Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis on Friday announced it had received US regulatory approval for a gene therapy that treats a rare childhood disorder and has a price tag of $2.1 million, making it the most expensive drug in history.

Nevada and Vermont are poised to enact laws that protect access to abortion, at a time when conservative US states have adopted highly restrictive measures.

The Vatican called Tuesday for "effective solutions" to protect the life of a Frenchman living for years in a vegetative state, hours after a court told doctors to resume his life support.

A woman has given birth to Poland's first sextuplets with each newborn weighing about one kilogram (2.2 pounds), physicians at the University Hospital in the city of Krakow announced on Monday.

Doctors in France on Monday began removing the life support for a quadriplegic man who has been in a vegetative state for the last decade, in a hugely controversial case that has drawn in Pope Francis.

President Donald Trump has declared himself "strongly Pro-Life", days after two U.S. states passed tough new restrictions on abortions, but said exceptions should be made for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

Actress Eva Longoria said restrictive abortion laws passed in Alabama and Missouri are a threat to women, with stars set to protest against the bans on the Cannes red carpet Saturday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said he was gravely saddened by "backsliding" on women's rights seen in several U.S states, after Alabama agreed the toughest abortion ban in the country.

The era of doctors prescribing patients powerful antibiotics while they wait for lab reports could soon be numbered, with a new device returning results within minutes instead of days.

A U.N. committee has asked France to suspend any decision to withdraw life support for a man kept alive in a vegetative state for a decade, weighing in on a bitterly-disputed legal case which has torn his family apart.