Now it is John Paul II's turn. Time magazine reports that he may have been euthanased in 2005. It bases these "grave accusations" on an article in the high-brow magazine Micromega, an offshoot of the left-wing Italian newspaper Repubblica. In "The Sweet Death of Karol Wojtyla", an anaesthetist at the University of Ferrara, Lina Pavanelli, says that the Pope refused to have a feeding tube until a few days before his death and this ultimately killed him. Time journalist Jeff Israely suggests that if Dr Pavanelli's surmises are true, the Pope or his minders may have been guilty of euthanasia.

Dr Renato Buzzonetti, doctor to both John Paul II and his successor, waved away the sensational allegations. "His treatment was never interrupted. Anyone who says otherwise is mistaken". He said that a feeding tube was inserted three days before the Pope's death when he could finally no longer ingest food or liquids.

"If spectators are seeking to reset their body mass index through pharmacology, or taking pills that enhance their memory, is it really reasonable that athletes should make do with bodies that have not seen such benefits?" Nature asks. "The more the public comes to live with the mixed and risk-related benefits of enhancement, the more it will appreciate that allowing such changes need not rob sport of its drama, nor athletes of their need for skill, training, character and dedication."

The editorial sparked a couple of indignant letters. Pharmacologist Piero Dolara, of the University of Florence, responded that increased physical performance because of drugs is often associated with serious side effects. He also worries that it could lead to "wild drug experimentation". "To my knowledge," he writes, "the rule primum non nocere -- first, do no harm -- has not yet been abolished for the medical profession". ~ Nature, August 2; September 20

"Not until clinicians and researchers better understand the factors that determine whether a patient... will develop severe disease or none at all will screening for Gaucher disease become useful," said Dr Ernest Beutler, an expert on the condition. Until then, he said, such screening "will likely do more harm than good."

In Scotland, the creator of Dolly the clone sheep has predicted that therapies resulting from stem cells will one day be as common as antibiotics. Professor Ian Wilmut says that hybrid embryos, created using cow eggs and human DNA, are essential to study genetic diseases and test drugs. "If we could have nerves in the dish which show that change, then people with the right sort of technology would be able to literally test thousands of compounds every year," he said. "That is probably 1000 times faster than anything that can be done in any other way at the present time." Professor Wilmut is thinking of applying for permission to create hybrid embryos.

In the US, the New York Times has given the "valuable alternative" of hybrid embryos its tentative backing. The main reason for this radical step, it notes, is that "there are distressingly few women willing to donate their eggs for experiments at the frontier of this promising science." According to the Times, stem cell researchers at Harvard spent US$100,000 in advertising to encourage women to donate their eggs -- but after hearing how difficult it would be, not one volunteered.

Even the disgraced Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk is climbing onto the band wagon, although he apparently prefers the more neutral term "inter-species nucleus transplant". He and ten colleagues have moved to an unnamed university in Thailand to conduct research on hybrid embryos. According to a colleague at Cheju National University, Park Se-Pill, Hwang wants to avoid provoking further protests from civic and religious groups in Korea, even though he would not be breaking any laws there. "These days the ethical yardstick is more important than judicial judgements," Dr Park commented glumly.

There has been no convincing evidence so far that her death was caused by the gene treatment, but the news is disquieting for potential investors in gene therapy. The final results of an autopsy are expected in December.

In the meantime, there has been much discussion of the informed consent process. Mrs Mohr was recruited by her doctor, but she was not told that he was being paid for every patient he signed up. He also secured her consent on the spot, rather than letting her study the 15-page form at home. Recruitment by doctors has always been a controversial practice, because patients routinely believe that experimental treatments recommended by their own doctor are likely to help them.