Embryo research and cloning have been lambasted in a 16-page report issued by Roman Catholic Bishops. The document, called 'Vote for the common good', was drawn up by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, led by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor. The document, to be distributed throughout parishes...
A reserved judgement was given by the Court of Appeal in the case of prison inmate Gavin Mellor this week. Mr Mellor, who is serving a life sentence for murder at Nottingham prison, requested that he be allowed to leave prison and attend a clinic to provide sperm to be...
German scientists at the University of Wurzburg believe that they have found the gene responsible for an inherited form of schizophrenia. There have been many previous claims about genes linked to schizophrenia and other behavioural disorders, but this is believed to be the first genuine genetic basis to the disease...
An American gay couple have commissioned a British woman to act as a surrogate for them. Janie Davis, a writer, will be artificially inseminated with the sperm of one of the men, 38-year old Kevin. The child will be raised by Kevin, a publishing executive, and his partner Rob...
Syngenta, the world's largest agribusiness company, has announced that it has had hundreds of requests for access to its details of the genetic structure of rice since it completed the 430-million letter sequence in January. The company, formed after the merger of AstraZeneca and Novartis' agricultural sections, plans to...
Scientists at the Queen's University and the Belfast City Hospital believe that they have discovered a gene that protects women against ovarian cancer by regulating the growth and multiplication of cells. Dr Hillary Russell and colleagues think that women who develop the cancer either do not have this gene in...
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One hundred issues old and counting
by Juliet Tizzard
This issue of BioNews is the hundredth we've published. And on Thursday, it will also be our second birthday. When, in early 1999, Progress Educational Trust came up with the idea of starting BioNews, we never imagined it would become quite so popular. Our readership stretches from research scientists to...