Genetic link to sleepwalking: A dream or reality?
A new study has demonstrated a genetic link to sleepwalking, a condition that affects up to ten percent of children and 1 in 50 adults....
The extent to which a mutation causing a particular disorder causes clinical symptoms of that disorder. This usually refers to autosomal dominant conditions.
by Owen Clark
A new study has demonstrated a genetic link to sleepwalking, a condition that affects up to ten percent of children and 1 in 50 adults....
Newspaper stories claiming that fertility regulators in the UK have allowed embryos to be destroyed for 'minor disorders' are unrelated to decisions taken at a recent regulatory meeting. Stories last week said the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) had allowed doctors to routinely screen out more than 100 genetic disorders using PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis). But, according to HFEA sources, the list of genetic disorders approved for PGD...
by Nick Meade
The Genetic Interest Group (GIG) welcomed the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)’s review of the case-by-case approach to the licensing of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for late-onset conditions and for tissue typing of embryos to produce a 'saviour sibling'. I attended the HFEA's consultation event at which Dr David King spoke on 1 December last year and heard his presentation. Then, as in his BioNews comment
On 20 January, the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will decide whether to continue the case-by-case regulation of two types of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) applications: those for late onset conditions and tissue typing of embryos to produce a 'saviour sibling'....
BioNews reporting from ESHRE conference, Barcelona:By Ailsa Taylor: Amidst current debate about the implications of allowing couples to select embryos free from conditions with later onset, incomplete penetrance and (limited) treatment options, ethicists have recommended that parents undergoing pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) should, in certain circumstances, be allowed to...
UK doctors have been given permission to help a couple avoid passing on hereditary breast cancer to their children, the Times newspaper has reported. Paul Serhal, of University College London, has been granted a licence by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to select embryos...
Recent news stories about the development of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) tests for familial Alzheimer's disease and congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles (CFEM) have raised questions about 'slippery slopes' and the limits of PGD. Although not a disabled people's organisation, Human Genetics Alert approaches these issues from a disability...
UK doctors are applying for permission to help two couples avoid passing on hereditary breast cancer to their children. Paul Serhal, of University College London, has submitted a licence application to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to select embryos free from the BRCA1 gene...
We are currently planning to help the first British couple have a baby free from the risk of developing early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD). Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for this disease, which affects individuals in middle age (40s and 50s) - rather than the more common Alzheimer's whose effects are suffered considerably...
Once again the media have a new designer baby story. Sorry, but there's nothing really new here. No new ethical arguments, new techniques or disease types. Not a designer baby in sight. What is new is the decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to expand the list...
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