In the wake of cloning and embryonic stem (ES) cell news from scientists in South Korea and the UK, a vote on legislation to extend the provisions of state funding for ES cell research in the US is expected in Congress this week. However, President Bush - who announced his disapproval...
The Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate have rejected four amendments made to a stem cell bill returned to the legislature by state Governor Mitt Romney. The legislation, which was sponsored by Senate President Robert Travaglini, allows embryos to be cloned for medical research purposes, but prohibits human reproductive cloning...
The Louisiana House of Representatives has passed legislation that would ban all forms of human cloning in the state. The members of the House voted 75-23 against the bill, while also defeating a competing bill by 54-45 votes. The competing bill would have banned human reproductive cloning only...
The Korean team that created the first embryonic stem (ES) cell line from a cloned human embryo has now announced the creation of 11 new cell lines, this time from patients affected by disease or spinal injury. Woo Suk Hwang and his colleagues at Seoul National University have increased the...
Scientists based in Newcastle, UK, have created cloned human embryos, one of which grew in the laboratory for five days. The team is one of only two UK groups licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to carry out 'therapeutic cloning' research. The achievement, currently being considered for...
Testing embryos for chromosomal abnormalities before they are returned to the womb can dramatically improve the 'take home baby rate' for some patients, according to a US fertility doctor. Speaking at the Sixth International Symposium on Preimplantation Genetics, held in London last week, Yury Verlinsky of the Reproductive Genetics Institute...
Appropriate safety systems must be in place before embryo stem cell therapies are used to treat patients, according to an editorial published in the British Medical Journal last week. The article says that although many more human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines are now available, much more work needs to...
Some Jewish women could face discrimination over access to tests for hereditary breast cancer, the Scientist magazine reports. Geneticists at a meeting held last week said that changes made to a patent relating to the BRCA2 gene, owned by US firm Myriad Genetics, could mean that women of Ashkenazi Jewish...
Comment
Cloning is an affront to human dignity
by Professor David Oderberg
Professors David Oderberg and Julian Savulescu recently discussed the ethical issues surrounding human cloning in a London debate, entitled 'Severino Antinori should not be condemned for pushing back the boundaries of parents' right to choose'. Here, Professor David Oderberg puts forward his arguments against all forms of cloning: 'I would...
How might we best undertake research on donor-conceived persons' views about their conception?
by Professor Eric Blyth
Debates concerning disclosure in donor conception comprise both ethical and scientific dimensions. Others (see, for example, Gollancz, D. (2001) 'Donor insemination - a question of rights'. Human Fertility, 4, 164-167) have argued the ethical merits. This commentary focuses on scientific issues and, in particular, what sorts of research methodologies might...