Abortion is banned in Ireland in almost all circumstances, including rape and incest. On May 25th voters have their say in a referendum that could repeal the ban.

In a dehumanizing era of managed care and healthcare delivery systems, the demand for a warm and caring bedside manner has grown sharply. In response, Harvard Medical School developed a course called Living with Life-Threatening Illnesses that is devoted to training future doctors to be more compassionate by pairing each participant with a uniquely qualified teacher: a patient with a potentially fatal condition. This ABC News program focuses on the...

Spurred on by the death of her husband, Diane Rehm explores medical aid in dying. She speaks to people uncovering the facts and the myths surrounding this controversial practice that is now legal in nine states and the District of Columbia.

During the decade spanning 1990 and 2000, there was a 700 percent increase in the use of Ritalin among schoolchildren. In addition, millions of prescriptions for Prozac and other anti-depressants were written for preschoolers and adolescents. This edition of Investigative Reports questions whether America's easy acceptance of pharmacological solutions has made the medication of troubled children too commonplace, becoming, in a sense, a tool for squeezing...

How far should people be allowed to go in trying to have better babies? And whose definition of "better" should prevail? This Fred Friendly Seminar moderated by Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry considers the ethical dilemmas facing individuals and society that grow out of prenatal testing and genetic options that may be available in the future - such as cloning. Panelists include Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research...

For nearly a year, 11-year-old Sarah Hershberger simultaneously battled cancer and a court case. Diagnosed with lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare cancer, she started chemotherapy but her parents discontinued treatment after side effects took a serious toll. Akron Children's Hospital was not open to discussing alternative or supplemental treatments, and officials there expressed concern that Sarah would die if she discontinued treatment. The hospital...

A gripping plea for public debate, this program offers a dynamic cross-section of views on xenotransplantation and the ethical questions it is raising. Bioethicists, researchers, academics, medical professionals, and others from institutions and companies such as Harvard Medical School, the University of Oxford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PPL Therapeutics, and Immerge BioTherapeutics shed light on a number of pivotal issues. Among...

What if we could identify the genes for human intelligence? Would a brave new world of perfect people be our future? This program profiles two young scientists at China's BGI, an internationally-renowned genome sequencing center, raising questions about the societal implications of their work. The video follows 18-year-old Zhao Bowen as he seeks a genetic basis for cognitive skill by analyzing the DNA of 2,000 highly gifted children. Bowen's belief...

Medical technology bestows a diagnostic power with thorny consequences: depending on what the test results reveal, parents and doctors can decide whether or not to let a pregnancy run its course. By following three couples dealing with high-risk pregnancies at a hospital in France, this program gets inside the complex decision-making process used by doctors and obstetrics specialists, as well as how they present their recommendations to the parents...