Why limits to gamete donor use only work if they cross borders
A recent paper calls on the European Union to introduce an EU-wide limit on families created from a single donor's sperm. Professors Lucy Frith and Jackson Kirkman-Brown explain why...
Professor Lucy Frith
Professor of Bioethics, University of Manchester
Professor Lucy Frith is professor of Bioethics and Health Research, at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, Department of Law, University of Manchester. Her research focuses on the social and ethical aspects of improving healthcare practice and policy, with a long-standing interest in the social and ethical aspects of reproductive technologies and empirical ethics and public involvement. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Human and Reproduction and Embryology and has held visiting professorships at the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law the University of Hong Kong and the National University of SIngapore. An overview of her research can be found here.
BioNews Articles by Professor Lucy Frith
DNA testing and donor conception: New leaflets to support informed choices
Lucy Frith, professor of bioethics and health research at the University of Manchester and lead of the ConnecteDNA project, discusses the new information leaflets they have produced designed to help donors, donor-conceived people and families navigate the growing impact of online DNA testing on donor conception...
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
23andMe bankruptcy: Potential data risks for the donor-conceived community
We argue that this latest episode in the 23andMe saga illustrates that the current regulatory status quo pertaining to donor anonymity in the UK renders members of the donor conceived community particularly vulnerable to harms associated with the (mis)use of their DNA data...
Embryo adoption in the US: Any lessons for the UK?
Once a couple or individual has finished their fertility treatment, the question of what to do with any remaining frozen embryos is often perceived as a difficult decision. There are, broadly, four options to choose from...
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'...
No 'brownie points' for ill-conceived Donation Review
While the HFEA's motivation in undertaking this review is understandable, we consider that there are significant problems with the public consultation. First, there are a number of technical problems with the presentation: the consultation appears to be unavailable to anyone without access to the Internet; the background information provided by the HFEA, ostensibly to enlighten respondents...
Wither the HFEA and the fate of donor registers?
The UK government's review of Arm's Length Bodies (ALB) in the National Health Service has indicated that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has had its day as a free-standing regulatory body...
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...