Ivf for single mothers

Thousands of people prepared to descend on Paris on Sunday (Oct 6) to protest a government plan to let single women and lesbians become pregnant with fertility treatments, the first major social reform since France legalised gay marriage in 2013. IVF treatment is currently only available to heterosexual couples in France. (Photo: AFP/Josep Lago) Organisers say they are hoping 100,000 will turn out against a law heading to the Senate this month, after it was approved by the lower house of parliament in September. President Emmanuel Macron pledged during his 2017 election campaign to push the law despite deep resistance among right-wing opponents as well as conservative Roman Catholics and other religious groups. They had mobilised massively in 2012 and 2013 against a move by Macron's Socialist predecessor Francois Hollande to legalise marriage for homosexual couples, with one Paris protest attracting 340,000 people according to police. But that law did not allow lesbian … [Read more...] about French to protest pro IVF law for single women, lesbians

NEWBURY, England — He is a farmer, she says, and she is a farmer’s wife. They are active in their community. She writes a bit on the side, her writing room only recently having been wired for electricity.On my recent visit to her home, she was warm and welcoming. Her yellow Lab, Bella, followed her closely as her mistress ushered visitors into the house.And oh my. What a house. Two hundred rooms. Forty bedrooms. Silk wallcoverings in one room, 16th century Spanish leather wallcoverings in another. An original Van Dyck. A display on Egyptology, in honor of one of the previous occupants who just happened to have discovered King Tut’s tomb.Hundreds of other treasures make it abundantly clear that you are not in Kansas anymore. You are, instead, on the set of “Downton Abbey,” but it’s not a set at all. It is Highclere Castle, and when Season 4 begins Sunday for American viewers of the wildly popular PBS show, it is this magnificent home they will see, … [Read more...] about Under the spell of Highclere Castle and ‘Downton Abbey’

As a teenager, it was a joke to answer uncertainty. As an adult, Blake McCarty’s joke about just wanting to create good art with good people when he grew up became the thing he gets to do professionally, every day.“Fast forward and I’m very lucky to do just that, even if I’ve opted not to focus on a specific career path or a single skill,” said the creator and director of the Verbitas program for New Village Arts. “More generally, one of my core beliefs is that empathy and understanding are critical to our health, happiness and sheer survival. During particularly divisive social and political times, storytelling is one of the only ways to build understanding and develop empathy. In my opinion, live theater forces us to engage with other people’s humanity, experience and perspective in ways unlike any other medium.”With Verbitas, he’s working directly with students in local high school theater programs, using community organizing … [Read more...] about Expanding high school students’ lives through theater