TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE: GENE SEQUENCING AND BIOTERROR
Learning how to cure diseases also means learning how to spread them, warns an expert in biological terror and crime in the San Francisco Chronicle....
PATENTS SLOWING EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH
Federal legislation is not the only barrier to the development of embryonic stem cell research in the United States -- there are also patents held...
IVF SCIENTISTS SPLIT OVER DRUG USE
The fertility industry is usually treated as a monolithic industry pushing basically the same techniques and the same product, with some adventurous clinicians specialising in...
DEBATE: WHO OWNS GENETIC INFO?
Should families own genetic information? Should patients pass on potentially important information to relatives? Should doctors withhold genetic information which could be useful in giving...
VALUE OF EMBRYO SCREENING QUESTIONED
A lucrative product in reproductive medicine is embryo screening, especially for women over 35. A single cell is removed from an embryo and checked for...
SUICIDE DOCTOR CONVICTED IN SWITZERLAND
Switzerland has acquired a reputation for "suicide tourism", as it allows foreigners to take advantage of its liberal laws on assisted suicide. Every year about...
ANOTHER TWIST IN THE IVF FAMILY TREE
The permutations of family relationships created by IVF seem endless. The latest twist comes with a Montreal woman's decision to freeze 21 of her eggs...
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PATIENTS
American patients want their doctor to shake their hand as a sign of respect and trust. According to a survey in the Archives of Internal...
NETHERLANDS GETS TOUGH ON ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
Doctors. Death. Netherlands. Normally these words in the world press mean a story about euthanasia. This time, however, the news relates to shonky alternative therapies....
STEM CELL RESEARCH “BOOSTS” TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN’S EGGS
Therapeutic cloning will put vulnerable women in poorly regulated countries at risk of medical and financial exploitation, says an Australian sociologist. Assoc Professor Catherine Waldby,...
IN BRIEF: euthanasia; Chinese death sentence
Infant euthanasia in UK: Britain's General Medical Council is inquiring whether a doctor acted properly in treating a desperately ill premature baby with a dose...