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]

Is the embryo sacrosanct?: Faith in preimplantation genetic diagnosis

In 1989, scientists first used preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - a technique that merges IVF with genetic testing, enabling couples with increased risk of passing a genetic disorder onto their children to screen and select only unaffected embryos for implantation. PGD involves the removal of a single cell from three-day-old IVF...[Read More]

Theatre Review: A Stroke of Genius

As the curtain dropped on the closing night performance of the London-based PIT Theatre Cooperative's world premiere production performed throughout August at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so too ended the rare opportunity to witness a science communication creative, if not comical, success (of which I hope we see more). The PIT Collective's topical comedy entitled A Stroke of Genius bravely and uniquely informed its audience as its light-hearted plot turned on broad-sweeping bioethi...[Read More]

Faulty breast cancer gene increases male risk too

Western men who carry a BRCA2 genetic mutation have a six to nine per cent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, UK researchers have found...[Read More]

Gene patent for breast cancer faces legal challenge

The Australian Federal Court in Sydney is considering groundbreaking legal action of whether private companies can obtain patents on human genes....[Read More]

HFEA releases publication 'Getting started: your guide to fertility treatment'

The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has announced its upcoming release of a new fertility treatment reference and information guide, entitled 'Getting started: Your guide to fertility treatment', aimed to assist people at the outset of considering fertility treatment options....[Read More]

US woman accuses employer of genetic discrimination after breast cancer test

A Connecticut woman who had a voluntary double mastectomy after genetic testing is alleging her employer wrongfully terminated her job after learning she carried a gene implicated in breast cancer...[Read More]

Canada turns a blind eye to egg 'donor' grey market

The Canadian ban against women selling their eggs as a source of eggs for fertility treatments is reported to be systemically flawed in practice, according to an expose article published in the April 2010 edition of the Canadian magazine The Walrus. Journalist Alison Motluk interviewed egg 'donors' and recipients, fertility experts and regulators, revealing that the Canadian ban is as farcical as its loose interpretation of the word 'donor'. The article attributed the discrepan...[Read More]

Canada considers genetic discrimination law

Canadians need better protection from genetic discrimination by insurers and employers, according to Winnipeg North MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis... [Read More]

Gene patent lawsuit starts next week

A landmark US lawsuit is due to begin this week in New York which will question the right of private companies to hold patents on disease-related genes and their exclusive license rights to be the sole provider of genetic tests for those diseases. Last May, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Public Patent Foundation, filed a legal action that challenged seven US patents for two genes linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. The action was lau...[Read More]

UK's Department of Health consults on disclosure of identifying information for research

On 8 October 2009, the UK's Department of Health (DH) announced the launch of a public consultation regarding amendments made to the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Disclosure of Information for Research Purposes) Regulations...[Read More]

UK registry will allow donor children to trace biological siblings

Beginning from last Thursday, new disclosure laws for donor-conceived individuals and gamete/embryo donors came into force which will broaden access to donor genetic information. The provisions were enacted together with the vast majority of the new Human Fertilisation & Embryology Act 2008, approved by Parliament last year and aimed at updating its predecessor 1990 statute to be more inline with contemporary liberal attitudes and advances in reproductive technolog...[Read More]

Umbilical cord blood banking not worth the cash, study shows

Banking a newborn's umbilical cord blood through a private company so that stem cells may be derived and stored for that child's or sibling's future medical uses is not financially worthwhile, according to a study performed at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). It found that the chances of privately stored umbilical cord blood being therapeutic in the next twenty years are so remote that it does not justify the expense. The researchers calculated that it costs ap...[Read More]