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(wz) Selecting the sex of babies goes back to the Greek Empire and will get cheaper, easier and harder to regulate against, international scientist Professor Lord Robert Winston says.
The world-renowned human reproduction expert and BBC documentary star spoke to the Herald on Sunday, before receiving an honorary doctor of science from the University of Auckland last night.
Jenny Gibbs, 25 years on the university’s council and twice pro-chancellor, received an honorary doctor of literature at the same ceremony.
Professor Winston, who frequently addresses Britain’s House of Lords - of which he is a member - on education, science, medicine and the arts, told the Herald the current debate in New Zealand on legalising sex selection in IVF babies was being over-hyped.
The Bioethics Council last week advised the Government there were insufficient cultural, ethical and spiritual reasons to prohibit the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for sex selection for social reasons, such as family balancing - providing the PGD was done at the parents’ cost. more…

From: »The New Zealand Herald«

(cz) A national strategy has been launched today to reduce the number of multiple pregnancies in the UK.
The issue is being targeted as multiple pregnancies are the single biggest health risk of fertility treatment.
Over the next three years the strategy will aim to reduce the rate of multiple births from the national average of 24 per cent of all IVF births to ten per cent over three years.
From January 2009 all fertility clinics will be expected not to exceed the 24 per cent maximum.
Guidance is due to be published in the next few weeks advising professionals on best practice and a website - oneatatime.org.uk - has been set up with information for patients and professionals.
“For many people who have gone through the emotional rollercoaster of fertility treatment, the prospect of having an instant family with twins is very appealing,” said Jane Denton, director of the Multiple Birth Foundation. more…

From: »www.InTheNews.co.uk«

(sz) IVF clinics are denying treatment to smokers in the latest indication of creeping barriers to childless couples seeking help, it has emerged.
A Department of Health survey seen by Labour MP Sally Keeble last week reveals that clinics are increasingly telling mothers that they must quit cigarettes before they are considered for free treatment.
It comes amid growing concern that IVF is being restricted, with some infertile couples only receiving one cycle of treatment under the NHS, against official guidance.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said that clinics should offer three cycles of treatment, but four years after making the recommendation, only a third of health trusts provide more than one cycle.
News that women - and on occasions their partners - have been told to quit smoking before given treatment is likely to reignite the debate over the line between advice and restrictions in the area of IVF. more…

From: »The Press Association«

(sz) Director, Reproductive Medicine Associates, Troy, Michigan, USA, Dr Tariq Ahmad Shah, underlined the need to set up an In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) centre in Kashmir so that childless couples are evaluated and causes established at proper time. Dr Shah was speaking at the symposium, “Infertility Update-2008”, organised by the department of Urology and Endocrinology, Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura here today. “It is an irony the state is without an IVF centre,” Dr Shah said. “Government should take immediate measures to set up IVF centres to save people from undertaking arduous journeys outside the state.”
Current estimates, based on the study conducted by the department of Endocrinology, SKIMS, suggest that around 15.7% of women in Kashmir who are currently of childbearing age will never have a child, if they do not seek clinical intervention.
Dr Shah while guiding along the path of achieving a pregnancy, took the audience step-by-step through the causes, investigations and infertility treatment options, as well as assisted reproductive technologies, such as the IVF, their success rates and ethical aspects involved. “Unfortunately, infertility is not regarded as a disease here, hence the delay in consulting a clinician and hence the treatment,” he said. “With the advent and advancement of technology available at present, the success rate to ward off childlessness is almost 50 to 60 per cent.”
He stressed the need to involve the print and electronic media, civil societies and religious scholars to spread awareness and do away with the misconceptions regarding the techniques available today. “It is important to involve religious scholars in order to adopt a more rational approach towards the problem of infertility,” he said.
“The critics of IVF are bound, of course, to draw attention to the fact of infertility. But it seems that, often, they fail to convey the scale of despair and courage shown by those who it most cruelly affects. There’s no bigger happiness in the life of a married couple to have a child, after all.”
Director SKIMS, Dr Hamid Zargar, a reputed endocrinologist, elaborately dealt with the infertility issue in his presentation. He said: “The magnitude of infertility, its psychological and economic impact on its sufferers is awesome.” more…

From: »Greater Kashmir«

(wz) Anglo Arab Organisation, Royal Society of Medicine continue to host lecture program of senior Arab scientists in Britain.
The “In Vitro Fertilisation” lecture, hosted by the Anglo Arab Organisation (AAO) and the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) in London, turned into a platform for dialogue on how monotheistic religions and different cultures view this controversial issue.
The renowned Egyptian-born fertility specialist Dr. Mohammed Taranissi, gave a brief on the history of “test-tube children” and the evolution in this scientific endeavor to a large audience.
Taranissi highlighted the controversial issues in this type of scientific research and what could be determined by ethical values in every society.
Critical questions were asked by Arab and Western specialists as well as members of the curious audience who are still exploring the aspects of generating artificial embryos, using some of them and destroying others.
Taranissi gave his point of view on the subject from the scientific perspective, pointing out that the generation of embryos and its damage occur naturally, adding “the work of doctors and scientists proves what is already happening.” more...

