Race and genetics in stem cell transplantation

Each year around 2,800 people in the UK have a stem cell transplant, without which they would have shortly faced death, usually from a blood cancer or another blood disorder. The race of a patient is a real factor in how likely they are to match with a donor....[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]

Event Review: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 - A Multidisciplinary Workshop

When the invitation to this event dropped into my inbox, I immediately replied 'yes please'. This academic workshop of around 30 participants covered the legislative and policymaking process, and subsequent impact of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 2008...[Read More]

Celebrating 20 years of preimplantation genetic diagnosis

At the beginning of this month, following the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) annual meeting in Rome, a workshop was held to celebrate 20 years of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)...[Read More]

'Embryo destroyed' stories came from nowhere

Newspaper stories claiming that fertility regulators in the UK have allowed embryos to be destroyed for 'minor disorders' are unrelated to decisions taken at a recent regulatory meeting. Stories last week said the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) had allowed doctors to routinely screen out more than 100 genetic disorders using PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis). But, according to HFEA sources, the list of genetic disorders approved for PGD...[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 preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) applications: those for late onset conditions and tissue typing of embryos to produce a 'saviour sibling'....[Read More]

Event Review: Eugenics - Science Fiction or Future Reality?

The Edinburgh Filmhouse ran its fifth Biomedical Ethics Film Festival from 20-22 November 2009 in partnership with the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SHCB), the British Science Association and the ESRC Genomics Forum at Edinburgh University. Its theme was 'Eugenics: Science Fiction or Future Reality?' and its format was film showings followed by comments from a panel leading off a general discussion with the audience. The first day's major film was 'Homo Sapiens 1990', a documentary on ...[Read More]

Twin saviour siblings born in the UK

Twins born following IVF treatment to select embryos which would be a tissue match for their elder brother are thought to be the first incidence in the UK of multiple 'saviour siblings'. Out of just twelve licences granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authroity (HFEA) to permit families to create a saviour sibling, only this one has resulted in twins....[Read More]

Film Review: My Sister's Keeper

'My Sister's Keeper' is based on a book by the author Jodi Picoult. The youngest daughter of the Fitzgerald family, Anna (Abigail Breslin), decides to sue her parents for the ‘medical emancipation’ of her own body. Having been conceived through IVF and the resulting embryo tissue typed to ensure it was a match for her sick existing sibling, Anna was born for the primary reason of keeping her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), a leukaemia patient, alive....[Read More]

UK Parliament legislates 'saviour sibling' treatment

UK MPs have rejected amendments that sought to outlaw the creation of 'saviour siblings'- babies conceived following embryo testing to ensure their cord blood will provide tissue-matched stem cells for an existing sick child. The controversial clause, contained within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill before the...[Read More]

Scientists, hybrid embryos and the media

Should scientists enter the media fray on the most controversial aspects of stem cell research when the row is clearly about much more than the science? This is a question that many in the scientific community have raised over the past year in relation to the furore over human-animal hybrid...[Read More]

Why have a free vote on 'saviour siblings'?

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill, currently making its way through the UK's Parliament, marks the first major re-think of the original Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, passed in 1990. In the almost 20 years since the Act was passed, new medical developments and techniques have emerged which raise...[Read More]

Choosing children: Reflections on the regulation of embryo testing

My remit for this piece starts with a request to 'reflect on the past nine years and beyond'. Coincidentally, it was about nine years ago that I made my own first tentative foray into publishing in the area of reproductive law and ethics, and it is a sobering thing to...[Read More]

Regulating IVF and embryo research: Balancing clarity with flexibility

I will miss the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) 1990 Act when it is gone. I am no great supporter of our regulatory model and the 1990 Act is flawed and idiosyncratic. However, if you are going to regulate IVF and embryo research, ours is a reasonably solid regulatory...[Read More]

Embryo testing: Why drawing lines risks devaluing the disabled

It isn't uncommon, at international conferences, to hear praise for the UK's approach to regulating reproductive and genetic technologies. The cautious, incremental approach of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is often contrasted - favourably - with, for example, the rather dramatic oscillation between regulatory extremes seen in Italy, which had...[Read More]

Making Laws about making babies

The recent report from the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) - the UK government's advisory body on genetics - 'Making Babies: Reproductive decisions and genetic technologies' is the latest in a series of reports on the state of the law on assisted reproduction in the UK. The House of Commons Science and Technology...[Read More]

Baby's stem cells harvested for future use, say couple

A couple living in County Londonderry have spoken to the press about their decision to collect stem cells from their newborn baby's umbilical cord. The cells are to be stored for possible use later in his life, to help treat a number of diseases or conditions he might develop. The...[Read More]

Charlie Whitaker cured by 'saviour sibling'

Charlie Whitaker, the boy who was once at the centre of a fierce debate over so-called 'saviour siblings', has been given the 'all-clear' by doctors. Six-year-old Charlie, who had Diamond Blackfan anaemia (DBA), received a transplant of cells taken from the umbilical cord of his brother James last year. Last...[Read More]

What the House of Lords Hashmi ruling really means

The recent House of Lords decision in Quintavalle (on behalf of Comment on Reproductive Ethics) v HFEA [2005] represents what will hopefully be the last stage in a long legal battle for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and Raj and Shahana Hashmi. The Hashmis have a son of...[Read More]

Law Lords back 'saviour siblings'

The UK's House of Lords has ruled that the decision taken by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to allow the Hashmi family to try to create a 'saviour sibling' was lawful. The highest court in the UK heard the appeal case of Quintavalle (On behalf of Comment on...[Read More]