‘Fetal DNA tests: Are we finally entering an era of eugenics?’ This was the question raised by Nancy Fliesler on the Vector blog last January. As an Ashkenazi Jew planning to have a baby, Fliesler sought prenatal screening for Tay-Sachs disease, an incurable and lethal […]
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New pre-natal screening test makes eliminating all people with genetic disease an achievable reality
Japanese stem cell sperm study opens Pandora’s box of unethical possibilities
Fertility experts are hailing a mouse study in which working sperm cells were created from stem cells as ‘hugely exciting’. A Kyoto University team were able to turn stem cells into early sperm cells called primordial germ cells (PGCs). When these were transplanted into infertile […]
Scientists make nerve cells directly from human skin bypassing stem cells altogether
Researchers have come up with a recipe for making functional neurons directly from human skin cells, including those taken from patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The new method may offer a critical short cut for generating neurons for replacement therapies of the future, according to research […]
Three exciting news stories about ethical stem cell treatments this month
Three exciting news stories about stem cell therapies – none of which involves the destruction of human embryos – have been announced this month. Stem cells have great promise in providing treatments for degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, diabetes and various forms of cancer. However, the […]
Animal-human hybrid embryos – now the government doesn’t even know how many there are
A fascinating article by Philippa Taylor on the official CMF Blog highlights an apparently straightforward question to government last week (20 July) which has exposed ‘a murky mix of confusion and secrecy from which the true facts and figures are difficult to extract’. Lord Alton […]