According to a recent study conducted by scientists in Canada, people who have consumed lower amounts of alcohol before a head injury are less likely to die than their non-drinking counterparts. The new findings suggest that the level of alcohol present in the blood may protect the brain from the effects of an injury to the cranium.

According to the researchers at University of Toronto, the head injury patients who had consumed low amounts were 24% less likely to die than those who had not had any alcohol

In a landmark decision by the British government, officials may abolish the requirement for fertility clinics to consider the need for a father when deciding whether to offer In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment. The new ruling would mean that the clinics could no longer deny treatment to lesbians and single mothers.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the decision, which would be applicable by next month, aims at abolishing the right of clinics to take into account a child's "need for a father

An unnamed 53-year-old woman will be administered a sleeping pill which could bring her out from a vegetative state. The test is against her family's decision to have her die with dignity and not live with the disabilities that the drug could cause.

Early research shows that the insomnia drug, zolpidem, could wake people out of a persistent vegetative state (PVS)

A British report on the care of premature babies suggests that preemies born before 22 weeks of gestation should not be given intensive care treatment to keep them alive. The controversial report released Wednesday said that resuscitation efforts at the hospital may help the baby survive his early days but he or she may grow up with severe disabilities.

The report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics sets guidelines for parents and doctors to make informed decisions about the care of extremely premature infants. The report said that babies born before 22 weeks and babies born between 22 and 23 weeks should not, in normal practice, be given intensive care unless parents make a request and doctors agree. "Natural instincts are to try to save all babies, even if the baby's chances of survival are low," said Professor Margaret Brazier who chaired the committee that produced the report. "However, we don't think it is always right to put a baby through the stress and pain of invasive treatment if the baby is unlikely to get better and death is inevitable," she said. It should be normal practice to give intensive care to babies born between 24-25 weeks gestation, the report said, unless both the parents and doctors agree that there is no hope of the infant surviving or that the level of suffering would be too great. The report also recommends that the babies born after more than 25 weeks of gestational period should not be normally subjected to intensive care, as they have a high chance of survival and a low risk of suffering from disabilities later in life. The report, expected to raise some eyebrows, was however welcomed by the religious leader in Britain. In response to the report, the Church of England said that although every life is valuable to God, there could be rare circumstances where treatment was futile and the child should be allowed to die. The Church of England House of Bishops and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales in a joint statement said that doctors do not have an overriding obligation to prolong life by all available means and said every case should be judged on its merits. The report comes after an increase in the number of extremely premature babies being born since the 1980s. "We believe that the guidelines will help parents and doctors to make decisions in these very traumatic situations," Brazier added

A new study by researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., has shown that teenagers who have reading problems are four times more likely than their peers to contemplate a suicide or attempt one. During the three-year study conducted on 188 high school students, researchers found that 25 percent of teens with reading disabilities have thought about killing themselves or made a suicide attempt, as compared to 9 percent of students with average reading skills.

Besides that, researchers also found a correlation between poor reading skills and dropping out of school during the study period. The dropping out was again strongly related to an increased risk of suicide