Lord Robert Winston has spoken out to criticise IVF clinics, citing corruption within the industry and the exploitation of couples being charged inflated prices for IVF treatment and associated genetic tests. The Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London, speaking at the Guardian Hay festival, also...
A divorced couple have applied to the Texas Supreme Court for rights over frozen embryos, created using their egg and sperm whilst they were still married. Randy and Augusta Roman underwent fertility treatment together before they separated in 2002. On the eve of the day the embryos...
A recent survey of US fertility clinics shows that the average payment to egg donors is well within the $5,000 limit recommended by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). The survey, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility last month, showed that the average payment to...
A group of US and British researchers is reported to be the first to have successfully converted stem cells obtained from the umbilical cords of newborns into insulin-producing cells. The research, published in the June 2007 issue of the journal Cell Proliferation, could eventually lead to a...
The US bill that would expand federal funding for human embryonic stem (ES) cell research appears to be poised for defeat. Republican President Bush has promised to veto the bill again, and Congress appears unable to garner enough votes to override the president's opposition. A year ago...
US researchers have discovered a gene mutation that dramatically increases the risk of leukaemia. The study, from a group based at Ohio State University in Columbus and published in the journal Cell, found a single base change in a gene called DAPK1 that leads to a seven-fold...
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The fate of frozen embryos in the US
by Liza Mundy
This week, the US Congress is expected to hand President Bush a bill authorising federal funding for embryonic stem (ES) cell research on the half-million frozen IVF embryos stored in labs and clinics around the country. The president is expected to veto the bill, having expressed the view that a...