Britain’s 40-year-old abortion law flouts the legal principles that underpin modern medical practice, 85 academic lawyers and ethicists say today. In a letter to The Times they urge MPs to remove the “qualifying conditions” on abortion that require women to obtain signed permission from two doctors, calling it “an anomaly”. Modern medical practice makes clear that individuals are entitled to make their own healthcare decisions, even if they appear wrong or irrational to others, they say, writes Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent of The Times

Jim Knight, the schools minister, claimed lessons in the scientific and cultural innovations of Islam over the centuries would give young Muslims a sense of worth and reduce their risk of becoming alienated and falling under the spell of radicals. He said it could also bring divided communities closer together, by teaching children from other backgrounds about the debt we all owe to Muslims – from coffee and pinhole cameras to the three-course dinner and advancements in maths, writes Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph 

Humanists are often accused of being negative. We know what we don’t believe and are only too quick to demolish the fanciful ideas of those who profess a faith, just as AC Grayling does in his ruthless dissection of the argument for Intelligent Design. But what should we put in the place of religion? The new issue of New Humanist Magazine offers a range of alternatives .