Molly Nash, the six-year old American girl who received a bone marrow transplant using cells from the umbilical cord of her newborn baby brother, Adam, is recovering well, and should be ready to leave hospital this week. Before the operation Molly, who has Fanconi's anaemia and cannot produce enough of...
The head of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said last week that it is unlikely to lift the ban on embryo sex selection. 'The public do not like, and we do not like the idea of designer babies,' Ruth Deech said on the BBC's Newsnight Scotland programme...
A patient support group is to file a joint patent application with the research team that identified a gene involved in a rare genetic condition, pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE). Members of the PXE International support group provided scientists at the University of Hawaii with blood and tissue samples from patients with...
Regular mountain biking can cause testicular injuries, according to a study published in last week's issue of the Lancet. The authors, based at the University Hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, say that 96 per cent of the 45 male mountain bikers in the study had scrotal abnormalities, compared to only 16...
A Spanish couple have used embryo sex selection to ensure their children do not inherit the altered gene that causes haemophilia, a blood clotting disorder. The case is the first published use of the technique solely to avoid conceiving healthy carriers of an inherited condition, i.e. to avoid the risk...
A UK broker has set up the country's first insurance agency for couples undergoing IVF and other forms of assisted reproduction. Anja Ruppert, of Recover, believes that insurance cover will take a lot of the stress out of a pregnancy resulting from IVF. 'A couple who take out this kind...
Stay up-to-date on all the latest developments in the fields of human fertility and genomics. And be the first to hear about upcoming events and other announcements.
Comment
On hard and fast rules in sex selection
by Juliet Tizzard
When the story of the Nash family hit the headlines two weeks ago, most media commentators seemed supportive of their use of embryo selection to have a disease-free child who was also a tissue match for his older sibling. But then, the next day, the story of the Mastertons emerged...