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(sz) British couples could soon be able to have babies created using DNA from two women and a man as part of a revolutionary human cloning technique.
Controversial legislation due to be debated by politicians this week sets out ways to allow test-tube babies to be created from the biological material from three parents.
The laws would allow an embryo to be created from the nucleus of one woman’s egg, her partner’s sperm and another woman’s mitochondria, the material surrounding an egg’s nucleus and which promotes cell growth.
The Independent on Sunday said if the controversial legislation was approved, babies created using the cloning technique could be born within the next decade.
But many politicians and church leaders were expected to oppose the new laws, arguing they effectively pave the way for the first human clones and remove the need for a father in the upbringing of a child.
But scientists claim the new procedure was designed to help find a cure for mitochondrial disease, which can lead to epilepsy, diabetes and fatal damage to various organs.
Researchers at the North of England Stem Cell Research Centre in Newcastle said trials to create babies using the new technique could begin within five years. more…

From: »The Sydney Mornung Herald«

(sz) The operations of a Government-appointed task force that was expected to collect views on making test-tube babies technology more accessible and affordable to Kenya’s childless couples have stalled.
It has emerged that efforts by the team on Regulatory Framework for Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) to complete the study were hampered by lack of funds. The development dashes hopes of thousands of infertile couples who were waiting for the findings.
The in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) technology is widely used in the developed world and involves the fertilisation of an ovum in a laboratory and the transplanting of the resulting embryo into the womb.
The team led by Dr Reuben Kamau - appointed by former Health Minister Charity Ngilu in April - started collecting public views in August. It was expected to submit its findings by end of that month.
But according to Samson Wanjala, a University of Nairobi lecturer and a member of the team, the committee could not finish collecting views in all provinces due to financial constraints. more…

From: »AllAfrica.com«

(wz) As Couples Rush to Embrace Genetic Screening, Egg Freezing, Other High-Tech Treatments, Debate Grows Over Their Value
As medical science continues to churn out ever-more-sophisticated methods to treat infertility — from egg freezing to genetic screening of embryos — desperate would-be parents rush to embrace the latest techniques. But some fertility experts worry that procedures of limited benefit are unfairly raising patients’ hopes.
Just last month, a new embryo-screening technique created immediate buzz when it was announced at a meeting of fertility experts. A parent group hailed it as a “breakthrough” that may improve women’s chances of having a baby through in-vitro fertilization. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which hosted the meeting, awarded the technique a prize for outstanding research.
But that same day, a related group of experts issued a warning. A committee of the ASRM, together with the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, released a statement urging caution about certain kinds of genetic embryo screening, due to insufficient scientific evidence about the usefulness. A similar concern was noted about egg freezing — or oocyte cryopreservation — for healthy woman who want to preserve their eggs for use later in life. The statement called the technique “experimental.” more…

From: »The Wall Street Journal«

(sz) Obese women should be refused fertility treatment until they lose weight, IVF say experts.
Whether they are seeking treatment on the NHS or privately, professionals are being urged to deny treatment to women with a Body Mass Index of more than 35.
Where possible, the British Fertility Society says IVF should be offered only when her BMI has dropped below 30 - a figure based on both height and weight.
One obesity expert branded the new guidelines “discriminatory”.
But the British Fertility Society said its new advice was based on what was best for both the mother and her baby.
“Obesity reduces the chances that a woman will conceive naturally and decreases the possibility that fertility treatment will be successful,” said Mr Tony Rutherford, the chair of the BFS’s policy committee. more…

From: »BBC News«

(cz) According to a nationwide survey of 350 women conducted on the American Fertility Association (AFA) Web site, few women undergoing an Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatment for infertility, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), realize that as they approach the finish line comes another treatment — progesterone supplementation. This extra boost of progesterone, which supports embryo implantation and early pregnancy, is extremely important for a successful pregnancy. The survey, Progesterone Therapy: The Patient Perspective, was supported by an educational grant from Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
“Progesterone supplementation is a rigorous process that women in ART treatments must undergo for up to 10 weeks to improve their chances of pregnancy,” said Pamela Madsen, AFA Executive Director. “One clear and disturbing conclusion from the survey is that there should be far more dialog between patients and their doctor about this critical aspect of treatment and the various therapy choices.” more…

From: »EARTHtimes« (Press release)

(wz) Parents of sick children in Britain will be allowed to use IVF to create “spare-part babies” under controversial laws published yesterday.
The legislation will dramatically relax rules on IVF clinics creating “saviour siblings” who can help cure their older brothers and sisters of medical conditions such as leukemia.
Experts said that one day they could create a “designer baby” with kidneys perfectly compatible with a sibling suffering renal failure.
More immediately, saviour siblings could give umbilical cord blood or bone marrow to family members in the hope of treating conditions such as sickle cell anaemia.
The Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will be debated in British Parliament and is expected to become law in 2009. more…

From: »Herald Sun« (Australia)

