A recent study in Nature supports this view. If your ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the site responsible for emotion, is damaged, people become abnormally utilitarian in their moral calculations. The scientists conclude that their research can test whether "different philosophies are compatible with human nature". As Saletan observes, the translation of this is that "brain science has discredited religion and philosophy".

Speaking at a WHO conference last week, Dr Farhat Moazam, of Pakistan, claimed that there were villages in his country where 40 to 50% of residents have only one kidney. And the donors receive very little for their trouble. Brokers promise about US$2,500, but the donors end up with about half that amount. Recipients pay far more -- between $12,000 and $20,000 for a kidney and a week in hospital. But this is still far cheaper than an operation in the US.

The background problem is the immense global shortage of organs as transplantation techniques improve. According to WHO, the 66,000 kidney transplants covered only about 10% of patients on waiting lists around the world. Dr Jeremy Chapman, of Australia, says that there is a "driving instinct for survival amongst people who face almost certain death. Their heart is failing, their kidney is failing, their liver is failing." But poor donors need cash. "The result is that in far too many communities of the world the rich prey on the poor."

For some observers, the solution is obvious: establish a market for organs: allow people to sell their organs to help others to live. This is fiercely opposed by others, who argue that body parts would turn into commercial commodities and altruistic donations would cease. The best-known critic is Nancy Scheper-Hughes, an American anthropologist who has written extensively about black markets in organs.

However, a member of the national euthanasia commission, bioethicist Evert van Leeuwen, suspects that Dutch doctors are not playing by the rules: "It is actually odd that a doctor firstly helps someone to die and afterwards sends on case notes to a commission which subsequently decides whether the doctor will be pursued for causing a death or murder!"

Because of the rubbery figures which this system produces, no one knows exactly how often euthanasia takes place in the Netherlands. Wesley J. Smith, an American expert, says that 1,000 patients are killed each year without requesting it. And terminal sedation, which many observers term "slow euthanasia", was responsible for between 4 and 10% of all deaths in 2001, according to recent figures. Everyone agrees that more clarity is needed.

The British Fertility Society, the peak body for IVF specialists, deemed this "a surprising finding". A survey of 70,000 hospital doctors last year found that 60% thought that the NHS should continue to support assisted conception, a spokesman said.

CHA was founded by a South Korean fertility speciality Kwang-Yul Cha. It turns out that Dr Cha is battling allegations of plagiarising a junior researcher's doctorate and publishing it in the journal Fertility and Sterility. Another problem faced by CHA is that its medical director, Dr Thomas Kim, has been accused of seducing a patient. He is also accused of lying to her about the number of eggs which were extracted, which prompted her to go on for further unnecessary treatment.