Ewert, a 59-year-old Yorkshire-based American, who had travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich to be humanely put down. As advertised, we were not spared the moment of Mr Ewert’s death.

The very phrase “right to die” is a fashionable piece of nonsense. How can we be said to require a “right” to something that is absolutely unavoidable, whether we want it or not? It is not the “right to die” that campaigners such as Margo MacDonald want, but the right to be killed – at a time of their own choosing. This is why some doctors, less sensitive to public queasiness, refer to the practice of “assisted dying” as “therapeutic killing”.  more

Vatican bans stemcell research

Vatican Issues Instruction on Bioethics

Riccardo De Luca/Associated Press

From left, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, Monsignor Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, Rev. Federico Lombardi, Monsignor Elio Sgreccia and Professor Maria Luisa Di Pietro during a press conference on bioethics at the Vatican on Friday.

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: December 12, 2008

The Vatican issued its most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in more than 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research.The Vatican says these techniques violate the principles that every human life — even an embryo — is sacred, and that babies should be conceived only through intercourse by a married couple.

The 32-page instruction, titled “Dignitas Personae,” or “The Dignity of the Person,” was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and carries the approval and the authority of Pope Benedict XVI.  more

UK Court forbids DNA profiling of the Public

Human Rights and Civil Society

Physician assisted suicide David Jeffrey's view point

Suicide 'shouldn't involve medics'

VIEWPOINT David Jeffrey  Palliative care expert Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in the UK Physician assisted suicide has been legal for a decade in the US state of Oregon. But palliative care specialist David Jeffrey says there are grave questions about whether people are being helped to die, when treatment for depression could be a highly successful alternative. In this week's Scrubbing Up column Dr Jeffrey, who is based at the University of Edinburgh, says a patient should be free to end their life - but doctors should not be involved. Oregon's 1997 Death with Dignity Act legalised physician-assisted suicide (PAS) for patients in the last six months of a terminal illness. A decade on, only one in 10 people requesting PAS proceed as far as picking up the medication.  The provision of end-of-life care in Oregon is so different to that in the UK that it cannot be claimed to be a valid basis for any change in existing UK law  And only half of those take the lethal drug. In 2007, official records show 85 prescriptions were written - the most since the law was introduce - but only 46 people took the medication. There were also three deaths in patients prescribed their drugs the previous year. In all, three people suffered complications. One patient took three days to die. more