Nigel Hawkes (Extracted from "Wonderdrug is 'cure' for breast cancer, say doctors", The Times, 20 October

"The drug Herceptin was yesterday hailed as a potential cure for breast cancer that will revolutionise the way the disease is treated and save up to 1,500 lives a year in Britain and many tens of thousands across the world."

[Ed As The Lancet showed in its January 2003 issue, the incidence of breast cancer in women could be reduced by almost as much as two-thirds if mothers breast-fed their babies, did so for longer and had more children. This would save considerably more than 1,500 lives a year in Britain. There is already a trend to this end by the more intelligent professional classes of women in this country and America, though whether this is just a recent fashion or of permanent significance is another matter. The other hugely important factor in the causation of breast cancer is the possession of faulty versions of some genes, such as BRCA1 and BRCA 2, which reduce tumour-suppressing hormones. Women without these faulty versions don't get breast cancer. It will not be long before DNA analysis will be readily available and give an accurate risk guide to intelligent teenager girls -- and their intendeds -- when thinking about marriage and familyhood. This future use of DNA analysis has already been set in motion by Ashkenazi teenagers in the developed countries who increasingly have their DNA screened before they fall in love too deeply in order to eliminate the dreadful Tay-Sachs disease.]