Surrogate motherhood in illness that does not cause infertility

The threshold requirement for surrogate motherhood requires that a commissioning parent or parents are permanently unable to give birth to a child. The question has arisen of a commissioning mother who suffers from a permanent illness that does not cause infertility but that renders pregnancy a significant health risk to her and/or to her prospective child in utero. The threshold requirement inability to give birth to a child should not be interpreted narrowly as referring only to a commissioning parent’s inherent inability to give birth to a child, but should be interpreted broadly as referring only to a commissioning parent’s effective inability to give birth to a child – allowingconsideration of the medical sequelae of pregnancy for the commissioning mother and her prospective child. A broad interpretation of the threshold requirement is compatible with legislative intent, case law and our constitutional commitment to human rights

Social justice and research using human biological material: A response to Mahomed, Nöthling-Slabbert and Pepper

Social justice in the context of research using human biological material is an important contemporary legal-ethical issue. A question at the heart of this issue is the following: Is it fair to expect a research participant (a person who participates in such research by, among others, making available biological material from his or her body) to  participate on an altruistic basis, while the researchers and the investors in the research can gain commercially from the research? In a recent article,  Mahomed,  Nöthling-Slabbert and Pepper proposed that research participants should be entitled to share in the profits emanating from such research via a proposed new statutory right to the intellectual property emanating from such research. In order to stimulate debate on this important issue of social justice, this article responds to the position of Mahomed et al. by focusing on two main points: Firstly, I contend that Mahomed et al. fail to make a convincing argument in favour of shifting away from altruism; secondly, I caution against framing the debate in terms of the binary poles of altruism v. profitsharing, and suggest that should healthcare public policy ever move away from altruism, various  non-monetary forms of benefit-sharing by research participants should be considered

The boy and his microscope: Interpreting section 56(1) of the National Health Act

This article discusses the classic conflict between freedom and propriety with reference to the use of human gametes (sperm and egg cells) in South African law. The core question addressed is whether it is legal to use one’s own gametes, or others’ with their consent, for non-medical, non-sexual-intercourse purposes. This question is answered divergently by the two possible interpretations of the relevant statutory law – section 56(1) of the National Health Act – which is ambivalent. Since these two possible interpretations are representative of the two poles of the freedom v. propriety dichotomy, this matter can be perceived as a test of the depth of the South African juristic commitment to the principle of freedom. Section 56(1) is analysed, using the applicable common law presumptions as well as human rights. To illustrate the practical implications of these analyses, a hypothetical case study of a boy who studies human spermatozoa under his microscope at home is outlined and used throughout the article. The analyses conclude that the interpretation must be followed that answers the core question in the affirmative (in favour of freedom), namely that it is indeed legal to use one’s own gametes, or others’ with their consent, for non-medical, non-sexual-intercourse purposes

Additional file 8 of Biogeographical survey of soil microbiomes across sub-Saharan Africa: structure, drivers, and predicted climate-driven changes

Additional file 8. Figure S8-A. Predicted prokaryotic Shannon biodiversity index values (expressed as natural log scale) in soils of the 9 sub-Saharan Africa countries used in this study, for 2040-2060 and 2080-2100 under two distinct GH emission scenarios (SSP126 and SSP585), and comparison with current predicted Shannon biodiversity as estimated by SEM. Pairwise significance values of differences in biodiversity means between the different years and scenarios are represented by the brackets with the following nomenclature: * - p-value \u3c 0.05; ** - p-value \u3c 0.01; *** - p-value \u3c 0.001

Additional file 11 of Biogeographical survey of soil microbiomes across sub-Saharan Africa: structure, drivers, and predicted climate-driven changes

Additional file 11. Figure S8-D. Predicted abundance values of PGPF (expressed as natural log scale) in soils of the 9 sub-Saharan Africa countries used in this study, for 2040-2060 and 2080-2100 under two distinct GH emission scenarios (SSP126 and SSP585), and comparison with current predicted Shannon biodiversity as estimated by SEM. Pairwise significance values of differences in biodiversity means between the different years and scenarios are represented by the brackets with the following nomenclature: * - p-value \u3c 0.05; ** - p-value \u3c 0.01; *** - p-value \u3c 0.001

Additional file 19 of Biogeographical survey of soil microbiomes across sub-Saharan Africa: structure, drivers, and predicted climate-driven changes

Additional file 19. Table S8. Variable codes, meaning and units for the environmental variables used in this study