*Executions generate organ sale income* WorldNetDaily reports that the People’s Republic of China has been exploiting its high level of executions to generate revenue through the harvesting and sale of organs from executed “criminals.” In Zhengzhou City, a hospital worker who had many times extracted organs at execution sites, told Harry Wu, a former Chinese political prisoner, “A shot in his head, blow away his brain, and the guy is brain dead. He has no more thinking, ceases to be a human being, just a thing, and we use the waste.” T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA testified on the organ harvesting at a 1998 hearing before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
*Woman’s DNA used in sheep* The Scottish company behind Dolly the sheep (PPL Therapeutics) has been criticized for inserting a woman’s DNA into thousands of sheep without her knowledge. The pressure group GeneWatch has highlighted the case and says it is concerned about the use of genetic information from donors. GeneWatch has called for stricter guidelines over the use of such tissue donated to medical research and said the government must act now to prevent the patenting of genetic information.
*Warning about genome project abortion pressure* A Public Advocate in Australia warns that medical science advances, such as the genome project, could be used to pressure parents to abort babies with abnormalities. He noted that the Federal Government currently withheld child-care rebates and maternity allowances from parents who failed to immunize their children. “Put yourself five years ahead when the genome project has produced reliable prenatal tests to determine whether a foetus has got a gross abnormality,” he told a Rotary lunch. “If we can contemplate taking away family payments for not being vaccinated, what do we say about the mother who doesn’t have a compulsory prenatal test to determine whether there are any genetic defects? Or who, having had the tests, chooses not to have an abortion when defects are present?
*Prison lifer wants wife artificially inseminated* A British prisoner serving a life sentence for murder has launched an unprecedented court battle, funded by legal aid, for the right to have his wife artificially inseminated with his sperm. Gavin Mellor, 29, and his wife “desperately” wanted to start a family and feared it might be too late if they waited for his release from a life sentence.