Whether for religious or cultural reasons, some Americans don't like mixing money and body parts. Some just don't trust the health care system and fear being rushed off to their maker prematurely if they indicate a willingness to be a

The government is thinking of enacting a law to regulate surrogacy in a bid to make the deal struck between the prospective parents and the woman lending her womb legally binding on both sides. (The Telegraph)

This weekend, The Methuselah Foundation, is sponsoring its first U.S. conference on the emerging interdisciplinary field that [Aubrey] de Grey has helped kick start. (Its first day, Friday, will be free and open to the public.) The conference, Aging: The

Fertility experts have called for a dramatic cut in the number of twins born after IVF treatment.IVF clinics in the UK will be expected to reduce the number of multiple births from a national average of one in four to

FEDERAL Parliament could soon find itself grappling once more with euthanasia after the leaders of both major parties gave permission for a conscience vote on the issue. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that five to ten academic health science centres will be established. It will see teaching hospitals working alongside university research departments to "benefit each other in the years to come". (UKTI Today)

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued Re-examination Certificates for the two most important base embryonic stem cell patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). (Capital Times)

Unlike these older, more popular therapies, Vet-Stem offers — for the time being — better medicine to animals than any allowed for their owners: even though it does not use controversial embryonic stem cells, the fatty-tissue stem-cell transplant has not

Direct-to-consumer genetic-testing companies who were served cease-and-desist letters by the state of California responded this week. Some insisted that they are in compliance with state laws, and others closed their doors to Californians. Both 23andMe and Navigenics, two high-profile, California-based

Governor Bobby Jindal has signed into law legislation that would ban government funding in Louisiana for what is sometimes called "therapeutic cloning." (Houma Today)

A study at the University of South Florida has shown that transplants of mononuclear human umbilical cord blood (MNChUCB) cells may help patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. A disease in which the

Aging Cell (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.Articles include:"Stem Cell Review Series: Aging of the skeletal muscle stem cell niche" by Suchitra D. Gopinath and Thomas A. Rando, June 17, 2008"Stem Cell Review Series: Regulating highly potent stem cells

Sociology of Health & Illness (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.Articles include:"New reproductive technologies, genetic counselling and the standing of the fetus: views from Germany and Israel" by Yael Hashiloni-Dolev and Noga Weiner, 19-Jun-2008"Men, masculine identities, and health care

Pain Medicine (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.Articles include:"Toward a More Empathic Relationship in Pain Medicine" by John D. Banja, PhD, 18-Jun-2008"Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use by Primary Care Patients with Chronic Pain" by Eric I. Rosenberg, MD, MSPH,

To state the obvious, the USA is losing its common culture and moral values, creating an almost unbridgeable cultural chasm. This, in turn, is disintegrating our social cohesion and leading to the me-me/I-I consciousness of radical individualism.But radical individualism is

Doctors have long recruited patients to help advertise — witness the doctor-patient tag teams on talk shows and infomercials. It has remained an open question as to whether doctors pay or remunerate those smiling patients in violation of the rules

In hospitals, medical-ethics teams are increasingly the arbiters of agonizing health decisions: helping parents and doctors plan care for a dying child, mediating among family members who disagree about removing a parent from life support, or steering patients in denial

A Stanford Medical School psychiatrist has vastly underreported his investment in a drug company whose fortunes could be affected by the university's studies, contends Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. (San Jose Mercury)

The patient in the Winnipeg futile care lawsuit has died while on life support. From the story:In the end, it wasn't a judge who decided Sam Golubchuk's fate-time ran out for the 84-year-old and his family who challenged the province's

What's not so clear to the American Medical Association is what kind of incentives — and in what amounts — might encourage potential organ donors and their family members to follow through. (MSNBC)