Director
Sarah Norcross is Director of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) and Commissioning Editor of its flagship publication BioNews. Together with Sandy Starr, she organises PET's public events. Sarah often represents PET in the media nationally (including on the Today programme, BBC News, ITV News, 5 News, Good Morning Britain, Sunday Morning Live) and internationally (including on BBC World News, Mittagsmagazin and Fala Brasil and in Die Welt), as well as in more specialist publications (including Science magazine, the British Medical Journal and Reproductive BioMedicine Online). Sarah is also a Trustee at the British Fertility Society (BFS), Chair of the BFS Special Interest Group on Law, Policy and Ethics, and an External Adviser to the University of Cambridge's Reproduction Strategic Research Initiative.
Sarah serves on the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology's Working Group on Add-Ons, on the National Infertility Group convened by the Scottish Government, and on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's Patient Organisation Stakeholder Group. She was previously Co-chair of the campaigning organisation Fertility Fairness, and she also chaired a group of clinicians, scientists, patient support groups and medical research charities which campaigned and advised on the content of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 as it passed through the UK Parliament. She has advised on numerous research projects, most recently Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing and Donor-Conception and Egg Donation in the UK, Belgium and Spain. Previously, she worked as a Barrister carrying out advocacy in civil and criminal courts on the Northern Circuit.
Following the general election in the UK and the formation of the new coalition government, Anne Milton MP has become the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and so is the Government Minister responsible for fertility and embryology. She is the Conservative MP for Guildford - a seat which she won from the Liberal Democrats in 2005....
This week's edition of BioNews will be the last with our current Genetics Editor, Ailsa Taylor, at the helm. Ailsa is leaving BioNews after three years with us, and is joining Cancer Research UK where she will work full-time as Science Press Officer. Of course, we wish her every success there...
First as a reviewer of this book I have a declaration of interest (or lack thereof): I have no faith....
When leading family researcher Professor Susan Golombok says a book is 'important and highly illuminating' and 'it should be read by everyone with a connection to the field', I thought I should add it to my 'to do' list...
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...
The first question I asked when picking up this book was: What is the image on the cover? Closer inspection and the power of Google revealed it is a dried poppy head (somniferum papaver) not, as I first thought, the egg from Alien - the science fiction horror film. What message does this convey?
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Storage Period for Gametes and Embryos) Regulations 2009 came into force on 1 October 2009. Soon after, however, a prayer was moved for the regulations to be annulled...
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) published new figures showing the number of new egg and sperm donors registered in 2008. The figures published on 31 July 2009 show that the number of both sperm and egg donors has increased....
We are pleased to announce that following years of dealing with out-of-date technology and increasing competition, the BioNews website and the free BioNews by email service have been overhauled...
Clare Lewis-Jones, Chief Executive of Infertility Network UK (I N UK) and More to Life, the largest national charity providing help, support and information to those suffering the effects of infertility, has been awarded a MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to healthcare....
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