From: »MiddleEastOnline«

(wz) United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has turned down a draft national law on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) expressing concern over a clause he found discriminatory.
Sheikh Khalifa condemned as discriminatory a clause in the draft law, which called for the appointment of at least one Muslim IVF specialist among the staff of every IVF centre across the country, the Gulf News reported.
“The clause not only contradicts international conventions which prohibits all forms of discrimination but also contravenes Article 25 of the UAE Constitution which states that all persons are equal before the law, without distinction between citizens of the union in regard to race, nationality, religious belief or social status,” the report quoted the president as saying in a statement to the Federal National Council (FNC). Under IVF, egg cells are fertilized with sperm outside the woman’s womb.
The process involves hormonally controlling the ovulatory process, removing ova or eggs from the woman’s ovaries and letting sperm fertilize them in a fluid medium. The fertilized egg is then transferred to the patient’s uterus with the intent to establish a successful pregnancy.
In his statement to the FNC, Sheikh Khalifa also said that matters pertaining to the appointment of medical, technical and administrative staff of the IVF centres should be addressed by the executive statute of the law. more…

From: »mangalorean.com«

(sz) Do not expect a speedy Government decision about whether parents of children conceived by invitro fertilisation should have the right to choose the sex of their babies, was the message from two University of Otago academics yesterday [June, 19th – ed.].
They were commenting on the Bioethics Council report Who Gets Born? released this week which will recommend to the Government that there is insufficient reason to ban the use of sex selection for social reasons such as balancing the sexes in a family.
Human Genome Research Project director Prof Mark Henaghan said IVF babies accounted for only about 3% of births and not all parents would want to choose the sex of their babies.
It appeared there was no clear evidence of the choice doing any harm.
People who saw the recommendation as part of a slippery slope should be mindful such a slope did not have to be “whistled” down.
It could be taken in cautious steps, with negotiation and debate along the way.
The good thing about the issue being raised was that it would be debated around the tea table and people would become more comfortable with the idea.
Biomedical ethics Professor Grant Gillett said he could not see the sex selection issue being accepted as policy. more…

From: »Otago Daily Times« (New Zealand)

(wz) As humans become more dependent on reproductive technologies, an Australian reproductive biologist say we must remain vigilant to avoid the spread of genetic or epigenetic defects.
The warning comes in an editorial by Professor John Aitken, of the University of Newcastle, in the current issue of Expert Review of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“People shouldn’t be too confident that just because the baby looks normal there is no damage there that won’t appear later in life,” he says.
“People underestimate how much genetic damage they’re passing onto the embryos.”
Aitken says 1 in every 35 babies born in Australia are a result of IVF.
“In some countries it’s more like 1 in 20 and there are models that predict it will be 1 in 10 before too long,” he says.
Aitken says because IVF allows infertile men to reproduce, the more we use it the more it will be needed in the future.
“So we better make sure it’s safe because a large proportion of the population will be generated in this way,” he says. more…

From: »ABC Science« (Australia)

(cz) An IVF treatment designed to increase the chances of older women giving birth could have the opposite effect, experts have warned.
The British Fertility Society (BFS), which represents fertility clinics, recommends that the procedure should no longer be offered outside clinical trials.
New guidelines from the BFS cast doubt on the effectiveness of pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS), used to test embryos for abnormal numbers of chromosomes before they are implanted in the womb.
The procedure is used to identify which embryos might be most likely to come to term in women aged over 35 undergoing in-vitro fertilisation, and those who have suffered repeated IVF failures or recurrent miscarriages.
The guidelines issued today (THU) said there was no evidence to support these claims and in some cases the procedure could actually reduce the chances of pregnancy.
They call for further research and advised clinics only to offer the service to patients within “robustly designed” clinical trials.
Fewer than 200 women in Britain undergo the procedure every year.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which licences IVF treatment, currently recognises PGS as a bona fide treatment. more…

From: »The Daily Telegraph«

(cz) Women who want to postpone motherhood to establish a career or find the right partner have been given new hope by research that shows the safety of an advanced egg-freezing technique.
The most exhaustive study yet of children born after the freezing procedure found that they appeared to be as healthy as those conceived normally or by IVF, paving the way for its widespread use.
The results are likely to embolden thousands of women in their twenties and thirties who are considering whether to place eggs on ice to improve their chances of starting a family when they are older.
Specialists said that the research, into a method known as vitrification, promises to lift the main barrier to routine egg freezing. While dozens of British women have already done this to preserve their fertility, medical groups had advised against it outside clinical trials because of limited evidence of its safety.
The study, led by Ri-Cheng Chian, of McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, assessed the outcomes of 200 children born from vitrified eggs. It found that the rate of birth defects was 2.5 per cent, which is comparable to natural pregnancies and IVF. more…

From: »The Times«