Belfast City Hospital in Ulster, Northern Ireland, is one of two British hospitals joining one of the largest gene therapy trials ever held. This is the first time a centre in Northern Ireland will have conducted gene therapy. The hospital in Belfast is a centre for excellence...
Scientists at Baylor University Medical Center in Texas, US, have developed a novel method of delivering an insulin gene into the pancreas of experimental rats in a potential breakthrough in diabetes research. The researchers injected the rats with microscopic spherical shells enclosing a gene that codes for...
Nancy Reagan, former first lady of the US, has reiterated her calls for federal legislation supporting embryonic stem (ES) cell research. Earlier this month, she published a personal letter that she had written to Senator Orrin Hatch, saying that she wants to see debate and a...
The fertility treatment regulator in the Australian state of Victoria has launched a newspaper advertising campaign designed to encourage parents of children born following egg or sperm donation to tell their children about their origins. The Infertility Treatment Authority (ITA) says that it is doing this...
A doctor in the UK has had a baby boy free from an inherited disease following treatment in Belgium. Dr Mandy Baum and her husband Philip travelled to Belgium for the treatment because it could not be performed in the UK. Dr Baum and her husband...
South Korean stem cell scientist Woo Suk Hwang has been formally prosecuted on charges of fraud and embezzlement - if convicted he could spend up to 10 years in prison. He was charged with accepting two billion won (about $2.1 million) in private donations based on his...
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Human rights, privacy and medical research: analysing UK policy on tissue and data
by Dr John Gillott
Human rights, privacy and medical research', a new report published by the Genetic Interest Group, traces the impact that the right to privacy is having on the regulation of medical research and clinical practice, with a particular focus on implications for human genetics. Less than 15 years ago, English law...