(sz) A high profile IVF doctor has reached agreement with the fertility watchdog over its contribution to a programme which alleged he offered “unnecessary and unproven” treatments.
The claims were made against Mohamed Taranissi during a BBC Panorama special called “IVF Undercover” which also featured an interview with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) chief executive Angela McNab.
In a High Court statement, the HFEA said Mr Taranissi had done nothing wrong in offering the reproductive immunology treatments and that comments made on the programme were “not intended to suggest otherwise”.
The watchdog also confirmed Mr Taranissi’s Assisted Reproduction & Gynaecology Centre (ARGC) had the highest success rate of any clinic in the UK.
The IVF specialist issued a complaint against the HFEA earlier this year, claiming that it had libelled him in both the Panorama interview on January 15 and during a press conference on the same day.
Proceedings have also been launched against the BBC in relation to allegations that Mr Taranissi says were inaccurate. more…

From: »The Press Association«

(sz) Prospective parents pay thousands for right genes
Caitlin Karolczak sees it as a classic case of supply and demand. After all, one of her eggs goes to waste every month, so she might as well share it with a woman who can use it. She thinks the $8,000 she can get is a reasonable price for helping someone create a life. “If you give something away, they won’t cherish it,” she said.
Much has changed since the first test tube baby was conceived in a laboratory petri dish in 1978. Today, Karolczak, a 24-year-old Minneapolis artist and antique dealer, is a bit player in a $3 billion business, which is thriving on the Internet and being transformed by advances in medical technology and new competition among clinics promising miracles to couples often desperate to have a child.
But as it flourishes, some are warning that the freewheeling marketplace is turning the creation of human life into a commercial enterprise that cries out for consumer protection. And nowhere is this more evident than in the exploding market for human eggs, where there are few laws protecting the rights and health of donors and parents.
Though women like Karolczak are called egg donors, most are well paid. Couples in parts of the country offer fees as high as $20,000 or more for the eggs of educated, attractive young women. more…

From: »Monterey County Herald«

(cz) For most people, making a baby involves the right mate, the right mood and the right medley of hormones. For Heidi and Justin Dierking, it also required the right insurance.
Married for three years, the Dierkings of St. Paul have been trying to get pregnant. Several months ago, they began considering in-vitro fertilization. With IVF, as it’s called, doctors coax egg and sperm together in a petri dish and implant the resulting embryo. It works about half of the time.
For the Dierkings, the stumbling block was price: IVF costs about $10,000 and their insurance didn’t cover it. They talked about using credit cards, or taking out a home equity loan.
But Justin Dierking’s employer had just been bought by a rival company. After his wife bugged him for weeks, he called to ask about benefit changes. He found out they now had a $20,000 maximum for infertility treatment. “He was on the phone, I was in the kitchen, and I said: ‘What?!” recalled Heidi Dierking. “$20,000?!” Suddenly, a baby was possible.
The Dierkings are one of thousands of infertile couples learning that the serendipity of their insurance coverage is the main factor making it possible to have a child. more…

From: »Minneapolis StarTribune«

(sz) Fertility expert Orly Lacham-Kaplan knows all about the pros and cons of IVF … as both doctor and patient. She spoke with Katherine Kizilos.
ONE of the ironies of Dr Orly Lacham-Kaplan’s career is that she left medical school after three months to do a science degree instead. She found medicine too emotionally confronting and thought that pure science would be less stressful. The irony is that her interest in reproductive biology placed her at the forefront of IVF research and now, stem-cell technology. Medical ethics, scientific ambition, politics, suffering and human desire - life in the lab has not protected her from any of it.
Lacham-Kaplan is a senior research fellow at the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories where she is attempting to grow human eggs and sperm from stem cells (of which more later). But she was a Masters student at the University of Tel-Aviv and working in an IVF clinic when she first met Alan Trounson, the pioneering Australian scientist who changed her life.
Her work in Australia led her husband Yehuda Kaplan, a journalist and translator, to nominate her for a BrainLink award, celebrating women of achievement. She describes him as her greatest supporter.
Lacham-Kaplan met Alan Trounson in 1985 when he visited Israel to give a series of lectures “about developing new technologies to force fertilisation for men who cannot actually reproduce”. The technique, known as micro-injection, was then in the very early stages of development, she recalls. The Australians were looking for a research assistant; she was offered the position.
But the planned year in Melbourne stretched to 20. She helped develop sperm micro-injection, working with Trounson, Carl Wood and the man who is now Victoria’s Governor, David de Kretser. She met her husband and agreed to work on a PhD on male infertility under Trounson’s supervision (also honouring an agreement to train Israeli scientists in the technology).
“I modified and established the micro-manipulation technologies even more, developing the sperm injections so it is a direct injection of a single sperm into the egg,” she says. “Work in the clinic involved clinicians treating men who could not produce normal sperm. I waited for the doctors to aspirate sperm from the testes and I was sitting there trying to collect the one or two or three (active) sperm that I could find. And (I would) insert them into the eggs for fertilisation. It was nearly 15, 17 hours a day of work.” more…

From: »The Age«