Wherever the issue has emerged, whether it is in the inner city schools of America, the primary schools of Wales, or in health education programs in the developing world, the suggestion that condoms should be actively promoted as a solution to unwanted pregnancies has been controversial. This is...

Alternative (or complementary) medicine, as a concept, covers such a huge range of techniques and practices. However, broadly speaking, the term usually refers those techniques that fall outside conventional, pharmacological or surgical practices. In some countries such as the US and Germany...

Organ donations are one of the most vital steps of progress made in the field of medicine. Where the failure of a vital organ previously would lead to a person’s imminent death, there is a chance today of saving lives by transplanting hearts, kidneys, livers etc. However, in the case of...

The Catholic Church forbids the use of barrier methods of contraception, such as condoms. Unlike other forms of contraception, barrier methods not only protect against unwanted pregnancy but also against sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS and HIV. In many African and South American...

A lottery is a form of gambling whereby lots are drawn and, depending on selections, prizes handed out. Many countries have lotteries which raise revenues for various levels of government as well as often providing a charitable donation to numerous worthy causes. The lotteries are usually...

Teenage pregnancy rates are on the rise, and contraceptives are often hailed as the underlying cause. However, few people agree on why contraceptives might be causing an increase in pregnancy rates. Some believe that a lack of contraceptives has led to more unprotected sex among young...

The cloning of ‘Dolly’ the sheep in 1997 by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh generated a spontaneous worldwide reaction. Dr. Richard Seed, an American geneticist, claimed he would be able to clone human beings within a year. A Korean doctor was...

According to the WHO, in 2004 there were approximately 2.25 million premature deaths worldwide linked to alcohol. Alcohol is responsible for 4.5% of the global disease burden, even after the protective effects of low and moderate alcohol consumption had been considered....

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder defined as severe, self- inflicted starvation leading to body weight at least 15% below that expected for the individual’s sex and height and age. According to the 10^th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the...

The issue of abortion is one of the most contentious, and emotive dilemmas faced by modern societies. The question is whether one should allow the termination of a pregnancy. For some, the question is even more fundamental: at what stage is the embryo or fetus in the uterus to be regarded as a...

IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatment is a medical procedure to assist infertile (or otherwise unable) couples to conceive children. The process involves fertilizing egg cells with sperm outside of the womb (in vitro), and then transferring the fertilized egg (zygote) into either the biological...

On March 23^rd 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an act the New York Times calls “the most expansive social legislation enacted in decades”.[1]

The law’s purpose is to...

Epidemiological studies have identified links between smoking and a wide range of medical conditions, from heart disease to male impotence. There is a vast array of information available on the harm that smoking causes and it is easily available. Indeed, in many countries, health warnings are...

Due to the achievements of molecular biology and biotechnology over the past 30 years, culminating in the successes of the Human Genome Project (an international collaboration of scientists, as well as the contribution of private, ‘genomics’ corporations), we now have identified the...