A couple has been given permission to use fertility treatment to create a "saviour sibling" for their seriously-ill 20-month-old daughter.

Couple win right to 'saviour sibling'

“Are rainbow parties pretty common?” inquired a rapt Oprah, to which Burford replied, “I think so. At least among the 50 girls that I talked to…this was pervasive.”

the latest teen craze?

"No one, and I repeat no one, is prepared for a pandemic that starts tomorrow."

"The famous line from emergency medical services is, we have trouble handling a Friday night. Handling a large pandemic, by most estimates, is out of the question."

"Even if there were enough beds — which there won't be — there won't be enough people. We have trouble getting enough nurses now."

"Will we close the schools? Will we shut down theaters? Will we shut down Disneyland? And what will that mean for the Orange County tax base? Those kinds of things need to be talked through ahead of time."

California Not Ready for a Flu Crisis

An investigation into the ethics of AIDS drug testing, the reality of AIDS in Africa, and the corruption of AIDS science.

Out of Control

I’ve decided to start prude-proofing myself via a series of daily micro-immersions in sex and violence. Last week, for example, I sat on my couch looking at a bra for over an hour. Then I forced myself to watch a video of a duck being hit by a car. Then I tried listening to the sound of the duck on the video being hit by the car, while looking at the bra. Next, I turned up the sound, while looking at a slightly sexier bra. Then I watched the duck being hit while I ran my hand over the bra. Then I had my wife put on the bra, which was a very effective technique, because as I tried to run my hand over the bra my wife nailed me with an ashtray just as the duck was hit by the car—one of the best micro-immersions in sex and violence a guy could ask for.

Nostalgia | The New Yorker

"It is not a typical Massachusetts-Taxachusetts, oh-just-crazy-liberal plan."

Massachusetts Sets Health Plan for Nearly All

"When I moved here after college," she added, "I didn't realize that along with rent, phone and utilities, I'd have this huge expense for hair."

Golden Girls

I'm not really sure why she's confiding in me this way. We started speaking only moments ago when we stood up and began the overhead compartment ritual.

"Oh, I understand."

No, I don't. Why did I say that? This is just stranger-to-stranger banter. Anonymous. There is a line you're not supposed to cross, and somehow we've catapulted ourselves over it.

Planely Uncomfortable

The virus has not reached the Americas, but it seems only a matter of time before it turns up in birds here.

Even so, a human pandemic caused by A(H5N1) is by no means inevitable. Many researchers doubt it will ever happen.

Questions and Answers About Avian Flu

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, where Dr. Jeremy Farrar works, has treated about two dozen people with avian influenza in the last three years.

Dr. Jeremy Farrar. The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, where Dr. Farrar works, has treated about two dozen patients with avian flu.

With that tiny number, Dr. Farrar and his Vietnamese colleagues probably have more clinical experience than any other doctors with the A(H5N1) virus — the dreaded germ that international health officials fear may ignite the next flu pandemic.

On the Front: A Pandemic Is Worrisome but 'Unlikely'