News, 2 February 2000
A new morning-after pill, whose manufacturers claim a higher
success-rate and fewer side-effects than other such pills, has been
launched in Britain today. Levonelle-2 costs five pounds, contains
progestogen (not oestrogen) and comprises only two tablets. Although
currently available only on prescription, the Family Planning
Association wants it to be sold in pharmacies. Family and Youth Concern
has condemned the new pill, saying that it will encourage promiscuity
and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. [Daily Telegraph and
Metro, 2 February, 2000] SPUC has published a fact-sheet which
describes the dangers of morning-after pills.
Doctors have reportedly aborted septuplets because a bacterial
infection was endangering the life of their mother. Mrs Ivette
Zapata-Smalls of New Hampshire became pregnant after taking Pergonal,
the fertility-drug, and previously refused medical advice to abort
three of the children in order to improve the other four's chances of
survival. [Metro, 2 February, 2000]
Lord Winston, the IVF promoter, has denied that human reproduction is
going to be manipulated more and more. He writes in today's Independent
that people will continue to conceive conventionally and that
technology is only there for when things go wrong.
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