Lutheran leaders in the United States have joined other church chiefs in condemning the killing of abortion doctor George Tiller in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, where he served and worshipped.

After hardline Catholics had sought to prevent Notre Dame University from inviting President Barack Obama to give a commencement address, his call for people of divergent convictions to find common ground in reason and faith was warmly received.

Catholic university president Fr John Jenkins and officials at Notre Dame are standing firmly behind their decision to invite President Obama to deliver their commencement address in May.

A major report on abortion, assisted reproductive technologies and stem cell research has been received by the Methodist Conference. The report, Created in God’s Image, also discusses embryo screening and egg and sperm donation.

Amid passionate public debate on bioethics, stem cell research. the use of embryos and abortion, the Methodist Church is taking a careful investigative approach to 'early life' ethical concerns based on both scientific and theological data.

Our parliamentary politics is about mediating different interests in a society of strangers, says Simon Barrow. But bioethical decisions confront us with the need to move beyond accommodation and confrontation to moral community.

The heated row over abortion is continuing after a report by the House of Commons Science and Technology committee said there was no scientific justification for lowering the 24-week limit for terminations. But there are also signs of movement on all sides.

There is a continuing row between Amnesty International and the Vatican over access to abortion by women who have been abused and raped. Here AI explains its policy and contests representations of it by some critics and campaigners.

Christian women activists have expressed anger at what they say is an alarming crisis due to female feticide in India, after two dumps of illegally aborted female foetuses were found in the world's second most populous nation.

Pope Benedict XVI has received a warm welcome in Brazil, the world's largest Catholic-majority nation. But President Lula says decriminalizing abortion is a healthcare necessity and that one moral stance cannot be imposed on all.