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Usa: heading towards a change in methods regarding organ donation?
In an open letter addressed to Barack Obama, the 300 or so co-signatories comprising doctors, religious leaders and ethicists entreated the President to rethink the current organ donation system in the United States. Lamenting the fact that too few people undergo...
Surrogacy: italy does not recognise “intended parents”
After having been turned down for adoption by the relevant national authorities, a couple in their fifties turned to surrogacy in the Ukraine in 2011 for the sum of €25,000. The fraud was detected when the intended parents tried to register the birth, on...
Surrogacy in ireland: the supreme court invites the government to legislate
In Ireland, the Supreme Court ruled by six votes to one that the mother who gives birth is the child’s legal mother except in adoption cases. In fact, one couple asked the woman’s sister to carry their “intended” twins. The children were conceived with the...
Gb: births led to compensation and interest payments
Official British Government figures have revealed a current “shocking” practice, namely to compensate parents for having an unwanted child or a child with an abnormality. One hundred and sixty four (164) complaints have been lodged with the NHS since 2003 and have led...
Non-invasive screening for down syndrome when economics take precedence over ethics
Jean-Yves Nau, journalist and doctor, refers to the announcement made by the CERBA Laboratory, which recently published the results of its SEHDA study. The aim of this study was to highlight the reliability of its non-invasive screening method for Down Syndrome...
New drama during a mass sterilisation campaign in india
Around ten women have died following surgery carried out as part of a mass sterilisation programme organised by the State of Chhattisgarh (India). Approximately sixty other women suffered complications, some of whom are in a serious condition. On Thursday, 6 November,...
Selective abortion: a british doctor faces prosecution
British doctor, Prabha Sivaraman, will appear before court in Manchester charged with agreeing to carry out selective abortions, thereby contravening the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. The trial will begin in December 2014. The doctor was summoned just a few...
World first in the treatment of myopathy: announcing the telethon
Just 25 days to go to the launch of the AFM Telethon 2014 publicised by France info as a world first in the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Caroline le Guiner, scientist at the Atlantic Gènes Therapie Laboratory, today unveiled the results achieved...
Quebec: A draft bill on MAP presented before Christmas
A draft law aimed at initiating a major reform in the MAP program will be presented by Canadian Health Minister, Gaétan Barrette to the National Assembly in Quebec before Christmas. The purpose of the draft law is to “map” out the future program. MAP...
Will big data revolutionise medicine?
Le Monde is publishing a supplement devoted entirely to big data, i.e. to the “technological breakthrough”, which potentially allows a vast amount of information to be collected and correlated. This heralds a revolution in all sectors, including the...
Switzerland: one canton legalises assisted suicide in retirement homes
Last Tuesday in Switzerland, the Neuchâtel Canton Government passed a law with a very high majority (80 votes to 16 with 12 abstentions) granting access to assisted suicide for pensioners in retirement and elderly care homes. The law states that “patients in...
A biotech campus for personalised, connected medicine
The Biotech Campus is located in Geneva, close to international institutions. It currently unites 230 scientists around the globe, with the figure eventually rising to 1,200, specialising in Neurosciences and Bioengineering. The Fondation Campus Biotech Geneva...