Brazil's attorney-general, Claudio Fonteles, has started a legal challenge to sections of the country's biosecurity law that he considers unconstitutional. The four-month-old law legalised research using human embryonic stem cells and set up a system for the approval of genetically modified crops. Fonteles argued that the use of embryonic stem...
Supporters of a US bill to extend federal funding of research on human embryonic stem (ES) cells are predicting a victory when it is debated by Senators later this month. More than 60 are expected to vote in favour of the legislation, say its proponents - although President Bush has pledged...
Critics of a UK campaign to encourage more people to donate eggs and sperm say that each new sperm donor recruited so far has cost the Government £ 6,250, the Daily Telegraph reports. From January to May, the £300,000 'Give Life, Give Hope' campaign has resulted in 486 calls to the...
Doctors in Scotland have come up with a way of predicting when a woman may become sterile after undergoing radiation therapy as part of cancer treatment, according to a study published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology. The researchers developed a formula that takes into account the age of...
A UK woman left brain-damaged after a stroke caused by a rare side effect of IVF treatment is set to receive 'very substantial' agreed damages. The 34-year-old patient, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, became pregnant but then developed ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Fertility doctor Paul Rainsbury, of...
An Israeli woman has given birth to a healthy baby girl after undergoing an ovarian tissue transplant, following cancer treatment that left her infertile. The 28-year-old woman, treated at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, is only the second patient in the world to have given birth after...
A company in the United States has begun marketing a kit which allows women to discover the sex of their baby as early as five weeks into the pregnancy. Currently, expectant mothers can get a good idea of their baby's sex with a routine ultrasound at around 16 weeks, but...
The latest challenge to a patent held by US firm Myriad Genetics on a test for hereditary breast cancer has failed. The European patent Office (EPO) ruled on 29 June that European patent EP 785216, which relates to the BRCA2 gene, is to be maintained in its amended form. The...
New recommendations for prenatal screening programmes to detect Down syndrome could lead to some chromosome abnormalities being missed, UK researchers say. A team based at Salisbury District Hospital looked at the likely effect of the proposal to scrap a type of testing called karyotyping in favour of newer, rapid methods...
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Risks of egg collection must be kept in perspective
by Dr Jess Buxton
In this week's BioNews, we report on the case of a woman set to receive damages after she had a stroke following IVF. The patient, left brain-damaged, had developed a rare side effect of fertility treatment called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). In its most severe form, OHSS can be potentially...