Most of these news items are adapted from a list provided weekly by the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity: 

Offsprings' rights: The neglected factor in third-party reproduction. If you read nothing else on the following list, read this powerful piece titled “What Are the Rights ofDonor-Conceived People?” It looks at third-party reproduction from theperspective of a donor-conceived person. ( The Public Discourse)

Killer foot cream. 
A common nail fungus drug is eradicating HIV. And the virus isn’tbouncing back when the drug is withheld. So it may not require a lifetime ofuse to keep HIV at bay. This is great news, people! ( ScientificAmerican)

Should surrogacy qualify one formaternity leave? An Irishteacher claims she was denied unfairly her paidadoption or maternity leave following the birth of her child via a surrogate.The court was to decide on that one today. ( Irish Times)

A brain controls a bionic leg. A team of software and biomedical engineers, neuroscientists,surgeons and prosthetists has designed a prosthetic limb that can reproduce afull repertoire of ambulatory tricks by communicating seamlessly with a humanbrain. ( Los AngelesTimes)

SARS doctor pleads for assisted suicide.
The infectious disease doc who helped Toronto through the SARScrisis ten years ago made a video before his death pleading for Canada tolegalize assisted. ( The ChronicleHerald)

Number of Dutch killed by physicianassisted suicide rises by 13 per cent.
Voluntaryeuthanasia, where a doctor is present while a patient kills him- or herself (usuallyby drinking a strong barbiturate potion) has been legal in the Netherlands foreleven years. Requests have risen steadily since then. ( The Telegraph)

Cancer: More Good news.  National CancerInstitute statistics show that in the U.S. an overall five-year cancer survivalrate for children under 19 with cancer has increased from 62 percent in themid-1970s to 84 percent today. For the most common type of childhood cancer,acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the cure rate is now over 90 percent. Woohoo! ( ABC News)

Gene therapy offers hope forpatients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Scientistssay the technique or related ones might also point the way to treatments forother inherited diseases, including Huntington’s. ( New York Times)