At its annual meeting in Chicago, US, last week, the American Medical Association (AMA) voted in support of the use of cloning technology in medical research. This is the first time the 260,000-member organisation has voiced its opinion on the matter. But, in a report written by its ethics...
PPL Therapeutics, the biotechnology firm formed by the creators of Dolly the cloned sheep, faces liquidation this week, unless its shareholders back a last-minute survival plan. Chief executive Geoff Cook is holding a series of emergency meetings with investors, following news that the firm is to halt development of a...
James Whitaker's birth has provoked calls for fertility laws in the UK to be reformed. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 is now out of date due to advances in embryology and fertility treatments, say its critics, and it should be changed to allow the tissue typing procedure to...
Dr Geeta Nargund, former director of the Diana, Princess of Wales Centre for Reproductive Medicine at St George's Hospital in London, has won the libel proceedings she issued in London's High Court against St George's Healthcare NHS Trust. It is reported that she has accepted an 'undisclosed' sum in damages...
Scientists have unveiled a detailed analysis of the human Y chromosome, the genetic material that contains the 'male' switch. When flipped on, this switch (a gene called SRY) makes an early embryo develop into a baby boy. For many years, this was thought to be the Y chromosome's one important...
Some people may inherit versions of genes that make them more likely to adopt a lifestyle that increases their risk of developing cancer, a new study suggests. The findings, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, show that some gene variants may make a person more anxious or depressed, and so...
A British couple have succeeded in their quest to have a tissue matched baby. Last summer, the Whitakers asked the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to allow them to use embryo screening (PGD) to provide a bone marrow donor for their sick son. After their request was refused...
An embryo screening technique that was licensed by the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) last September has resulted in its first pregnancy in the UK. Two UK clinics were initially given licences to perform aneuploidy screening: CARE in the Park, Nottingham and the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre...
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Ethics and safety in the 'saviour child' debate
by Juliet Tizzard
This week, the British media has gone crazy about a newborn baby. His name is James Whitaker and he was conceived in order to provide stem cells for his older brother, Charlie. In the reams of commentary which followed James' arrival into the world, two main ethical issues emerged. The...