Free Republic

FULL TITLE: End-of-life debate turns to newborns: ‘Postnatal abortion’ morally acceptable in some cases, ethicist says Doctors would be justified to end the lives of some terminally impaired newborn babies, says a prominent Canadian bioethicist in a report that pushes the country’s euthanasia debate into provocative new territory. Much of the discussion of physician assisted-death in Canada has centred around adult patients capable of making known how they want to end their lives. But Udo Schuklenk, a Queen’s University philosophy professor, argues that in rare cases of severely impaired, deeply suffering newborns, actively causing death is morally acceptable, if still...

POSTNATAL depression, which brings untold anguish to thousands of homes every year, may be a relic from the days when humans lived in caves, scientists have discovered. Researchers at Edinburgh University believe hormonal imbalances responsible for the devastating condition may have been responsible for increasing aggression in new mothers. Dr Simone Meddle, a lecturer in veterinary science, claims that in prehistoric times the change in behaviour would help to prepare mothers for protecting their young from predators. But as human life has become safer, these strong maternal instincts have become redundant. Instead, she says, the hormones may be building up...