A new project launched by the National Geographic Society and computer firm IBM last week aims to trace the migratory history of human populations. The five-year study, entitled 'The Genographic Project', will establish ten research groups to look at 100,000 DNA samples from people around the world. Members of the...
A single gene variant is linked to an increased risk of several common diseases that involve inflammation, Swedish researchers say. The new study, published early online in the journal Nature Genetics, shows that a common version of the MHC2TA gene is associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple...
African American women at risk of developing breast cancer are much less likely to receive genetic testing, according to a new US study. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at racial disparities in genetic counselling for an inherited susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer. Their results, published in the...
A woman who was undergoing fertility treatment in the UK has died, a few days after she began the IVF process. Temilola Akinbolagbe, who was 33 years old, is understood to be the first woman to die as a result of the treatment in the UK. Only three other women...
The legislature of Washington state has rejected a bill that would have encouraged human embryonic stem (ES) cell research. The bill would have banned human reproductive cloning but would have allowed the cloning of embryos for ES cell research purposes, sometimes known as therapeutic cloning. The state's Senate voted 26...
A new drug treatment could help treat breast cancer in women affected by the hereditary form of the disease, two studies show. The findings, published in the journal Nature, show that drugs which target a protein called poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP1) could be highly effective against tumours in patients...
A person's risk of developing a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia after smoking cannabis as a teenager is affected by their genetic make-up, say UK researchers. A new study to be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry shows that a variant of the COMT gene is linked to a five-fold...
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Comment
Egg sharing should be the only solution to donor egg shortages
by Dr Kamal Ahuja and 1 others
Egg-sharing is an arrangement that enables qualifying women to receive subsidised IVF treatment, in return for anonymously donating an agreed proportion of their eggs to paying recipients. In our paper for the Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, published on 19 April 2005, we conclude that egg-sharing is ethically and legally sound, minimises...