Search
Portugal: a presidential veto against surrogacy
On Tuesday, 7 June 2016, the Centre-Right Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa vetoed the law authorising surrogacy. He believes that the law does not “comply with the conditions put forward by the National Advisory Body for Ethics and Life Sciences”, “which...
The “improved” three-parent IVF technique
A study published in the Nature journal reviews the “improvement” by British scientists to the “three-parent IVF” technique. Three-parent IVF involves creating embryos from three DNAs (that of the father, mother and an egg donor) to prevent the transmission of...
Genetically modified mosquitoes: beware!
The American Science Academies have published a report concluding that “the release of genetically modified mosquitoes into the natural environment to combat the spread of malaria, Zika and other infections transmitted by these insects is premature”even if the...
United States: the mother of a Down syndrome child writes to the doctor who advised her to abort
Diagnosed with Down syndrome during an antenatal examination, Emersyn Baker is now 15 months old. Her mother, Courtney Baker,has written via Facebook to the doctor who advised her on several occasions to have an abortion (seeBattling abortion: the testimony of parents...
United States: Kansas adopts a draft bill to restrict access to abortion
On Friday, 5 April, the Chamber of Representatives in the State of Kansas adopted a draft bill stipulating that "life begins with conception and withdrawing tax credits for abortion clinics". It also bans "gender-selective abortion and prevents clinics from taking...
Belgium: palliative care extending beyond end-of-life patients
The Belgian Parliament Health Commission has unanimously approved a draft bill “that extends the definition of palliative care”. The aim of those who drafted the law “is to no longer limit care to a patient’s last few weeks of life but to extend it to the advanced or...
Japan: the first clinical trial using iPS cells is resumed
The one and only clinical trial using iPS cells, which was suspended in early summer 2015, is about to resume. Initially launched in Japan in 2014, the aim of this trial is to treat ARMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration), the first cause of blindness in people over...
Artificial human genome: the revolution that is worrying scientists
Six years after the work on bacterial genome synthesis by scientist, Craig Venter,the Science journal unveiled the contents of the “human genome project-write” on 2 June 2016. The key aims are to produce: “A complete human genome” by deciding on...
Medical assistance to die decriminalised in Canada
The 6th of June deadline imposed by the Canadian Supreme Court to alter the Criminal Code has arrived. The C-14 draft law adopted by the Lower House last Tuesday is currently being discussed in the Senate. However, without waiting for the framework of this new...
Authorisation of Pre-Implantation Screening in Switzerland: Multiple reactions
On Sunday, the people of Switzerland accepted changes to the law governing Medically Assisted Procreation (see Pre-implantation Screening authorised in Switzerland). This legislation currently authorises the creation of twelve embryos for in-vitro fertilisation,...
Our society is fostering increasing solitude and requests for euthanasia
The reasons for requesting euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands “shock us”: “fear of solitude”, refusal to enter a retirement home, anorexia, etc. (seeThe euthanasia of a young Dutch woman: the “extraordinary” failure of a profoundly negative message sent to...
Success of mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of CVA
A preliminary trial at Stanford University, California, resulted in a publication in the Stroke journal on 2 June. Scientists led by Gary Steinberg “injected mesenchymal stem cells directly into the brain of patients suffering from the sequelae of a stroke”. One...