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Uterus transplant: a child at what price?
In choosing a uterus transplant, women are preparing themselves to undergo numerous invasive operations, have a high-risk pregnancy and to commit to taking restrictive immunosuppressant therapy “in order to have a genetically related child”. Shouldn’t we stop and...
Limiting animal research … in favour of human embryo research?
Animal experiments have never before been subject to such strict legislation, but they are still open to controversy. The Inserm magazine has devoted an entire issue to animal experimentation, outlining the benefits and presenting alternatives. “Limiting animal...
United States: Oklahoma bans abortion for Down syndrome or genetic anomaly
In the United States, following North Dakota and Indiana, a restrictive abortion bill was approved by the Oklahoma State Senate on Tuesday with 39 votes to 9. It was also authorised by the Assembly with 78 votes to 10, but must still go before a committee to confirm...
CRISPR-Cas9: Sweden, in turn, authorises the genetic handling of human embryos
At the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Fredrik Lanner is preparing to modify the human embryo genome using CRISPR. One year after the first Chinese experiment, he has been granted approval by the Swedish authorities. In China, two other human embryo research...
Fertility-Infertility: a new study laboratory in Rome
On 6 April, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, inaugurated the new study laboratory for research into fertility and infertility within the Paul VI International Scientific Institute (ISI-Paul VI). The Paul VI ISI was created “in response...
Over 63,000 abortions every day in China
In its 2015 report on human rights, the American State Department published abortion figures in China. Whereas official Chinese statistics report 13 million abortions each year, the report compiled by the American State Department refers to 23 million in 2015, i.e....
Switzerland: NIPS must not become a routine examination
The TA-SWISS Centre for Technology Assessment has just published a report on Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening (NIPS) in an attempt to “avoid spin-offs” of these tests. This report will be presented to MPs whilst the Federal law on human genetic analysis, focusing...
The Ottawa Government starts the journey towards assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia
On Thursday, 14 April, the Canadian Government led by Justin Trudeau proposed draft bill C-14 on “active assistance to die” for patients who are not necessarily at the end of their life but for whom “natural death” is “reasonably foreseeable”. This is an extremely...
A “delinquent, psychotic” sperm donor: scandal in Canada
A “rather unusual” case has just emerged “on either side of the Atlantic”: three Canadian families are suing an American company for “deception” in its marketing of human sperm samples. Donor No. 9623 “was presented in the catalogue as a man of particular...
Northern Ireland: heading towards relaxation of the abortion ban?
In Northern Ireland, the sentencing of two young women who had abortions (see Northern Ireland: suspended prison sentence for woman who took abortion pills) “will encourage new MPs to try and change the law,” announced Susan McKay, Northern-Ireland...
Switzerland: success of the first transplant between seropositive individuals
Geneva University Hospitals announced “a world first incarrying out a liver transplant between two HIV positive subjects in October 2015”. Two uncertainties remained at the time of the transplant: would a new and difficult to treat HIV strain be transmitted? Would the...
Council of Europe: the industrial surrogacy lobby is not backing down
As announced last week (seeReturn of Surrogacy to the Council of Europe), the Council of Europe will review Petra de Sutter’s surrogacy report on 2 June. According to Marie-Anne Frison Roche, “the guidelines of this report have not been modified”, and the aim is still...