The Science and Technology Committee (STC) of the UK's House of Commons is launching an online consultation into human reproductive technologies and the law. The consultation will be launched at a joint STC and British Academy debate on sex selection - just one of the issues to be covered in the...
Controversial US fertility doctor Panayiotis Zavos has again provoked disbelief and anger, after announcing that he has transferred a cloned human embryo into a woman. Zavos, who announced in September 2003 that he had a cloned human embryo in frozen storage, has not yet produced any evidence to back up...
The US President's Council on Bioethics has approved the wording of its latest draft version of its recommendations on assisted reproductive technologies. The recommendations were originally released in draft form in November 2003 and form part of the Council's continuing project on 'US Biotechnology and Public Policy and the Biotechnologies...
Scientists at the Institute for Frontier for Medical Sciences at Kyoto University in Japan have produced the country's first human embryo stem (ES) cells. Project leader Norio Nakatsuji says that his team has produced enough cells to meet current research needs in Japan, and are now awaiting government approval before...
Natallie Evans, one of two British women who was legally prevented from using embryos kept in frozen storage by the withdrawal of consent by her ex-partner, has been given leave to take her case to the Court of Appeal. This means that she can ask the Court of Appeal to...
The UK Department of Health (DH) is expected to announce shortly that British sperm donors are to lose their right to anonymity, according to reports in the Times newspaper and other sources. The existing law in the UK does not allow children conceived using donor sperm to discover the identity...
New research shows that women who give birth to their first child by Caesarean section may have problems conceiving future children. The study shows that women who did not have a surgical delivery for their first birth later found it easier to conceive and to have a second child naturally...
US scientists have found that human cells injected into a pig fetus can fuse with pig cells, forming 'hybrid' cells that contain genetic material from both species. The surprising findings have implications for research into the use of animal organs for human transplants (xenotransplantation). They might also help explain how...
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Embryo splitting: a useful procedure in humans?
by Juliet Tizzard
This week in BioNews, we report on a press conference given by Panos Zavos, a US-based cloning enthusiast, at which he announced that he has transferred a cloned embryo to a woman in the hope of starting a pregnancy. We're always tempted not to run such 'clone claim' stories and...