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Spain holds the record in organ donation
According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Transplantation, Spain is the "World Organ Donation Champion" for the 24th consecutive year. In 2015, 4,769 organs were harvested from 1,851 Spanish donors. In terms of population ratio, this...
Amenia ranks third in the world for selective abortions
Much to the regret of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in Armenia, "the number of couples preferring to have a son" and "a smaller family" is very high. Hence, "gender-related selective abortions are particularly common from the second child onwards". Every...
Texas: legal recourse against the obligation to bury the foetus following an abortion
A United States judge has temporarily suspended (up to 6 January) the draft law stipulating that women who have an abortion or miscarriage in hospital are obliged to organised the burial of the foetus, regardless of the stage of pregnancy. The measure would have...
GMO : 40% of scientific studies tend to be biased
According to the French National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), 40% of scientific articles on genetically modified organisms (GMO) tend to be influenced by the biotechnology industries. Consequently, "49% of the conclusions are likely to be in favour of seed...
United Kingdom: woman gives birth at the age of 24 after freezing ovary at 9 years of age
Au Portland Hospital de Londres, au Royaume-Uni, une femme de 24 ans a donné naissance à son premier enfant grâce à l’un de ses ovaires, congelé lorsqu’elle avait neuf ans. Une première, selon l’université de Leeds. Depuis sa naissance, la jeune femme souffre...
American psychiatrists speak out against the Belgian law on euthanasia
The American Association of Psychiatry (AAP) wants to take action against euthanasia laws in Belgium, the Netherlands and "anywhere else where psychiatric patients who are not terminally ill are helped to commit suicide or who are, quite literally, killed by lethal...
United Kingdom: heading towards commercial surrogacy for all?
In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords debated surrogacy last week, urging the Government to reform the current law. The House of Lords considers that the commercial surrogacy ban "has a prejudicial effect on altruistic surrogacy". "Surrogacy is a subject...
Three-parent IVF : What parentage?
The British decision taken on 15 December authorising three-parent IVF procedures is raising numerous questions including the parentage of the unborn children: the law does not change but society's perception is clouded. According to the British Law, anyone who...
Crispr-cas9 : Embryo research still raises questions
In 2012, French woman Emmanuelle Charpentier and American woman Jennifer Doudna discovered the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic modification tool, which has revolutionised gene therapy. The two women received the Gairdner Prize this year. CRIPSR-Cas9 is used to remove and add...
Artificial pancreas on the market in 2018?
An artificial pancreas could arrive on the market as early as 2018. Based on a blood glucose sensor, an insulin pump and an algorithm to calculate the dose of insulin, this pancreas has proved useful in the treatment of diabetes. The latest system advance "was to use...
3-Parent IVF : 20 births planned in Mexico
In Mexico, the New Hope Fertility Clinic is to implement the controversial "three-parent IVF" procedure for twenty "client" couples over the next six months. Thus twenty children of exclusively foreign parentage will be born using this technique in Mexico, in 2017....
An “ethical guide to ai” written by a group of scientists, academics and philosophers
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has commissioned around a hundred scientists, academics and philosophers to compile a guide that deals with "ethical considerations in the design of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems". ...