About one-third of elective caesarean section deliveries are performed before 39 weeks' gestation, which increases risks to infants, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Some Asian immigrant families are using U.S. medical technology to have sons instead of daughters, possibly because of cultural beliefs valuing sons, according to new research from two independent teams of economists, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on Thursday is scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a hearing to consider his nomination by President-elect Barack Obama for HHS secretary, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports. The committee, chaired by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.

PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" recently aired a three-part series on the health care challenges that face President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress. Summaries of the three segments of the series appear below.

A proposal that would require Colorado hospitals to pay a per-patient fee to the state could fund health coverage for an additional 200,000 state residents, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. The office of Gov. Bill Ritter (D) and the Colorado Hospital Association are continuing to negotiate a fee, but CHA board members support the plan, according to CHA President Steven Summer.

"Money and the Changing Culture of Medicine," New England Journal of Medicine: In the perspective, Pamela Hartzband, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Jerome Groopman, a hematologist-oncologist at the med

A Senegalese court on Wednesday sentenced nine men who have sex with men to eight years in jail -- the highest sentence of its kind ever handed down in the country -- AFP/News24.com reports. The men were arrested in December 2008 and charged with "indecent conduct and unnatural acts and membership of a criminal organization.

High poverty rates and low education levels are contributing to increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Yemen, especially among commercial sex workers, according to some experts, IRIN/PlusNews reports.

Twenty-one percent of Hispanic women are consuming enough folic acid to prevent certain birth defects before becoming pregnant, compared with more than 40% of white women, the North Denver News reports. Consuming adequate amounts of the dietary supplement before becoming pregnant can help prevent neural tube birth defects -- serious defects of the spine and brain.

With health reform high on the agenda of the incoming Congress and President, a new analysis of legislative proposals - including the plans of President-elect Barack Obama and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) - shows that several proposals already put forth could substantially redu