The Australian Senate has passed an amended version of a bill that will allow research to take place on stem cells derived from unused embryos left over from IVF programmes and donated for research purposes. Human reproductive cloning was banned in Australia in June 2001. A long consultation process was...
According to the London Evening Standard newspaper last week, Professor Ian Craft, director of the London Fertility Centre, takes advantage of women who cannot afford to come to his clinic for expensive IVF treatment by offering them free treatment in return for their having donating an entire cycle of their...
Three more American states have announced plans to consider measures next year that would permit embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research and therapeutic cloning, despite the fact that the federal government has not yet finished debating the issue. President Bush is known to favour a federal ban on all forms...
More claims have been made that the first cloned human babies are to be born imminently, adding to claims made last week by Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori. The new claims were made, first, by Brigitte Boisselier, scientific director of Clonaid, a company linked to the Raelian cult. She said...
The first complete draft of the entire mouse genome was published in Nature last week, accompanied by studies presenting an analysis of mice genes, and a comparison with their human equivalents. The scientists found that, like humans, mice have around 30,000 different genes, and that only about 300 are unique...
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Comment
House of Lords debate adds little to the stem cell discussion
by Juliet Tizzard
This week in the UK House of Lords, the lords and ladies gathered to discuss an issue which they have visited a number of times before: embryo stem cell research. This time, peers were discussing a report from a House of Lords Select Committee set up to consider the issue...