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MPs refuse to legalise abortion in Argentina
On Thursday, MPs in Argentina rejected the law aimed at legalising abortion despite the fact that the draft bill had been approved by MPs in June (see In Argentina, the Chamber of Deputies launches ambitious bill on abortion in challenging circumstances and In...
Divorced Canadian woman awarded ownership of her frozen embryo but forced to compensate her ex-husband for 50% of the purchase value
A Canadian couple get divorced. The judge shares the material assets between the man and woman. The couple have a frozen embryo in a fertility clinic which was produced from sperm and eggs purchased for $11,500 in the United States. This is the last of four embryos...
First heart transplant in patient with Carmat artificial heart
The French company,Carmat, has just announced the first successful heart transplant in a patient previously implanted with a Carmat artificial heart, in its Pivot study. The patient received the Carmat artificial heart in October 2017 and "after 8 months of...
United Kingdom Supreme Court authorises withdrawal of food and water for patients in a vegetative state
The United Kingdom Supreme Court has just ruled that medical personnel can remove feeding tubes from patients in a permanent vegetative or minimally conscious state, without requesting legal authorisation from the Court of Protection, provided that families and...
In Canada – three adults acknowledged as legal parents of a baby
Last April, the Newfoundland Court in Canada recognised three legal parents—two fathers and one mother—of a child born naturally in 2017. This is the first known co-parenting case for a child conceived naturally. Although the mother's identity has been...
Decriminalisation of abortion: 173 MPs call for an end to Northern Ireland exemption
173 Irish and British MPs have jointly signed a letter calling for the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland. The letter was addressed to British Prime Minister Theresa May, and Leo Varadkar, her Irish counterpart. It calls for an "explicit legislative...
Essure sterilisation implants withdrawn from the US market
The pharmaceutical group, Bayer, has announced the withdrawal of its contraceptive implants, Essure, from the market amidst accusations of significant side effects. These small permanent sterilisation implants in the form of coils were considered an alternative to...
United Kingdom – judge authorises sperm extraction from dying man for the purpose of IVF
In the United Kingdom, Judge Gwynneth Knowles has authorised a woman to arrange the extraction of her dying husband's sperm to allow her to try to conceive after his death. Following her husband's sudden and ultimately fatal head injury, the young woman made an...
US – only 9% of health expenditure spent on end-of-life care
Contrary to popular belief, only 9% of national health expenditure is spent on end-of-life care in the USA. Although 5% of Medicare patients die every year, the final treatments are definitely expensive but they are not administered long-term - hence low costs...
The Netherlands – formal reprimand for doctor who administered euthanasia to dementia patient
In the Netherlands, the Dutch medical complaints board has formally reprimanded a doctor who performed euthanasia on a patient with severe dementia. Diagnosed five years earlier, the 74-year-old woman had issued advance directives explaining that she did not want to...
A step closer to the creation of artificial embryos?
An international team of researchers led by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at Cambridge University claims to be very close to the creation of artificial embryos. Using murine stem cells, the scientists have produced artificial structures resembling embryos, which...
European Court of Justice – GMO legislation to prevail over new gene-editing techniques
On 25 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on the status of new gene-editing techniques in living organisms. It estimated that plants "improved" with the new genetic techniques were not to be exempt from current legislation. Regardless of...