Low-cost, do-it-yourself baby gender test on sale
Pregnant women can find out the sex of their baby almost as soon as they realise they are pregnant with a new, non-invasive test which...
Stem cell opponents cautiously back an alternative
The chief opponents of embryonic stem cell research in the US, Republicans and the Catholic Church, are beginning to back alternative techniques of creating the...
Two inquiries begin in Australia
Two separate inquiries by the Australian Federal Government concerning human embryos have begun this month. In the first, six experts are meeting to study whether...
Human genome mapper sets out to create life
The scientist whose company first mapped the human genome has formed a company to create life. "We are in an era of rapid advances in...
IN BRIEF: whoppers; IVF lawsuit; donor drive
A Milwaukee woman has delivered her third child three weeks early -- but she still weighed 13 pounds, 12 ounces (5.8 kg). The other two...
US doctors cooperating in detainee interrogation, says NEJM
US Army doctors are lending unethical cooperation in the interrogation of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine...
Schiavo feud smoulders on
Even Terri Schiavo's burial plot is marked by controversy. Her ashes have been buried in a Florida cemetery under a grave marker designed by her...
Dangerous theory or ‘armless joke?
Perhaps this is merely an academic curio without real world consequences -- but here goes. Two Australian philosophers have argued in an international journal that...
Are chimeras the way ahead?
Blending humans with animals is not the sort of ethical issue that most people deal with from day-to-day. But it is becoming increasingly important in...
Adult stem cells begin clinical trials
The Boston Globe has profiled the financial and therapeutic potential of adult stem cell treatments being developed by Osiris Therapeutics, a company in Baltimore. Osiris...
Adult stem cells learn multiplication
One of the criticisms levelled at adult stem cells is that they cannot multiply in the laboratory nearly as well as embryonic stem cells. But...
IVF developments featured in Copenhagen conference
The annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology took place in Copenhagen this year, drawing thousands of experts on fertility and...