The Alzheimer's Society has claimed that many of the UK's top insurance companies are misleading customers into providing genetic test results, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. The Society carried out a survey that revealed that eight out of nine insurance firms are breaking their own industry...
The key to understanding the human genome will be sequencing the genome of the lab mouse, according to scientists attending the recent human genome meeting in Vancouver. 'That will be the Rosetta Stone in terms of interpreting the human genome', said Steven Jones of the Genome Sequence Centre in Vancouver...
Two European politicians have launched an initiative calling for an end to the patenting of human genes, a news article in Nature reports. Called SOS Human Genome, the campaign is seeking a moratorium on implementing the European Commission's directive on biotech patents, originally issued two years ago. German MP Wolfgang...
Nearly all Europeans share just seven common female ancestors, claims Professor Bryan Sykes of Oxford University. He studied DNA samples from 6000 people living in 20 different countries, and found seven distinct patterns of DNA variation. He studied mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on from mothers (but not fathers) to...
The UK government is to consider plans that would allow children conceived using anonymous sperm donation to have access to details of their biological origins, according to a report in the Independent newspaper. The Department of Health proposals will be presented to ministers in the next two weeks, and will...
Many European biotech companies are running out of cash, according to a recent report by accountancy firm Ernst and Young. The study found that the sector leapt in value by 66 per cent to £11bn in 1999, following two years of decline. But a 'survival index' in the report showed...
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DI offspring may never be satisfied
by Juliet Tizzard
This week's BioNews reports on rumours that the UK government is considering a change in the law in order to allow children born of egg and sperm donation to find out the identity of the donors who made their conception possible. Under the headline, 'Four people who don't know who...