Word: abortions
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...France's highest court of appeal, the Cour de Cessation, has reproduced the self-cancelling black box as law. It has ruled that disabled children are entitled to be compensated if their mothers were not given a chance to abort the defective fetus. It has decided in favor of the families of three children-one with a malformed spine, two born with only one arm-whose lawyers argued that if doctors had detected the fetuses' disabilities, they would have had the pregnancies terminated...
...Under the menace of this decision, French doctors, whenever the slightest shadow turns up on the sonogram, will advise: Abort. Perfect children are mandated by law. Parents will be considered irresponsible if they bring forth a specimen less than perfect. Think of the charming effect this decision would have if it were applied in those many countries around the world where a fetus that turns up with a vagina rather than a penis is considered to be defective...
...their arguments fail. First, stem cells are usually taken from embryos produced for in-vitro fertilization or from aborted fetuses. Both procedures are legal. They produce cells of incalculable value that would otherwise be discarded. Why not derive human benefit from them? Second, the National Institutes of Health guidelines issued last August take away any incentive to abort or otherwise produce embryos just for their useful parts: no payment for embryos and no dedication of embryonic cells for specific recipients (say, for injection into a sick family member). Finally, there is the potential benefit. Because embryonic stem cells can theoretically...
Most people stay in the balcony of the abortion debate, looking down on the drama from the crowded middle seats. Their feelings tip and tilt according to circumstance and conditions: Was there a waiting period, counseling? If it's a teenager, do her parents know? Surveys find that 65% of people accept first-trimester abortion, but 69% oppose anything later than that. The laws reflect the public ambivalence of a country that wants abortion to be available but not easy. And pro-life forces have done everything in their power to make it harder, by focusing on the unimaginably hard...
...rules are actually less restrictive than many of those found in Europe. In Britain the pills are available only in licensed abortion facilities--usually clinics and National Health Service hospitals--and must be taken on the premises. Similar regulations exist in France, which requires four visits over a period of three weeks to a licensed hospital or clinic. Dr. Elizabeth Aubeny, one of the first physicians to test mifepristone, at the Broussais Hospital in Paris, contends there should be more flexibility in allowing women to take misoprostol at home, if they choose. Still, she admits, "there...