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]

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: 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]

Perhaps the Government is right to plan to abolish the HFEA

Perhaps the Government is right to plan to abolish the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The astonishing behaviour of its members at last week's open Authority meeting over compensation for egg and sperm donors will lower its reputation in the eyes of some of its erstwhile supporters. Those who might have manned the barricades to halt the Government's plans may now wonder whether the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – the health and social care regulator set to take over the H...[Read More]

Comic Review: How to Have a Baby - The Comic Book for Infertile Couples

The 744-page book covers the causes of infertility, imaging techniques, assisted reproductive techniques, surrogacy, donor gametes and adoption...[Read More]

The great delay: 33 years after the first 'test-tube' baby

July marked the 33rd birthday of the world's first 'test-tube' baby. Since then, four million babies have been born thanks to IVF. Many more have not. The treatment does not guarantee pregnancy and the side effects remain severe. Yet there is a brutal dishonesty. IVF is considered almost routine. Because women - and men – don't talk frankly about their fertility struggles, we continue to get a skewed message...[Read More]

Fertility treatment in Germany

Germany is said to have one of the most restrictive legislation in the area of assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments. In contrast to the UK, both oocyte donation and surrogacy are prohibited by the Embryo Protection Act. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has only become permissible as of July this year – it can now be carried out if the child will be born with a severe genetic disease, or if the embryo is so severely impaired that the pregnancy...[Read More]

Changes to PGD regulation in Victoria, Australia

The Australian state of Victoria was the first common law jurisdiction in the world to enact legislation to regulate assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Victoria's legislative framework has been updated a number of times and the most recent legislation (the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic)) came into effect on 1 January 2010...[Read More]

Event Review: Research with Living Beings

Against a background of growing controversy over the use of embryos and primates for research purposes, a two-day conference entitled 'Research with Living Beings', funded by the Wellcome Trust, the AHRC Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality, and the Centre for Law Ethics and Society (Keele), was held at Keele University...[Read More]

TV Review: Should I Test My Genes? The Price of Life

Adam Wishart's documentary charted his personal journey to discover the secrets hidden in his genes. After his mother's death from breast cancer, Adam wanted to discover whether he too is genetically at risk of developing the disease. Looking at his immediate family history, he found seven of his mother's 14 brothers, sister and cousins died from cancer. Adam's mother, aunt and grandmother all had breast cancer...[Read More]

Germany allows PGD for life-threatening genetic defects

The German parliament has passed a new law allowing PGD in limited circumstances. Under the new law, couples undergoing IVF can use PGD to screen embryos only if the parents have a predisposition to a serious genetic illness...[Read More]

Event Review: Selective Reproduction, Bioethics, and the Idea of Eugenics

A seminar entitled 'Selective Reproduction, Bioethics, and the Idea of Eugenics' held at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre on 6 June attempted to untangle what is meant by the contemporary 'idea of eugenics' in relation to bioethics and, specifically, selective reproduction. Stephen Wilkinson, professor of Bioethics at Keele University and author of 'Choosing Tomorrow's Children: The ethics of selective reproduction', asked the question: 'Is the fact that an action or policy is a case...[Read More]

PGD could offer new hope for mitochondrial disease parents

Women at risk of passing on mitochondrial disease to their children could use PGD to give birth to an unaffected child. The scientists at Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands claim their work has the potential to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases...[Read More]

German parliament to debate PGD bills

The German parliament will debate the country’s law on PGD following the introduction of three separate bills on the issue. Two of the bills allow PGD under certain circumstances, the other calls for a total ban....[Read More]

IVF and the prevention of mitochondrial DNA disease: the moral issues

Medicine has faced many controversial milestones, none more so than those involving reproduction. The UK Government must now decide whether we can use IVF technology to reduce the risk of transmission of mitochondrial DNA abnormalities. Will they accept it or reject it?...[Read More]

Couple try for 'saviour sibling' to help son with Diamond Blackfan anaemia

The parents of a seriously ill child plan to have a 'saviour sibling' whose umbilical cord cells could be used to treat the child's life threatening condition....[Read More]

Liverpool hospital to investigate 'sex selection' claims

A Liverpool hospital has said it will investigate allegations that one of its doctors had apparently offered to make arrangements for an undercover reporter posing as a prospective patient to undergo a sex-selection procedure for family balancing abroad...[Read More]

Former Progress Educational Trust patron appointed to House of Lords

A former patron of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), which publishes BioNews, has been appointed to the UK's House of Lords. Former Member of Parliament (MP) Dafydd Wigley campaigned for the first Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act in 1990... [Read More]

New PGD technology guidelines published for the genetic testing of IVF embryos

The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) has published an updated set of best practice guidelines for fertility clinics on the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) techniques...[Read More]

Elusive Nobel prize finally lands!

Professor Robert Edwards was last week awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on IVF [1]. Bob might seem an obvious award candidate since IVF and related treatments are taken for granted nowadays. Most of us know family, friends and/or colleagues who have used IVF, PGD, surrogacy or gamete donation. During the lonely days of the 1960s and 70s, the situation was very different...[Read More]