Scientists from Newcastle University have managed to grow the world's first miniature artificial liver in the laboratory. The team, led by Dr Nico Forraz and Professor Colin McGuckin, used NASA technology to make the piece of tissue, the size of a one penny piece, from donated umbilical...
A surgeon in New York has been given the go-ahead to carry out a womb transplant. The procedure has been tried once before in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2000, but the organ had to be removed after 100 days when a blood clot formed in the...
In groundbreaking research, scientists have used a new approach to stem cell science to partially restore vision in mice genetically engineered to mimic human degenerative sight defects such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. The team, a collaboration between University College London and the University of Michigan...
According to the UK's Sunday Times newspaper last week, clinics in the UK are offering couples the chance to choose the sex of their child, a practice that is illegal in Britain unless done to avoid a serious genetic disorder in the resulting child, by referring them...
New research detailing the UK public's views on IVF and related fertility issues has been published. The research was carried out by YouGov on behalf of the UK charity Progress Educational Trust in October 2006, in the form of two online survey questionnaires, to which a...
Australia's Senate has narrowly voted - by 34 to 32 - to approve new legislation that will overturn the current ban on the cloning of human embryos for stem cell research. The bill still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives, who will vote on the issue...
Two teams of British scientists have applied for licences to create hybrid embryos from human and animal cells in order to create stem cells. The North East England Stem Cell Institute - a biotech research body run by the Universities of Durham and Newcastle - and the Stem Cell...
By Antony Blackburn-Starza: There's a feeling of change in relation to embryonic stem (ES) cell research in the US following the mid-term elections, which saw the Democrats capturing both the Senate and the House of Representatives from the Republicans. In the state of Missouri, where ES cell research was a...
Australian Senator Stephen Conroy and his wife may be forced to leave their home in Victoria, Australia, to escape state laws that do not recognise them as legal parents of their child, which was born to a surrogate. The Victorian Law Reform Commission said that the state's...
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Issues in infertility: finding out what the public think
by Khadija Ibrahim
Issues surrounding infertility and reproductive medicine are rarely out of the news - delaying motherhood, egg and sperm donation, embryo testing and access to fertility treatment, to name just a few. But the published opinions triggered by this extensive media coverage have tended to be those of a select few doctors...