Daniel Zueras
SAN JOSÉ, Dec 16 2010 (IPS) – Costa Rica is one of the few countries in the world where in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is illegal. And the Vatican wants it to stay that way: Pope Benedict XVI himself recently urged the government not to pass a law that would make it legal.
But if IVF is not legalised soon, Costa Rica will be hauled before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
In 2000, the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court banned IVF in this Central American nation, ruling that the procedure violated the right to life of embryos that are not successfully implanted in a woman s womb
A year after the court handed down its decision, 10 Costa Rican couples filed a legal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR),…
Milagros Salazar
LIMA, Feb 1 2011 (IPS) – When the price of medicines for treating cancer soared by up to 64 percent in 2010, the Peruvian government set up a watchdog commission that will also monitor prices of drugs for diabetes and HIV/AIDS.
The Directorate General of Medicines, Supplies and Drugs (DIGEMID) told IPS that the commission s functions would be extended to other products that also enjoy tariff- and tax-free status, but are still priced beyond the reach of the general population.
The medicines market is imperfect by nature, since pharmaceutical companies with products protected by patents have a virtual monopoly, thanks to the protection of intellectual property, and can set whatever price they want, Alejandra Alayza, coordinator of the Peruvian Network…
Mehru Jaffer interviews FABRIZIA FALCIONE, UN WOMEN
VIENNA, Mar 10 2011 (IPS) – Female Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel are often denied legal representation and medical care while being housed in squalid conditions that can include sharing cells with rodents.
According to Fabrizia Falcione,project manager for the Women Human Rights Unit at UN WOMEN, the United Nations entity for gender equality and empowerment of women, told IPS that it is crucial to reveal the human face behind this breach of international law and international humanitarian law in order to address the plight of Palestinian political prisoners, including women and children.
Since 1967, more than 700,000 Palestinians have been arrested or detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres. Appr…
Dahr Jamail* – IPS/Al Jazeera
MARFA, Texas, U.S., Apr 4 2011 (IPS) – In a nuclear crisis that is becoming increasingly serious, Japan s Nuclear Safety Agency confirmed that radioactive iodine-131 in seawater samples taken near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex that was seriously damaged by the recent tsunami off the coast of Japan is 4,385 times the level permitted by law.
Airborne radiation near the plant has been measured at 4- times government limits.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the company that operates the crippled plant, has begun releasing more than 11,000 tons of radioactive water that was used to cool the fuel rods into the ocean while it attempts to find the source of radioactive leaks. The water being released is about 100 times more ra…
Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, May 5 2011 (IPS) – The global health agency and a network of non-governmental organisations opposed to nuclear proliferation have resumed their dialogue, prompted by concern over the effects of the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima in Japan and the enduring consequences of the explosion at Chernobyl, in Ukraine.
Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), met Wednesday with representatives of a group of NGOs who are harshly critical of the United Nations agency s policies on the health hazards of nuclear radiation.
The coalition, , presented Chan with demands for the adoption of measures for dealing with possible nuclear accidents like the Mar. 11 events at Fukushima and the Apr. 26, 1986 disaster in Chernobyl, in Ukraine, …
Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, Jun 8 2011 (IPS) – Soon chatting to ones friends or family over a mobile phone could mean that an HIV positive person will receive sustainable antiretroviral treatment (ART) that could prolong their life. That is if civil society in Kenya has its way.
A medical expert at the Kakamega General Hospital opens a cabinet with antiretrovirals. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS
Civil society is currently trying to find sustainable w…
Lowana Veal
REYKJAVIK, Jun 19 2011 (IPS) – Public health authorities in Reykjavik have criticised plans for the expansion of the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant. They say that levels of the gas hydrogen sulphide could increase by 40 percent if a new geothermal field, Grauhnukur, is developed and nothing is done to ensure that the levels of the gas remain below maximum permitted levels.
The steam contains the problematic hydrogen sulphide. Credit: Lowana Veal/IPS.
The Hellisheidi plant is about 30 km east of Re…
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 23 2011 (IPS) – When the international community commemorates the first anniversary of a historic General Assembly resolution recognising the right to water and sanitation as a basic human right, there will be no joyous celebrations in the corridors of the United Nations, come Jul. 28.
I think member states have been slow to react, complains a highly- disappointed Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the , one of Canada s largest citizens organisations promoting social and economic justice.
I know my own government has still not endorsed it, and still says incorrectly that the General Assembly resolution was not binding, Barlow told IPS.
The was adopted by the 192-member General Assembly on Jul. 28 last year, and two months …
Francis Kokutse
ACCRA, Aug 25 2011 (IPS) – Counterfeit medicines have flooded the market in Ghana and have even made their way into government hospitals as the country s drug regulator struggles to control the importation of drugs.
The president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Alex Dodoo, said the country s Food and Drugs Board (FDB) is not a stringent regulator when it comes to the care and management of medicines in Ghana.
Dodoo said fake medicines have found their way into public hospitals as there have been instances where patients on effective antibiotics did not get well until there was a change in the brand of drug administered. This clearly showed that the first line of treatment used had been counterfeit drugs.
He says this has happened becaus…
Paul Carlucci and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
Oct 6, Oct 6 2011 (IPS) – Emmanuel Joseph and George Amoah, two disabled Ghanaians, occupy different ends of the spectrum. The former lies on a piece of cardboard in Accra Central, his half-naked body twisted and mostly paralysed, the sun beating down on him while he waits to collect three dollars, the average proceeds of a day s begging.
