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Organ donation: Switzerland opposed to presumed consent
A campaign for organ donation was launched in Switzerland on Tuesday. This is based on a new strategy: the donor card, which was introduced in 2014, will be issued in duplicate from now on. The second card will be used to inform the donor's relatives. This new...
Children born through MAP (medically assisted procreation) face donor anonymity
Born through MAP, "she had to find her donor at any price. Her life depended on it". Today, Sarah is 25 years old. In 2013, after a bitter 4-year struggle, the German legal system finally granted her the right to find out the identity of her donor. This sounds...
Gestational Surrogacy: the ECHR supports child purchase for all
On July 21st, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights rendered public its ruling concerning the Foulon and Bouvet cases against France (no 9063/14 and 10410/14) in which the French authorities were accused of refusing to record the filiation...
Double hand transplant: a first in the United Kingdom
57 year-old Chris King lost both his hands three years ago in a work accident involving a metal press. At the UK’s Centre for Hand Transplants, Professor Simon Kay, Plastic Surgery Consultant at the Leeds General Infirmary, undertook an unprecedented procedure:...
CRISPR and somatic gene therapy: an initial human clinical trial in China
China is launching an initial human clinical trial using CRISPR in the treatment of lung cancer. The trial should start in August following approval by the hospital ethics board on 6 July. The protocol has been prepared over the last 18 months, under the direction of...
In the Dominican Republic, MPs uphold “the inviolable right to life”
On 19 July, the Dominican Republic Chamber of Deputies decided to remove a clause in the new Criminal Code which would have decriminalised abortion in cases where the mother’s life was at risk or in the event of deformity, incest or rape. This clause was rejected with...
Egg donation: women are unwittingly jeopardising their health for £500
Three-parent IVF raises ethical and public health issues. Firstly, a study published last month in Cell Stem Cellshowed that a small quantity of affected mitochondria (1%) obtained from the cell of the genetic mother, could be transmitted during handling, and...
Portugal overrides the presidential veto and authorises surrogacy
On Wednesday, the Portuguese Parliament adopted an amended version of the law authorising surrogacy, which was already voted on in May but blocked by Presidential veto (see MAP (medically assisted procreation, surrogacy: Portugal opens its doors, Portugal: a...
NIPS: a soaring market in Asia
In Vietnam, Hanoi has announced a $7.8 million investment “to boost the early detection of congenital anomalies between 2016 and 2020”. In addition to neonatal screening, this announcement concerns non-invasive prenatal screeningfor Down syndrome (NIPS). The aim in...
CRISPR: A clinical trial focusing on somatic gene therapy is about to start in the United States
The Biosafety and Ethics Committees of three universities have approved an initial clinical trial using the CRISPR Cas9 editing technique in humans. This is a somatic gene therapy study, the aim of which is to create genetically modified immune cells using CRISPR to...
Naprotechnology: a medical assistance for natural procreation
Naprotechnology: a medical assistance for natural procreation This summer’s news began with our institutions persistently trying to extend the scope of medically assisted procreation[1]. The regular buzz[2] created by the subject leads us to believe that this...
MAP: nature isn’t “a type of material available to humans to correct their imperfections and fulfil their desires”
Standing before the signatories of the manifesto signed by 130 doctors who admit to “practising medically assisted procreation outside the confines of the law", Professor René Frydman, “calls for a consistent approach in our country regarding all those who have...