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In China: Sperm donation for an iPhone 6S
Two Chinese sperm banks at the Ruijin Hospital Clinic in Shanghai and the clinic in the Hubei Province have introduced a new way of attracting donors, namely by giving them an iPhone 6S in return for gamete donation. In fact, the sperm banks are giving amounts of...
First in-utero clinical trial involving the injection of embryo stem cells
The first clinical trial involving the injection of stem cells into babies whilst in the womb is scheduled to begin in January. This trial is supervised jointly by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Great Ormond Street Hospital in the United Kingdom. ...
Euthanasia increasing in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the 2015 euthanasia statistics revealed a 10% increase in the number of cases of euthanasia in 2014 compared to 2013. The Control Commission “received 5306 reports of euthanasia or assisted suicides in 2014”. 41 people “underwent euthanasia on the...
Poland: the Constitutional Court extends conscientious objection
In its ruling, on Wednesday 7th October 2015, the Constitutional Court of Poland extended the right to conscientious objection for physicians. Though it deemed constitutional the fact of asking a physician to act against his conscience in the case of a mortal danger...
Neuroethics – a think-tank under construction
Progress in the field of neuroscience is raising new ethical questions. Neurologists and philosophers are climbing on board, following along the lines of the Institut du cerveau et de la moelle épinière (ICM) (Brain and Spine Institute), which has organised an annual...
The United Kingdom ranks number one for end-of-life quality of care
A study entitled “The 2015 Quality of Death Index. Ranking Palliative Care across the World” published on Tuesday and managed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in eighty countries, has shown that the United Kingdom is the first in the world in terms of palliative...
The Council of Europe rejects the neonatal infanticide petition
On Friday, 2 October, the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejected by a majority a neonatal infanticide petition that had collected 224,000 signatures. The Bureau justified its decision on the grounds that this type of petition focused on...
Unesco’s International Bioethics Committee calls for a moratorium on DNA editing techniques
Unesco’s International Bioethics Committee (IBC), comprising thirty-six independent experts (scientists, philosophers, lawyers and ministers) met in Paris on 29 and 30 September, and 1 October. On Monday, it publicised a report unveiling its “thoughts on the human...
In turn, California legalises assisted suicide
On Monday, Jerry Brown, Governor of California, ratified the law authorising assisted suicide for people whose lives are drawing to a close. The legislation was adopted in September by the Californian Chamber of Representatives – forty-three in favour and thirty-four...
The sight of the first patient to undergo IPS cell transplantation has improved
The first patient to undergo IPS cell transplantation (cf. Gènéthique du 18 septembre 2014) for age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) – a disease that gradually leads to blindness, is doing well according to scientists at the Riken Institute and Foundation for...
Surrogacy and child trafficking: an account from the mother of “Baby Gammy”
“Goy”, the mother of “Baby Gammy” (cf. Gènéthique des 24 novembre 2014, 1er décembre 2014, 20 janvier 2015, 19 mai 2015), a Thai child with Down Syndrome, born through surrogacy, whose intended parents did not want him to be born, tells her story. “A...
Launch of first uterus transplants in the United Kingdom
On 30 September, Dr. Richard Smith announced that he had been given the go-ahead [1]to launch the first clinical trial involving uterine transplants in the United Kingdom. For this trial, he is supervising a team of scientists working for the Womb Transplant UK...