In a move criticised by the UK's Royal Society as 'yet another publicity stunt', Dr Panos Zavos, the controversial fertility doctor who last month announced that he had transferred a cloned human embryo into a 35-year old woman, has now announced that the procedure did not work. Last week...
A Senate Judiciary Committee in the US state of Utah has approved new legislation that will clarify which people are recognised as the legal parents of children born from assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Bill SB 45, also known as the Uniform Parentage Bill, was introduced because advances in reproductive technologies...
Icelandic, UK and US scientists have identified gene variants that double the risk of both heart attack and stroke. The team, lead by scientists at the Reykjavik-based firm deCODE Genetics, found that two versions of a gene called ALOX5AP are linked to an increased risk of both conditions. One version...
A team of scientists from the Universities of Pennsylvania and California, in the US, has created viable monkey sperm in mice, using transplanted testicular tissue. From the date of the transplant, it took seven months for mature live sperm to be produced in the grafted tissue. The researchers, who have...
The Human Genetics Commission (HGC), the UK's human genetics watchdog, will be considering the use of genetic test results by insurers at its open meeting in London this week. The use of such information for policies worth less than £500,000 for life insurance, and £300,000 for other types of policy...
A 39-year old Israeli woman has given birth to twins using frozen embryos created 12 years ago, using in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The birth of the two babies, a boy and girl, apparently marks the longest recorded time that IVF embryos have been stored before being successfully implanted. According...
A newly-discovered genetic disorder that causes tremors, balance problems and memory loss in men over fifty could be much more widespread that first thought, according to a new US study. Many people affected by the condition are currently being misdiagnosed with either senile dementia, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease, say the...
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Comment
Genetics and insurance: Should the moratorium continue?
by Professor Graeme Laurie
The Human Genetics Commission (HGC) MORI poll of public attitudes towards human genetic information showed that reliance on genetic information in insurance decisions is considered to be the least appropriate use of that information. Four out of every five respondents decried such a use. It was as a result of...