Marked for Life: Are Genetic Markers Helpful in Understanding Psychological Disorders?

In their concluding remarks, all three speakers said the answer to the question implicit in the event's title - if you are genetically predisposed to a neurodevelopmental disorder, does this effectively mean you are marked for life? - is an emphatic 'no'. Nonetheless, they had divergent views on the likelihood of successfully applying the fruits of genetic research into mental health... [Read More]

Are there 'genes for' traits?

It's hard to avoid press stories about 'the gene for' something, because they appear with monotonous regularity. On the day I wrote this, the media reported the discovery of a 'gene for longevity'. The story clearly implied that lifespan is pretty much fixed at conception - contradicting stories elsewhere in the paper...[Read More]

Surrogacy behind the headlines

Regulation is important, but we are not discussing the most fundamental issue at hand: the human experiences that make or break surrogacy relationships. What common factors can be identified behind the small number of surrogacy cases that wind up in court?...[Read More]

Don't overstate the risks of drinking while pregnant

It is no surprise that the recently published research into the epigenetic effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy has received considerable media attention. Practically all pregnant women will worry - understandably - about the health of their future children, and will quickly seize on information or reassurance from credible-seeming sources - a fact well recognised by our commercially-motivated press...[Read More]

Licensing 'saviour siblings': Why the HFEA is right

Two recent Bionews commentaries have considered the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's (HFEA) review of the case-case approach to licensing PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) for late-onset disorders and the use of pre-implantation tissue-typing (PITT) for the creation of 'saviour siblings'. This article considers further, some of the underlying reasons why the HFEA approach to case-by-case licensing of PITT is justified....[Read More]

Keeping libel laws out of science - fighting for our right to debate

During my endeavours to explore science communication, I came across a UK charity called 'Sense about Science' (SAS), a non-profit charity trust that work with over 2000 scientists and civic groups to respond to misrepresentations of science in the public domain. SAS believes in good science communication and in promoting public understanding of science to prevent panic and confusion. The topical publications it produces - such as 'Making sense of GM' - are easy to read and appeal to all leve...[Read More]

Back to the future

The Counsyl 'Universal Genetic Test' has a distinctly 'retro' feel to it. With its focus on Mendelian disorders (i.e. classic genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis), many of the ethical issues raised by this new service are not new themselves, but rather present new challenges...[Read More]

What happens when surrogacy goes wrong: The recent Indiana surrogacy case in wider context

A northern Indiana couple are the latest in a series of people to become embroiled in a legal battle in the US following the birth of a child conceived through surrogacy. They follow in the footsteps of a recent series of high profile and hard fought US legal parentage battles involving surrogate-born babies. As demand for surrogacy grows worldwide and its practice remains largely unregulated, surrogacy continues to raise difficult legal, ethical and emotional questions which a...[Read More]

Older mothers and global/national responsibilities

Much of the debate about elderly motherhood has focussed on the anomalous situation of a woman simultaneously qualifying for an old age pension and child benefit. It is an engaging topic, but the discussion needs to be widened to include a consideration of global/national responsibilities: the relationship of a woman who provides an egg to, following its fertilisation, the woman in whom the embryo is implanted....[Read More]

'High-quality research is effectively being vetoed'

Austin Smith and I, with support from Peter Lawrence, gave interviews to Pallab Ghosh for BBC News where we raised several issues about the peer review and editorial processes of high-profile journals dealing with stem cell research papers. We went as far as saying that some high-quality research is effectively being vetoed from publication by a few powerful scientists, in some cases to deliberately to stifle their competition. Moreover, these journals have also published some papers that hav...[Read More]

Time to put a stop to postmenopausal mothers?

When Liz Buttle (then aged 60) became the UK's oldest mother in 1997, she was subjected to a storm of media criticism. Since then, debate over appropriate age limits for fertility treatment has shown no signs of abatement, while a growing number of postmenopausal women seek treatment in the UK and abroad....[Read More]

CORRECTION: Telling is more important than ever by Dr Lucy Frith

In Dr Lucy Frith's comment, Dr Jennifer M Speirs' surname is misspelt as 'Spiers' in reference five... [Read More]

The case for case-by-case regulation of PGD: a response to Dr David King

The Genetic Interest Group (GIG) welcomed the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)’s review of the case-by-case approach to the licensing of PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) for late-onset conditions and for tissue typing of embryos to produce a 'saviour sibling'. I attended the HFEA's consultation event at which Dr David King spoke on 1 December last year and heard his presentation. Then, as in the BioNews comment piece ...[Read More]

'Let's start at the very beginning': Cord blood banking - a response

In last week's BioNews, Mr David Burrowes, MP, commented on his successful introduction of a private member's bill on umbilical cord blood (UCB) donation in the UK Parliament in 2008, and how his continued efforts to raise awareness of the benefits of saving UCB for public use has been favourably met in a recent adjournment debate in the House of Commons....[Read More]

Telling is more important than ever: rights and donor conception

The last five years have seen a fundamental change in public policy in the UK over gamete donor anonymity. In 2004 the law allowed donor offspring to have access to identifying information about their donor when they reach 18 and the revised Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 now includes new provisions for disclosure of information for donor-conceived individuals and gamete/embryo donors. However, there is an important omission in these recent polic...[Read More]

Cord blood banking - why aren't we doing it?

In 2008 I was the first UK MP to raise the issue of umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking as a private members bill in Parliament and several MPs spoke to me of their previous ignorance of UCB. It is an ignorance I shared despite being a parent of six children and living close to one of the National Health Service (NHS) hospitals that collects it....[Read More]

The case for case-by-case regulation of PGD

On 20 January, the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will decide whether to continue the case-by-case regulation of two types of PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) applications: those for late onset conditions and tissue typing of embryos to produce a 'saviour sibling'....[Read More]

Research into the epigenetic impact of assisted conception

Readers will have noticed a couple of news reports and Rosalind John's excellent commentary on this topic in the last few weeks, but I make no apology for returning to the subject so soon. I believe this area of research will spark interest from the media for years to come. This is not because I fear research will necessarily uncover some unsuspected risk to the health of people born after IVF (in vitro fertilisation) (we can't know until we do the research) but because we are ...[Read More]

So are we making progress?

The contemporary media is increasingly flooded with stories where the cause, explanation or hope involves genetics. With all the reporting of genetic findings and its 'potential' to improve clinical care - has genetics really led to a marked improvement in our healthcare? And should genetic determinism be the focus of scientific research?...[Read More]

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Welcome back! I just wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on some of our activities from last year and to inform subscribers about what can be expected from the Progress Educational Trust (PET) and BioNews in 2010...[Read More]