Antony Blackburn-Starza
Legal Editor
Antony Blackburn-Starza is Legal Editor at BioNews and at the charity that publishes it, the Progress Educational Trust (PET). Together with his fellow BioNews editors James Brooks and Siobhan Chan, and PET's Founding Chair of Trustees Professor Marcus Pembrey, he runs the BioNews writing scheme which provides practical science writing training and experience for PhD students. He is currently studying for a PhD at at the University of Kent's Law School, where his research focuses on new forms of actionable harm arising from mishaps in assisted conception, and where he teaches Obligations. He is also a tutor at Bloomsbury Law Tutors and a Member of Lincoln's Inn.
Antony originally studied Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, went on to obtain an MA in Medical Law and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London, and completed the the Bar Professional Training Course at City University London's Law School. He has worked as a Policy Officer at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, an Events Organiser at Médecins Sans Frontières, a Researcher at the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, a Filing Clerk at Freeth Cartwright, and a Clerical Assistant at the University of Nottingham, and he has interned at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, Irwin Mitchell Solicitors and Nelsons Solicitors. His BioNews article 'UK lags behind the rest of Europe in IVF' is reproduced in Reproductive Ethics (buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA). He is particularly interested in medical ethics, patents and socio-legal approaches to new medical technologies.
BioNews Comment articles written by Antony Blackburn-Starza:
| 22 April 2013 - by |
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The Progress Educational Trust's debate, 'NICE Try… But is anyone listening?', considered the impact of the radical structural changes to the NHS on the state provision of IVF. At least two central critical themes emerged from the debate: a critique of method and a critique of measure... [Read More] |
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'Just' giving: PET's evening debate on gamete donation from the donor perspective |
| 14 January 2013 - by |
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The image of the sperm donor nipping off between lectures to casually donate for a few quid of beer money was neatly set aside by this thought-provoking debate. In his place, in strode the complex male – knowledgeable, thoughtful, sensitive… and probably over 25... [Read More] |
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| 17 December 2012 - by |
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The fourth session the Progress Educational Trust's annual conference 2012 'Fertility Treatment: A Life-Changing Event?' continued the day's critical perspective looking at the evidential basis for the impact of lifestyle factors on the outcome of fertility treatment and resulting children. This time it was the impact of alcohol and smoking that came under scrutiny... [Read More] |
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| 13 June 2011 - by |
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Are athletes born or built? Basketball star Michael Jordan's son plays college-level basketball and Muhammad Ali's daughter Laila was named Super MiddleWeight women's boxing champion in 2002. Famous footballer Zinedine Zidane's son Enzo, joined by his siblings Luca and Theo, are all promising young footballers among the Real Madrid cadets... [Read More] |
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| 07 December 2009 - by |
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As our understanding of genetics and associated disorders has developed, many genetic tests performing functions - from predicting certain genetic predispositions and identifying rare monogenetic disorders, to ancestry and other 'novelty' tests - have been introduced to the healthcare market. Many geneticists are concerned about the regulation of these tests, which are performed by the NHS, the private sector, or distributed directly to consumers. Experts are calling for more transparent eval... [Read More] |
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'Older Mothers': a report on the '21st century motherhood’ conference held at UCL, 18 September 2009 |
| 19 October 2009 - by |
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Maria Bousada, 69, once the world's oldest mother, died in July this year leaving behind two young children born following IVF only two years earlier. Her death reignited the debate surrounding 'older mothers' - or more specifically, post-menopausal women who require fertility treatment to conceive. In response to media attention surrounding Ms Bousada's death, Professor Sammy Lee, an expert in medical ethics, embryology and biomedical sciences based at University College London... [Read More] |
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Banking crisis - what should be done about the sperm donor shortage? |
| 06 July 2009 - by |
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An acute shortage of donor sperm is diminishing the capacity of the UK's public and private health sectors to treat infertility, resulting in growing concern and lengthening waiting lists at clinics. The shortage is widely attributed to the removal, in 2005, of entitlement to donor anonymity. The Progress Educational Trust, with support from the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Fertility Society (BFS) staged a panel discussion on Thursday 25 June 2009 entitled 'Banking Crisis - what ... [Read More] |
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Registering concern: should anonymous gamete donors be encouraged to reregister and if so how? |
| 15 June 2009 - by |
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The entitlement to anonymity of UK sperm and egg donors ended in 2005, a development that has been welcomed by those who spent long years campaigning for it, and criticised by those who blame it for a current shortage of donor sperm and eggs. Because this change in law applies only prospectively, it remains difficult - if not impossible - for previous generations of donor-conceived individuals to locate their genetic parents and other genetic relatives. Initiatives such as UK DonorLink and it... [Read More] |
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| 12 August 2008 - by |
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Thirty years after the world's first IVF-baby was born commentators and reporters are assessing the gains made by the fertility treatment and the future that lies ahead. Although it seems IVF today has become the established and routine medical procedure its pioneers in 1978 probably hoped it would become, issues... [Read More] |
