Search
New restrictions on Essure sterilisation device in the United States, but no recall
On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) imposed new restrictions on the permanent contraceptive implant following reports of painful complications from thousands of women. Nevertheless, the metal implant made by Bayer is still on the market. From...
Baby boy born in China through surrogacy four years after the death of his parents
Shen Jie and Liu Xi died in a road traffic accident on 20 March 2013, just five days before they were scheduled to transplant fertilized embryos, as part of medically assisted reproductive treatment. Neither had any siblings. Their four parents had lost their entire...
Malta: embryos frozen for medically assisted reproduction will be offered for adoption
The Maltese government is in the process of reviewing legislation regulating in-vitro fertilisation. The new law should allow freezing of embryos "provided that future parents agree to donate unused embryos for adoption". They will be granted a "permit" that can be...
Vincent Lambert: Viviane Lambert appeals to the President of France
Shocked to see her son "condemned to death" for the fourth time, Vincent Lambert's mother has issued a heartfelt plea to Emmanuel Macron: "My son did not deserve to be left without food and water. How can this be viewed as ‘dying with dignity’? ". Mrs...
Alfie: judge approves end-of-life plan against parents’ wishes
Alfie: judge approves end-of-life plan against parents' wishes The English High Court of Justice has approved an end-of-life care plan for Alfie[1]. The 23-month-old boy is in a "semi-vegetative" state and suffering from a neuro-degenerative disease. Last Wednesday,...
2017 assisted suicide rate up by 32.5% in French-speaking Switzerland
Despite a survey which shows that 82% of Swiss nationals think about their end of life at some point or other, and 94% acknowledge "the relevance of palliative care" (see Four out of five Swiss people support palliative care), the association Exit [1] has published...
Higher risk of cardiovascular disease in children born through medically assisted reproduction?
Early studies on children born through assisted reproduction have shown that these children are more at-risk of cardiovascular issues, prematurity (twice as high as in natural pregnancy) and lower birth weight. These results are important because premature or smaller...
For Jacques Testart, transhumanism is a new form of eugenics
“Modernity has popularized the right to a child and is now engendering the right to a child of a certain quality.” Jacques Testart, the author of a new book entitled Au péril de l'humain, condemns transhumanism – which “aims to improve the human species through...
Stopping medical abortion with progesterone is effective and safe for the child
Between 2012 and 2016, a study was conducted in the United States on women who had changed their minds about having an abortion after taking mifepristone (RU-486), and before taking misoprostol, which is administered 24 to 48 hours later under FDA regulations[1]....
Belgium – cryopreservation reimbursed and extended to new patients
The freezing of eggs and sperm (cryopreservation) has been fully reimbursed since last year for cancer patients who undergo heavy treatment likely to affect their fertility. Public Health Minister, Maggie De Block, has just announced that this technique will be...
Could surrogate mothers be paid in Canada?
In Canada, it is illegal to pay a surrogate mother or to purchase human gametes, be it sperm or eggs. This ban is enshrined in the 2004 law on medically assisted procreation. The law stems from a Royal Commission think-tank on new reproduction techniques, which were...
Organ donation is not part of Chinese culture
"A deceased person's body should remain intact" according to "Chinese traditions and culture". This state of mind makes organ donation virtually impossible in China. For the same reasons, medical students "find it very difficult to find corpses for their anatomy...