Despite bitter opposition from religious and pro-life groups, British MPs in the House of Commons passed the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill with an overwhelming majority vote, 355 to 129, after its third reading and report on Wednesday. The bill aims to modernize its 1990 predecessor inline...
Male-to-female transsexualism may in some cases be linked to a particular gene variant, according to a study published in the journal 'Biological Psychiatry' today. It is thought that the gene variant, discovered by researchers based at Prince Henry's Institute in Melbourne and collaborators in Australia and the...
The Health Minister for Northern Ireland, Michael McGimpsey, announced this week that he is to spend £800,000 on publicly-funded fertility services. He aims to cut NHS waiting times, currently up to 2 years, and, by relaxing eligibility criteria, to allow an additional 200 women to be treated...
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) have signed an agreement that supports collaborations between the two countries. Teams of scientists from the UK and California will now be able to file joint grant applications for funding into stem cell...
UK scientists have developed a new screening technique that could allow prospective parents to test their IVF embryos for any known genetic disease. The test, dubbed 'a genetic MoT', would cost just £1500 and could be available by next year pending licensing by the Human Fertilisation and...
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Comment
Islamic perspectives on the embryo and gamete donation
by Dr Farrokh Sekaleshfar
1) The embryo Sunnism and Shi'ism comprise approximately eighty and twenty per cent of the Islamic world, respectively. Like other monotheistic religions, Islam regards one's personal identity, or one's 'I' in terms of personhood, as being tantamount to one's immortal, immaterial and rational soul. Differences between the religions, however, exist...
Children Are Not Embryos
by Sheila Briggs
Political debates are often successfully waged by how one names the issue. In such instances the substantive moral concerns may become obscured and distorted. The so-called 'right-to-life' movement has pressed for the recognition of the rights of the 'unborn child' from the moment of conception. Although this movement has not...