Merck condemned over “public health catastrophe”
The editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, has condemned pharmaceutical giant Merck and the US Food and Drug Administration for acting out of "ruthless, short-sighted,...
Drug shortages chronic in US
After laboratory contamination brought about a shortage of American flu vaccine at the beginning of the winter, the US public health authority, the Centers for...
Animal rights activists won’t monkey with Chinese research
China is poised to become a centre of primate research with the development of a world class facility. The Kunming Institute of Zoology in southwestern...
Fertility chief to be carpeted over “designer baby” tests
The head of the UK's fertility authority, Suzi Leather, has been issued a "please explain" note by a House of Commons committee after she failed...
Spain approves embryo research
The Spanish government has announced that researchers will be allowed to create embryonic stem cells from IVF embryos, despite bitter opposition. "It is not ethical...
New method of creating embryonic stem cell lines
A Chicago IVF clinic has developed a new method of obtaining embryonic stem cells which some scientists say could bypass ethical objections. Yury Verlinsky, of...
Green light for older mums
The world's leading science journal, Nature, has declared that there is no place for "ageism" in reproductive medicine. In a special issue on human fertility,...
IVF expert backs rabbit-human embryos
Leading reproductive biologist Alan Trounson, of Monash University in Melbourne, says that hybrid rabbit-human embryos could be a useful source of embryonic stem cells to...
UN defers vote on cloning
Once again the United Nations has deferred a vote on an international cloning ban because of an apparently unbridgeable gap between supporters and opponents of...
Flu vaccine rationing raises ethical concerns
Americans are infuriated that a critical shortage of flu vaccine has hit just as they are preparing for the onset of winter. The flu strikes...
Scientists probing “therapeutic forgetting”
Could a tablet swallowed immediately after a terrible experience help you forget it? Scientists are working on drugs which might be able to prevent traumatic...