Last week saw the release of a new report on the protection of genetic information, from the UK's genetic watchdog, the Human Genetics Commission (HGC). It coincided with news of a millionaire film producer embroiled in a paternity dispute, following a secret DNA test carried out on dental floss stolen...
Should people conceived through egg, embryo or sperm donation be able to find out the identity of their biological parents? This issue was the subject of much discussion in the UK media last week, following news that Baroness Warnock appears to have changed her mind on the matter à eighteen years...
Conception is an unpredictable business, whether natural or assisted. Many fertilised eggs are lost before a woman even realises she is pregnant, and only around a third ever result in a baby. So conceiving a child can take many months, even for couples with no fertility problems. For those undergoing...
When the first draft of the human genetic code was unveiled nearly two years ago, it was hailed as the 'outstanding achievement of human history'. For eventually, it could lead to new ways of diagnosing and treating illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. But amidst all the...
In this week's BioNews we report on a new study that shows it may be possible to extract healthy stem cells from abnormal human embryos. This is good news for researchers attempting to understand how embryo stem cells develop into different body tissues. It raises the possibility that visibly abnormal...
After over a decade of largely unsuccessful clinical trials, the persistence of gene therapy researchers is finally beginning to pay off. Two weeks ago came news of the remarkable recovery made by Rhys Evans, the UK toddler who underwent gene therapy to treat an inherited immune system disorder. The scientists...
As we report in this week's BioNews, the debate in the US over therapeutic cloning research is heating up. President Bush has delivered an impassioned speech in which he called for a total ban on any form of human cloning, including the use of cloned early embryo cells to develop...
Maverick fertility doctor Severino Antinori managed to hijack the headlines yet again last week, following reports that one of his patients is pregnant with a cloned embryo. At the time of writing, neither he nor his American colleague Panayiotis Zavos has confirmed or denied the story. True or not, their...
Five years ago it was completely unheard of, now it seems not a month goes by without a team of scientists reporting yet another cloning success. This week's BioNews reports on the world's first cloned rabbits, unveiled just before Easter. They join sheep, cattle, goats, mice, pigs and cats in...
This week's BioNews reports on a recent study of families with children conceived using assisted reproduction techniques. Surprisingly for a story that mentions IVF, it was hardly mentioned in the press. The authors, who reported their findings at an international conference last week, looked at the psychological health of families...
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