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Topic - Euthanasia

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Euthanasia - OCR Religious Studies Philosophy and Ethics A level Game

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Topic - Abortion

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Abortion - OCR Religious Studies Philosophy and Ethics A level Game

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Abortion - OCR Religious Studies Philosophy and Ethics A level Game

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Parliament in Belgium has passed a bill allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit, by 86 votes to 44, with 12 abstentions.

When, as expected, the bill is signed by the king, Belgium will become the first country in the world to remove any age limit on the practice.

It may be requested by terminally ill children who are in great pain and also have parental consent.

Opponents argue children cannot make such a difficult decision.

It is 12 years since Belgium legalised euthanasia for adults.

In the Netherlands, Belgium's northern neighbour, euthanasia is legal for children over the age of 12, if there is parental consent.

Conditions for child euthanasia

Patient must be conscious of their decision

Request must be approved by parents and medical team

Illness must be terminal

Patient must be in great pain with no treatment available to alleviate their distress

Under the Dutch conditions, a patient's request for euthanasia can be fulfilled by a doctor if the request is "voluntary and well-considered" and the patient is suffering unbearably, with no prospect of improvement.

'Immoral' law

One man in the public gallery of Belgium's parliament shouted "murderers" in French when the vote was passed, Reuters news agency reports.

Supporters of the legislation argue that in practice the law will affect an extremely small number of children, who would probably be in their teens, the BBC's Duncan Crawford reports from Brussels.

The law states a child would have to be terminally ill, face "unbearable physical suffering" and make repeated requests to die - before euthanasia is considered.

Parents, doctors and psychiatrists would have to agree before a decision is made.

Protesters have lobbied politicians against the changes.

Church leaders argued the law is immoral.

"The law says adolescents cannot make important decisions on economic or emotional issues, but suddenly they've become able to decide that someone should make them die," Brussels Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, said at a prayer vigil last week.

Some paediatricians have warned vulnerable children could be put at risk and have questioned whether a child can really be expected to make such a difficult choice.

Last week 160 Belgian paediatricians signed an open letter against the law, claiming that there was no urgent need for it and that modern medicine is capable of alleviating pain.

But opinion polls have suggested broad support for the changes in Belgium, which is mostly Catholic.

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Parliament in Belgium has passed a bill allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit, by 86 votes to 44, with 12 abstentions. When, as expected, the bill is signed by the king, Belgium will become the first country in the world to remove any age limit on the practice.

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Pro-Life Website looks at euthanasia & abortion

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Pro-Life Website looks at euthanasia & abortion

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The ProLife Alliance believes there are better ways to manage the very difficult life-decisions people have to make. Please click on the links below to find out more about these:

* Pregnancy Counselling

* Palliative Care

* Alternatives in Embryology

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The ProLife Alliance believes there are better ways to manage the very difficult life-decisions people have to make. Please click on the links below to find out more about these: * Pregnancy Counselling * Adoption * Palliative Care * Alternatives in Embryology

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Testing on mice has led to breakthrough in fight against Alzheimer's 

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Testing on mice has led to breakthrough in fight against Alzheimer's 

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The discovery of the first chemical to prevent the death of brain tissue in a neurodegenerative disease has been hailed as the "turning point" in the fight against Alzheimer's disease.

More work is needed to develop a drug that could be taken by patients.

But scientists say a resulting medicine could treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases.

In tests on mice, the Medical Research Council showed all brain cell death from prion disease could be prevented.

Prof Roger Morris, from King's College London, said: "This finding, I suspect, will be judged by history as a turning point in the search for medicines to control and prevent Alzheimer's disease."

He told the BBC a cure for Alzheimer's was not imminent but: "I'm very excited, it's the first proof in any living animal that you can delay neurodegeneration.

"The world won't change tomorrow, but this is a landmark study."

Cells starve

The research team at the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit, based at the University of Leicester, focused on the natural defence mechanisms built into brain cells.

Neurodegeneration

A neurodegenerative disease is one in which the cells of the brain and spinal cord are lost

The functions of these cells include decision making and control of movements

These cells are not easily regenerated, so the effects of diseases can be devastating

Neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and Huntington's

Source: London Brain Centre
When a virus hijacks a brain cell it leads to a build-up of viral proteins. Cells respond by shutting down nearly all protein production in order to halt the virus's spread.

However, many neurodegenerative diseases involve the production of faulty or "misfolded" proteins. These activate the same defences, but with more severe consequences.

The misfolded proteins linger and the brain cells shut down protein production for so long that they eventually starve themselves to death.

This process, repeated in neurons throughout the brain, can destroy movement or memory or even kill, depending on the disease.

This process is thought to take place in many forms of neurodegeneration, so safely disrupting it could treat a wide range of diseases.

The researchers used a compound which prevented those defence mechanisms kicking in and in turn halted neurodegeneration.

Analysis

It is rare to get cautious scientists keen to describe a study in mice as a turning point in treating Alzheimer's.

It is early science, a lot can go wrong between a drug for mice and a drug for humans and the only published data is for prion disease, not even Alzheimer's.

So why the excitement?

It is the first time that any form of neurodegeneration has been completely halted, so it is a significant landmark. It shows that the process being targeted has serious potential.

If this can be successfully developed, which is not guaranteed, the prize would be huge.

In Parkinson's the alpha-synuclein protein goes wrong, in Alzheimer's it's amyloid and tau, in Huntington's it's the Huntingtin protein.

But the errant protein is irrelevant here as the researchers are targeting the way a cell deals with any misfolded protein.

It means one drug could cure many diseases and that really would be something to get excited about.
Alzheimer's Research UK: Is it a cure?
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed mice with prion disease developed severe memory and movement problems. They died within 12 weeks.

However, those given the compound showed no sign of brain tissue wasting away.

Lead researcher Prof Giovanna Mallucci told the BBC news website: "They were absolutely fine, it was extraordinary.

"What's really exciting is a compound has completely prevented neurodegeneration and that's a first.

"This isn't the compound you would use in people, but it means we can do it and it's a start."

She said the compound offered a "new pathway that may well give protective drugs" and the next step was for drug companies to develop a medicine for use in humans.

'Very dramatic'

Prof Mallucci's lab is also testing the compound on other forms of neurodegeneration in mice but the results have not yet been published.

Side effects are an issue. The compound also acted on the pancreas, meaning the mice developed a mild form of diabetes and lost weight.

Any human drug would need to act only on the brain. However, this gives scientists and drug companies a starting point.

David Allsop, professor of neuroscience at Lancaster University described the results as "very dramatic and highly encouraging" but cautioned that more research was needed to see how the findings would apply to diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Dr Eric Karran, the director of research at the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Targeting a mechanism relevant to a number of neurodegenerative diseases could yield a single drug with wide-reaching benefits, but this compound is still at an early stage.

"It will be important for these findings to be repeated and tested in models of other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease."

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The discovery of the first chemical to prevent the death of brain tissue in a neurodegenerative disease has been hailed as the "turning point" in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. More work is needed to develop a drug that could be taken by patients.

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Should people have the right to play God? To friends debate.

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Should terminally ill people have the right to die? Would doctors be "playing God"? Two friends debate the arguments for and against assisted suicide.

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This film offers factual information about abortion and was produced by Education For Choice with BoldFace Productions.

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The Catholic Church is quite clear in its attitude towards abortion. In this video it explains why it believes that abortion is unethical.

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Christian teaching about euthanasia

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Christian views about the use of animals for medical research

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Fact File on Christian beliefs about fertility treatment

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Fact File on Christian attitudes to issues raised by cloning

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Fact File on Christian teaching on abortion