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Iran: the legal sale of kidneys – “exploitation of the most vulnerable”
In Iran, the only country in the world to take this approach, a law has been passed to legalise the sale of kidneys. Since 1993, "30,000 kidney transplants" have been carried out by Iranian doctors. This is a "golden opportunity" for a country where "until recently,...
CRISPR: initial clinical trial in humans postponed until 2018
The American company, Editas[1], which "specialises in the development of genome editing therapy" must "demonstrate that its molecular scissors [CRISPR Cas9] are adequately developed in order to launch clinical trials in humans[2]". At the end of 2015, the company...
Zika: Efficacy of antenatal diagnosis and abortion
Published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, a study led by Professor Mehdi Mejdoubi presents the follow-up results recorded in 103 new-born infants born "to women infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy and in whom antenatal ultrasound scans...
United States: market launch of second gene therapy
On 18 October, the American Food and Drug Agency (FDA) authorised the market launch of gene therapy, Yescarta, to treat adults suffering from an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - a tumour that attacks the lymphatic system. Almost 3,500 individuals could be...
In Belgium, sperm donor anonymity crumbles
In Belgium, "the law states that sperm donations should be voluntary and anonymous". However, the "Donor Detectives" Foundation [2] has announced that two Belgians born through "insemination by an anonymous donor" discovered that they were half-brother and sister...
MAP is “a selfish act” that prevents a child from knowing “where he/she comes from”
For Elina Dumont, social worker and ward of the state, interviewed on RMC (Radio Monte Carlo), MAP (medically assisted pregnancy) is "a selfish act" because it denies a child the opportunity to find out "where he/she comes from". The question is...
At the UN – a new partial definition of the “right to life”
At the UN, the Human Rights' Committee "is currently revising the definition of ‘right to life’ in international law". According to the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), using this approach and "with the utmost discretion", an "active...
Expanded stem cells, progress?
These past months, two publications have shared a discovery in the field of stem cells: the possibility to extract and conserve, in an undifferentiated state, embryonic totipotent stem cells, while the ones currently used in research are pluripotent. The first study,...
Belgium: he killed his wife “out of compassion” – will he be sentenced?
In the Belgian city of Liège, a 73 year-old man is facing criminal proceedings "having fatally poisoned his wife". According to him, "he was only following his wife's wishes to undergo euthanasia as she was suffering from diffuse generalised osteoarthritis". His wife...
United Kingdom: child born through IVF without the father’s consent
In the United Kingdom, a couple divorced in 2010 following the birth of their first child by IVF in 2008. A few months later, the woman asked the clinic to implant one of the embryos frozen before the separation [1]. A second child has since been born through this IVF...
Mandatory contraception cover by employers: the Trump administration makes a stand
On Friday, President Trump's administration overturned in the name of "religious and moral beliefs", "a provision of the ‘Obamacare’ law which obliged employers to include contraception in health insurance cover for their employees". Although religious...
Surrogacy: “you cannot replace the suffering of an adult with the suffering of a child”
Un cri secret d’enfant [1]. In a poignant book, Anne Schaub denounces the serious consequences surrogacy may have on the behaviour and identity building of a person. Having observed and been a witness of very early relationships between children and parents for...