The two scientists behind the lawsuit that has temporarily blocked federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research said Wednesday they were motivated by ethical objections to destroying human embryos for medical research.

The scientists, James Sherley of Boston and Theresa Deisher of Seattle, had never met until this week, when they flew to Washington to confer with House and Senate aides and lobby against research using embryonic stem cells. They were recruited separately by lawyers looking to challenge the federal policy.

"We have a responsibility and are taught to do ethical research," said Dr. Sherley in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "This is impacting the quality of science in this country."

The dumping of a dead newborn girl in a shoe box in Sydney has prompted calls for "baby safe haven" facilities across Australia .

The NSW opposition's spokeswoman for women and community services Pru Goward believes such havens are long overdue.

"I've never in my lifetime known children being abandoned or murdered in such great numbers as we have at the moment," Ms Goward told AAP on Friday.

"We have to do something about it."

The Australian Medical Association (AMA), church groups and Tasmanian Senator Helen Polley have joined in the call for the facilities that would allow mothers to abandon unwanted babies legally into a safe, caring environment.

The baby girl dumped in the garden of a Strathfield unit block still had its umbilical cord when a gardener discovered her body about 8 am.

The newborn body was wrapped in a towel and jammed in a cardboard box which was partially buried in mulch in a  communal garden area of the Starthbelle apartments in Beresford Rd about 8am.

The same gardener goes through the area each morning.

He told police he is sure the box, measuring 40cm by 40cm, was not there yesterday.

Detective inspector Hans Rupp said police believed the baby's mother used the cover of darkness to discard her baby's body.

Keli Lane had a clear idea of what she wanted to achieve in the run-up to the Sydney Olympics.

An elite athlete, she enjoyed a busy social life and was determined to represent Australia when women's water polo was contested as an Olympic event for the first time in 2000.

Raising a child had no part in that plan, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

So when Ms Lane became pregnant five times between 1992 and 1999, she allegedly resolved to avoid the responsibility. Her first two pregnancies were terminated. Two babies were secretly carried to term and adopted out, in 1995 and 1999. Her fourth pregnancy was also hidden from her family, friends and boyfriend. The little girl, born at Auburn Hospital on September 12, 1996, was named Tegan. Ms Lane is now accused of her murder.

A BRISBANE doctor is poised to launch an online do-it-yourself (DIY) home abortion guide featuring a controversial pill banned from public sale.

Prominent obstetrician Adrienne Freeman said her website Safe Home Abortions featured "how to" videos and a range of information and research papers extolling the virtues of abortion drug misoprostol.

The controversial website, set to be unveiled and submitted for medical peer review in October, is the latest twist in Queensland's highly emotive abortion debate.

Right-to-life groups yesterday branded the website a hazard to women.

Rep Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) will introduce legislation Thursday placing a permanent ban on the federal funding of abortion. 

While a 24-year-old law — dubbed the Hyde Amendment — already ensures taxpayers don’t subsidise abortions under Medicaid and all other federal health programs, the law is temporary, forcing Congress to pass it each year as a rider to broader spending bills.

The Smith/Lipinski bill would permanently solidify the funding ban across all federal agencies.

All-natural joint replacements? Patients may one day be able to "grow" new joints with the help of their own stem cells, according to research reported in the Daily Mail.

The new joints would enable patients to have a full range of motion, and they may be more durable than the artificial joint replacements now in use.

That could mean the end of repeat operations to have an original hip or knee replacement done over because such replacements usually last only 15-20 years.