Crystal ball gazing: human embryonic stem cells in 2012

In the last few months of 2011, a couple of stories on human embryonic stem cells hit the headlines. Both were bad news for stem cell researchers...[Read More]

With an eye to the future - preliminary results of clinical trial in human embryonic stem cell-based therapy of macular degeneration

Last week, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) of Massachusetts, USA, made two important announcements regarding human embryonic stem (hES) cell-based therapies for the potential treatment of Stargardt's dystrophy and age-related macular degeneration, two devastating degenerative disease leading to blindness....[Read More]

S.H. v Austria denies infertile Europeans human rights

Procreative liberty and the right to legal recognition of parent-child relationships continue to be prominent themes in disputes between individual citizens and government over access to assisted reproduction. The judiciary has been largely reluctant to state whether resort to reproductive technology is a human right...[Read More]

Sorry, wrong number

We were really excited to offer BioNews readers the opportunity to donate to our BioNews Christmas Appeal by text message. But now we realise that we used the wrong number! So if you have kindly donated to our appeal by text we won't have received it and you won't have been charged for it. If you would like to donate please text PROG23 £amount to 70070...[Read More]

To twin or not to twin? That is the (unasked) question

A recent spate of articles celebrating the birth of an IVF 'twin' five years after her brother left me perplexed. Why was this news, when embryo freezing has been in use since the mid-1980s? And as the children were not identical by what definition were they twins?

BioNews reader survey 2012: have your say!

The BioNews editors and PET staff are keen to understand readers' views of BioNews and, most importantly, how BioNews can be improved. So, we need every single one of you to complete the 2012 BioNews reader survey. It's online, easy to complete, and should only take a few minutes of your time...[Read More]

Crystal ball gazing: fertility treatment in 2012

Crystal ball gazing has never been my strong suit but I found myself rising to the challenge now that I have taken over the mantle of Chairman of the British Fertility Society. What is clear is that 2012 should turn out to be an interesting year...[Read More]

Do we think it matters where our genes come from?

The Progress Educational Trust's 2011 project Genes, Ancestry and Racial Identity: Does It Matter Where Your Genes Come From?, supported by the Wellcome Trust, sought to debate race and ancestry in the context of genetics and to explore the connection (or lack of connection) between genetics and the concept of 'race'...[Read More]

South Africa shows a way to ensure more predictability in surrogacy arrangements

A new surrogacy law in South Africa suggests a way to improve those in the UK – by making surrogacy agreements enforceable. In the UK, commissioning parents can only find out after the child is born if they can become the legal parents...[Read More]

Please Sir, we'd like some more...

In my last comment piece 'A BioNews Christmas Carol' I tried to amuse you all while asking you to donate. I was obviously far too subtle with talk of Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas as the donations for BioNews have indeed 'yet to come'. Only three generous readers have made a donation...[Read More]

Private data - for the public good?

Our medical records include some of the most personal and sensitive information about us. So it's understandable that two items in David Cameron's life sciences strategy caused considerable stir...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Growing Concern?

The consequences of assisted reproductive technology (ART) are a matter of great concern, whether this is the development of the embryo, the perinatal health of the mother, or the ongoing health of the child....[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Should Assisted Conception Always Be Evidence-Based?

In what is now synonymous with Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s ethos, the final session of the annual conference, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', was a free-form debate. Following on from the previous sessions where a wealth of eminent researchers gave informative and often provocative talks, Guardian columnist Zoe Williams had the task of chairing what proved to be an entertaining debate...[Read More]

Of family and finance: Israeli citizens without rights and HFEA remuneration

Living in Israel, where gamete donor anonymity still rules supreme, I confess I envy the UK's clear focus on the welfare of the donor conceived child and the evolution of the legal rights of offspring...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust conference: Making the grade

The third session of the Progress Educational Trust's annual conference 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo' boasted a redoubtable roll-call of eminent clinicians and researchers as speakers. This being the case, I couldn't help wondering if the decision to limit such luminaries to ten minutes apiece was a wise one...[Read More]

A BioNews Christmas Carol

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little comment piece, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their inboxes pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. A quotation adapted from the dedication in Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'....[Read More]

Can solidarity inform bioethics? Reflections on a concept and implications for biobanks

What do research biobanks, social media and the NHS have in common?...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Introduction to the embryo and its out of body experience

Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s annual conference, 2011, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', started with two fantastic sessions chaired by Dr Virginia Bolton, consultant embryologist at the assisted conception unit at Guy's Hospital, London, UK....[Read More]

Embryo relinquishment for family building – what's in a name?

In the US the relinquishment of embryos for family building is the subject of intense ideological debate. This has occurred not least because of the competing discourses of models of 'embryo donation' and 'embryo adoption'...[Read More]

Smokers denied access to assisted conception

An increasing number of NHS clinics that provide assisted reproduction technologies (ART) are denying treatment to women who smoke or have a partner who smokes. But is it appropriate for any lifestyle factors to be used to deny state-funded treatment? And where should the line be drawn between medical 'advice' and 'restrictions'?...[Read More]