Cash boost for fertility services in Northern Ireland
The Health Minister for Northern Ireland, Michael McGimpsey, announced this week that he is to spend £800,000 on publicly-funded fertility services. He aims to cut NHS waiting times, currently up to 2 years, and, by relaxing eligibility criteria, to allow an additional 200 women to be treated...
Comment
Islamic perspectives on the embryo and gamete donation
by Dr Farrokh Sekaleshfar
1) The embryo Sunnism and Shi'ism comprise approximately eighty and twenty per cent of the Islamic world, respectively. Like other monotheistic religions, Islam regards one's personal identity, or one's 'I' in terms of personhood, as being tantamount to one's immortal, immaterial and rational soul. Differences between the religions, however, exist...
Children Are Not Embryos
by Sheila Briggs
Political debates are often successfully waged by how one names the issue. In such instances the substantive moral concerns may become obscured and distorted. The so-called 'right-to-life' movement has pressed for the recognition of the rights of the 'unborn child' from the moment of conception. Although this movement has not...