This page contains news for the period December 14, 2000 through December 20, 2000.

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Monday, December 18, 2000

Australian study says that marriage leads to longer lives

A story published today by The Age reports that new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that married people live longer.

The government report says that it seems that men and woman who never marry are twice as likely to die earlier than their married counterparts.

The difference is greatest among men aged 35-44, who are four times more likely to die earlier than their partnered colleagues.

The agency has several theories why marriage leads to a longer life.

The report says the first suggests marriage improves a person's health, thereby reducing the risk of death.

The statisticians also say married people are less likely to participate in risky behavior and more likely to nurture each other's health.

Another possibility is that healthier and fitter people tend to marry more easily.

On average, Australians live longer than New Zealanders, Americans and Britons, and about the same as French, Canadians, Spanish and Greeks.

But Japanese, with an age expectancy of 77 for men and 84 for women, live the longest.

Thursday, December 14, 2000

Single women in Australia get invitro fertilization in wake of court ruling

A story published today in Planet Out reports that a Melbourne lesbian and two heterosexual single women have apparently become pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the Victorian state of Australia for the first time since a July Federal Court ruling made reproductive services legal there for women not in relationships with men, according to the Herald Sun and Australian newspapers.

Two non-lesbian single women have become pregnant there as well, while treatment is underway for four more lesbians and eighteen other non-lesbian single women. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has appealed the controversial court ruling, but the Australian Government this month dropped from its legislative priorities an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act that would have again allowed states to restrict access to reproductive services.

According to the story, the unnamed lesbian, 28, repeatedly failed to conceive by artificial insemination before undergoing IVF at the fertility clinic of the Royal Women's Hospital.  Victoria's Government has just
introduced the first of two bills to extend many of the rights of unmarried heterosexual couples to gay and lesbian couples.