The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) held their annual meeting in Tours last week. The European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) held theirs in Geneva at the end of May...
It was against the background of increasing excitement about the therapeutic potential of stem-cell and cloning technologies that the UK Government's Human Genetics Advisory Commission and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority issued a joint report last December. They strongly recommended that the Government give the go-ahead for research using...
It's only a matter of time before the first human is cloned. Or so we are told. This week's news that two teams in America are competing to produce the first cloned embryo for the development of new therapies, brought with it the familiar cries that cloned babies are just...
This week's BioNews includes news that three British hospitals will begin offering the option of ovarian tissue freezing to women or girls undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Because chemotherapy almost always destroys fertility, the ovarian tissue is harvested before treatment in the hope that when it is grafted back on at a...
This week's BioNews includes news that Italy is considering legislation to govern the practice of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. Given that IVF is now nearing its 21st birthday, Italy's legislative moves may seem somewhat belated. IVF services have been available in Italy for some years and Italian scientists have...
Last week, Britain's most famous surrogate mother gave up her involvement in surrogacy arrangements. Kim Cotton, who shot to fame in 1985 for being the first British woman to publicly act as a surrogate mother for money, has given up the fight to make surrogacy an acceptable practice by resigning...
This week's BioNews includes a story from the United States that the National Bioethics Advisory Commission is about to publish recommendations that federal funds be made available for some human embryo research. A congressional ban, in place since 1994, has meant that no federal money can be used to fund...
This week's BioNews includes news from the United States of the first children born as a result of IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for sickle cell disease. Because of PGD, the couple concerned was able to start a pregnancy knowing that it was free of the genetic fault which...
This week's BioNews reports on news that the American biotech company which funded last year's stem cell breakthrough has bought the commercial arm of the Roslin Institute. With the new acquisition, the Geron Corporation will now be able to marry the nuclear transfer technology developed at Roslin with the American...
This week's BioNews includes news from France that nuclear transfer technology may cause long-term health problems in the resulting clones. A team of scientists led by Jean-Paul Renard reported in the Lancet that a cloned calf, born after nuclear transfer from an adult skin cell, died of sudden anaemia seven...
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