Patents on gene sequences are granted all too readily, according to a discussion paper published by the UK's Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Instead, the paper suggests, patents involving DNA sequences should be 'the exception rather than the rule' and the legal tests that applications must be novel, inventive and useful...
The European Patent Office (EPO) announced last week that it has amended a patent relating to a method of isolating and genetically altering animal cells. The joint patent, granted in December 1999 to Edinburgh University, Scotland and Australian biotech firm Stem Cell Sciences, failed to specifically exclude human cells. Instead...
Dr Sammy Lee, scientific consultant at the Portland Hospital in London, said last week that he is aware of regular mistakes at infertility clinics across the country. His claims followed the recent mix-up at one clinic, which resulted in black twins being born to a white couple. 'It is not...
Children born of donor assisted conception are one step closer to finding information about their donors, after a High Court ruling gave two donor offspring leave to challenge the government over existing rules. Joanna Rose, 30, and an unnamed six-year old girl were granted the opportunity to mount a judicial...
A South Korean company is claiming that it has achieved a pregnancy using cloned embryos and that the pregnancy is ongoing. The company, BioFusion, is affiliated to Clonaid, the company set up by a religious cult which is desperate to be the first to create a cloned baby. The woman...
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Will donor anonymity be a thing of the past?
by Juliet Tizzard
This week's High Court ruling, that two people conceived after donor assisted conception can challenge a government decision to deny access to further information about their donor, represents a step towards a more open system of gamete donation in the UK. However, it is perhaps not the case itself, the...