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From consensus to plurality: the negotiated compromise and public consultations |
| 23 July 2007 - by |
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The University College London's Law and Bioethics colloquium, which took place in London at the beginning of July, gave me the impression that a silent revolution is taking place in bioethical discourse (1). The goalposts in bioethics may be shifting from an emphasis on trying to build a moral consensus... [Read More] |
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BioNews Review articles written by Antony Blackburn-Starza:
| 29 April 2013 - by |
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In its latest contribution to practical bioethics and policymaking, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in its report on information sharing in donor conception recommends, among other things, that parents of donor-conceived children should not be mandated to inform them about their origins.... [Read More] |
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Report Review: Human Bodies - Donation for Medicine and Research |
| 24 October 2011 - by |
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It was the recommendations to pay for the funeral expenses of organ donors and to remove the cap on compensation for gamete donors that made the headlines. But it is not the specific recommendations of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' report 'Human bodies: donation for medicine and research' that it will be remembered for... [Read More] |
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| 19 August 2010 - by |
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In 2008 Exeter County Court put an end to claims brought by six men who on being diagnosed with cancer decided to store their sperm for potential future insemination before undergoing chemotherapy treatment should the effects of the treatment permanently impair their fertility... [Read More] |
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Book Review: Choosing Life, Choosing Death - The Tyranny of Autonomy in Medical Ethics and Law |
| 05 January 2010 - by |
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Autonomy is commonly thought of as a guiding ethical principle which promotes the ability of an individual to determine their own 'life path'. It is commonly translated in the legal area in positive terms of self-determinism and negative constraints of non-interference. But the term holds a special meaning in the ethics/rights discourse as an inalienable virtuous human quality which generates rights and warrants respect... [Read More] |
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BioNews News articles written by Antony Blackburn-Starza:
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| 29 April 2013 - by |
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The UK's High Court has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to clarify if human parthenotes fall under the definition of a human embryo for the purposes of patentability... [Read More] |
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Nuffield says parents should decide whether to tell children they are donor-conceived |
| 22 April 2013 - by |
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The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has recommended that parents of donor-conceived children are best placed to tell them about their biological origins, but should not be mandated to do so... [Read More] |
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| 15 April 2013 - by |
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One of the first women to receive a womb transplant is pregnant, the treating hospital has disclosed. A spokesperson said that early test results were 'consistent' with signs of pregnancy.... [Read More] |
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Genetic mutation for mental retardation found in Amish community |
| 18 March 2013 - by |
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A genetic mutation linked to mental retardation has been identified in an Amish community in the USA.... [Read More] |
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| 25 February 2013 - by |
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Untested synthetic chemicals found in many household and industrial products could be associated with adverse health outcomes, including low fertility, says a report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organisation... [Read More] |
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| 07 January 2013 - by |
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The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has overturned a prohibition on IVF in Costa Rica saying that it infringed provisions under the American Convention on Human Rights.... [Read More] |
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| 10 December 2012 - by |
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The UK Government has announced plans that will allow 100,000 NHS patients to have their whole genome sequenced over the next three to five years, as part of a move to boost economic growth in the life sciences industry... [Read More] |
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| 03 December 2012 - by |
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The German Federal Court of Justice has ruled that a disputed patent held by Dr Oliver Brüstle, and the subject of a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against the patentability of human embryonic stem cells, is valid in its revised form.... [Read More] |
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No violation of human rights in Romanian egg storage case, European Court says |
| 19 November 2012 - by |
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A Romanian woman has argued, unsuccessfully, that a decision to relocate her stored embryos to another clinic, denying her a choice of a doctor, amounted to a breach of her private and family life with regard to her ability to have a child through IVF using those embryos... [Read More] |
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| 05 November 2012 - by |
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A group of academics has accused Myriad Genetics, the US biotech company that holds patents over the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic tests for increased risk of breast cancer, of keeping secret clinical data obtained from the tests by saying the information is commercially sensitive... [Read More] |
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