With Iraq and terrorism uppermost in voters' minds, it is difficult to discern what they feel about a boutique issue like therapeutic cloning, or, to use the woollier term preferred by supporters, somatic cell nuclear transfer. Six Democratic senatorial candidates who clearly supported it were victorious. Three governors who campaigned vigorously in favour of it won. But in the House, the results were less clear. Of 15 races in which the issue was prominent, eight supporters won, and seven lost. And even in the Senate, the results were not a straightforward endorsement of cloning. One of its most outspoken opponents, Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, was defeated by another opponent, Bob Casey Jr. So the election was far from being a ringing endorsement of the demands of scientists and patient advocacy groups.

Only in the state of Missouri did voters have a chance to deliver an unequivocal verdict on cloning. They had been asked to decide whether to support an amendment to the state constitution to legalise it and bulletproof it from legislative interference. In the end, they did, but only by 51% to 49%. Opponents of what they described as a "clone and kill amendment" whittled away a 2 to 1 lead earlier in the year to a margin of 47,000 votes, even though they were outspent by at least 10 to 1. Is the message that voters want cures at any cost, or that bottomless pockets are needed to secure their votes?

However, the election has certainly delivered more state funding for stem cell researchers, even if the Federal purse stays closed. New York's governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has promised US$1 billion for stem cell research. Wisconsin's governor Jim Doyle, who cruised back into office after making stem cell research a major plank in his campaign has promised significant support. Smaller initiatives are likely elsewhere.

The novel feature of this system, which was approved by the Knesset last year, is a delayed-response timer which can turn the respirator off automatically at a pre-determined time. The timer would operate for 24 hours at a time and set off a red light or alarm after 12 hours as a reminder to reset it. The patient or his representative could at any time request an extension, but if the dying person were to insist, the timer would turn off the respirator at the end of the cycle.

This unique system was created by the 59-member Steinberg Committee, which had studied the issue for six years. The legislation was described by then-health minister Dan Naveh as "on the human level, one of the most complicated and most important ever legislated by the Knesset. It is a great moral achievement for the dying and their families."

Under existing legislation, it is illegal to mix human and animal eggs and sperm. (There is already one major exception in IVF clinics, when the quality of human sperm is tested by using it to fertilise hamster eggs.) But it is unclear whether hybrids fall under the remit of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority as these embryos will originate from cloning, not from fertilisation.

The scientists argue that they need animal eggs to practice cloning techniques. Dr Stephen Minger, of King's College, London, told the Telegraph: " "We are concerned that the current state of the technology means that hundreds of eggs from young women will be required to generate a single human embryonic stem cell line. Therefore we consider it more appropriate to use non-human eggs from livestock as a surrogate to generate these disease-specific cell lines until the efficiency of this procedure is improved."

Although the project has been well documented, many of the children never knew that they were part of it. Between 6,000 and 8,000 illegitimate children were placed in the home of Party members to create a breed of people that fitted the Nazis' physical ideal and could manage a future empire. The children were frequently selected for qualities the Nazis regarded as typically Aryan.

"This is the opposite example of the Holocaust," says Gisela Heidenreich, from Bavaria, whose mother was unmarried and whose father was a senior SS officer. "The idea was to further the Aryan race by whatever means were available." The first of these children to write a first-person account of Lebensborn, Ms Heidenreich says that this sinister program has parallels in contemporary interest in genetic engineering. Its evil must not be allowed to gather dust in history books, she says. "If we start engineering blond-haired, blue-eyed babies, can we blame just Hitler?"

The New York Times says that, "It is an outgrowth of the transgender community's push to recognise that some people may not have money to get a sex-change operation, while others may not feel the need to undergo the procedure and are simply defining themselves as members of the opposite sex. While it may be a radical notion elsewhere, New York City has often tolerated such blurring of the lines of gender identity."

The Big Apple has already moved to accommodate transsexuals. Beds in city shelters can be allocated according to appearance and people are allowed to self-define their gender when choosing which subway toilet to use.

On the other hand, in Guangzhou, parents who are the only children of their families are being encouraged to have a second child in a drive to rejuvenate the city's ageing population. Local officials insist that this is consistent with national guidelines. "The policy aims to help reduce the pressure on younger members of society caused by ever-increasing ageing populations," said Duan Jian-hua, deputy director of the Guangzhou Population and Family Planning Committee. But few couples are willing to have a second child, due to the increased financial burden. "With both parents coming from one-child families, these couples will bear full responsibility for looking after their parents and children. As a result, many prefer even having no children to having two," he comments.