Court of Human Rights overturns Costa Rica's ban on IVF
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has overturned a prohibition on IVF in Costa Rica saying that it infringed provisions under the American Convention on Human Rights....
News
Bone fragments grow in eyelid of unapproved stem cell procedure patient
Bone fragments were removed from the eyelid of a woman after a facelift that used her own stem cells yielded some unexpected results...
Widow wins right to retrieve husband's sperm
A Western Australian judge has granted a newly widowed woman the right to retrieve sperm from her dead husband, although a further court order will be required before it can be used for any purpose....
Rare genetic mutations for bowel cancer discovered
Two rare genetic mutations have been linked to a higher risk of developing bowel cancer...
Stem cell success against motor neurone disease in mice
Neural stem cells were shown to be effective against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or motor neurone disease, in 11 independent studies on mice with the disease...
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Sperm donor to lesbian couple sued for child support
A sperm donor in Kansas, USA, has been ordered to pay $6,000 in child support to a lesbian couple who he helped conceive a child with...
Worldwide infertility rates unchanged in 20 years says World Health Organisation
Global rates of infertility have remained relatively stable between 1990 and 2010, according to a study that compiled data from 277 national surveys in 190 countries....
Immune cells to target cancer created from stem cells
Immune cells that can recognise and kill cancer cells have been grown from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)...
Reviews
Book Review: Chimera's Children - Ethical, Philosophical and Religious Perspectives on Human-Nonhuman Experimentation
Mythical ideas of 'chimera', or animals formed or forged of parts derived from various different organisms, have endured throughout history, from Greek folklore and Homer's Iliad through to contemporary science fiction. In fact, organisms arising from human-nonhuman genetic combinations are already with us...
Comment
The Age-Old Question: The Impact of Age
by Ruth Saunders
Progress Educational Trust's 2012 annual conference 'Fertility Treatment: A Life-Changing Event?' concluded with a session entitled 'The Age-Old Question: The Impact of Age'...
Resolute
by Sarah Norcross
Happy New Year to all our readers! New Year's resolutions usually involve cutting back on the 'bad' habits and increasing the 'good' ones...
Biotechnology, choice and the public good
by Dr Pete Mills
How valuable are emerging biotechnologies? Of all the questions about the prospects of the life sciences, this is the one that UK policy makers seem most eager to answer...