CIENCIASMEDICASNEWS: BioEdge: Are abortions for cleft palate rising in the UK?

sábado, 10 de septiembre de 2016

BioEdge: Are abortions for cleft palate rising in the UK?

Are abortions for cleft palate rising in the UK?

by Michael Cook | 10 Sep 2016 | Link

Abortions for cleft palate, an easily-fixed facial deformity, have been rising in the United Kingdom, according to the latest official figures. In 2015, 11 were carried out. The comparable figure in 2012 was 4.

Campaigners point the finger at new pre-natal tests which allow doctors to inform pregnant women of the defect. MP Fiona Bruce, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, said: “It is deeply disturbing if these figures reflect a worrying trend in society to disproportionately value the physically perfect and beautiful.”

Lord Alton, a crossbench peer, commented: “Aborting a baby with a cleft palate should be unconscionable. For the law to allow this up to birth should be unthinkable.”

A prominent Church of England curate, the Reverend Joanna Jepson, who was born with a jaw deformity, told the Daily Mail: “That this kind of discrimination is on the rise shows just how far we are from being the humane and tolerant society we claim to be.”

- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/are-abortions-for-cleft-palate-rising-in-the-uk/11994#sthash.I10iylg8.dpuf

I’m not very clever with spreadsheets. Never have been. Never will. My consolation, though, is that some people who use them 24/7 may not be either. A study by Australian researchers in the journal Genome Biology found that 20% of genomic papers contain errors because of a simple conversion error in the popular program Microsoft Excel. You see, if the gene Septin 2 is entered, as it usually is, as SEPT2, Excel automatically converts it to a date, 2-Sept. This is an issue that has been known since 2004, but it keeps increasing.

This raises some questions about the usefulness of the reviewing and editorial process at major journals if they are failing to pick up errors like this. And although this is a relatively minor glitch, it also shows once again that science is not infallible, even if it is backed up by sophisticated statistical analysis and acres of figures. Garbage in, garbage out.

By the way, our deputy editor, Xavier Symons, a post-graduate student in bioethics in Melbourne, has just had an article published in the Journal of Medical Ethics on the thorny topic of conscientious objection. Congratulations, Xav!