Scientists have identified a gene involved in the susceptibility to cocaine addiction. The findings could lead to screens for those most likely to become addicted to the drug. Rainer Spanagel, a professor of psychopharmacology at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, led the work...
US researchers have unveiled a new study - the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project (EPGP) - to try and pinpoint the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to epilepsy and explain why some people respond differently to epilepsy medicine. The study, both the first and the largest of its kind...
Sperm donation services require infrastructural reorganisation, 'sperm-sharing' incentive schemes and regulatory reforms to overcome the severe shortage presently causing 'anguish' to thousands of infertile couples in the UK each year and to the health professionals unable to provide treatment to their patients, according to fertility experts writing...
By Katy Sinclair Two new studies have found that acupuncture does not increase the chances of conception through IVF. The first study was conducted by Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago, and was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in San Francisco, and the second was published in...
Overweight women are at greater risk of miscarrying a genetically normal baby in the early stages of pregnancy than women who maintain a healthy weight, according to a new study by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, US. The researchers, presenting at the...
Three new independent studies have provided further evidence that embryos stored using slow-freezing techniques may be better than fresh for IVF. The studies were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in San Francisco, US, last week. The studies indicate that using frozen embryos rather...
After long debates in Parliament and a conscience vote by MPs, the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill has gained Royal Assent. The majority of the Act will not come into effect until October 2009, but provisions relating to parenthood will come into force next April...
A large study has identified for the first time three genetic risk factors for brain aneurysms, bulging blood vessels in the brain that can cause fatal strokes when they rupture. Since patients with a brain aneurysm can show no symptoms prior to having a stroke, being able...
A 39-year old woman has become the first to give birth following a whole ovary transplant. Susanne Butscher received an intact ovary from her fertile twin sister last year, during a landmark operation carried out by Dr Sherman Silber of the Infertility Centre of St Louis...
The first trial of a procedure which selects IVF embryos with the best chance of developing into healthy babies was presented last week at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in San Francisco. Dr Dagan Wells and colleagues at Oxford University, UK screened embryos for 23...
By Sarah Guy; A new method of assisted conception has been hailed as a safer and equally effective alternative to IVF for certain groups of women undergoing treatment. The Oxford Fertility Centre revealed this week that of the 40 women they treated between February 2007 and March 2008 with in-vitro...
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Comment
Posthumous retrieval of gametes: a case of deja vu?
by Professor Anna Smajdor
To those who followed the story of Diane Blood in the '90s, the plight of the woman referred to as 'L' in recent news articles has a strong sense of deja vu (1). Once again, sperm has been obtained from the body of a man without his prior consent. Once...
'Is the human embryo sacrosanct?' - A mainstream Catholic view
by Professor David Jones
I think the title of Progress Educational Trust's forthcoming conference ('Is the embryo sacrosanct? Multi-faith perspectives.' - see Recommends for details) has been very well chosen. It connects with other kinds of questions - legal, scientific, theological - but in itself it is a specifically moral or ethical question. 'Is the human embryo...