A team of scientists from the Advanced Cell Technology company (ATC), California, USA, have made massive amounts of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells (ESC). The work may lead to laboratories being able to produce blood for transfusions, providing a limitless supply and an alternative...
By Katy Sinclair: Researchers studying Australian groups of twins have established a link between heavy alcohol use and delayed pregnancy, in findings to be published in the journal 'Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research'. Mary Waldron, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine and corresponding author of the...
A baby born to an Indian surrogate mother for a Japanese couple has found herself in the middle of a legal battle over her nationality, the legal status of her parents and immigration rights. Moving towards a closure of the saga, the Indian Supreme Court last week...
The governing board of California's stem cell agency awarded $59 million in research grants for the second cycle of an ongoing funding initiative, referred to as 'New Faculty Grants', targeting promising researchers and physicians early in their career entering the stem cell sciences. Twenty-three applicants from among...
As the price of genetic sequencing of an individual's DNA drops, personalized medical genomics will become increasingly integral to prescribing drugs and treating illnesses, leading genome researcher Craig Venter wrote in a commentary for the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. He predicts that genome-based healthcare will help to...
The NHS has been advised to offer more fertility treatment cycles to infertile couples by a government advisory committee, in a bid to abolish the IVF postcode lottery that exists in the UK. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends providing couples in which...
The California Supreme Court unanimously held, last Monday, that a doctor's religious beliefs will not be lawful justification for refusing to treat homosexuals. Physicians who have a religious objection to treating homosexuals will be in contravention of anti-discrimination law if they do not provide equal medical services...
BioNews, published by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), provides news and comment on genetics, assisted conception, embryo/stem cell research and related areas.
Comment
Cross-border reproductive care in Europe
by Professor Guido Pennings
The European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) has been concerned about the development of cross-border infertility treatment for some time. There are three reasons for this: the frequently negative publicity for infertility treatment presented as 'reproductive tourism', the increasing numbers and the risks for patients. ESHRE has taken...