Researchers believe they have discovered why chronic exposure to passive smoking can cause some young people to go on to develop serious chest problems like asthma, while others are not as badly affected. They have warned that children who inherit a common gene defect face a heightened...
A British woman who had undergone a standard IVF procedure at the Leicester Royal Infirmary has died unexpectedly while undergoing another medical procedure. A coroner and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is currently investigating the cause of death. During the egg collection operation for IVF...
Comments made by a New Zealand scientist carrying out research into the effects of a genetic variation linked to addictive, risk-taking and aggressive behaviour have angered the country's indigenous Maori population. Rod Lea, a geneticist based at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in Wellington...
US researchers have identified a genetic risk factor that they say could account for three per cent of the cause of Parkinson's disease (PD). The team, based at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has shown that people who inherit a DNA change that increases production...
A leading bioethicist, Dr Insoo Hyun of Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, US, has called for women to be paid to donate eggs for stem cell research on the same basis that research participants are compensated for taking part in other medical research. In a Nature commentary...
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB) has published a report that supports a ban on the creation of human animal chimeras in biological research. The report, published in the journal Human Reproduction and Genetic Ethics, calls for the UK to follow France and Germany and make...
Stay up-to-date on all the latest developments in the fields of human fertility and genomics. And be the first to hear about upcoming events and other announcements.
Comment
Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing: When Rights Clash
by Dr Carol Isaacson Barash
Consumers' ability to obtain laboratory test services directly and without a medical order is increasing. Is this a good thing? Direct to consumer, otherwise known as direct access, clinical testing has been permitted for many years in some, but not in all states within the US. This disparity suggests that...