Click here to read Reproductive Technologies 101, an overview of reproductive technologies

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times! And today, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, I’ll say it again. We need to start studying and better understanding infertility. Once we were able to make life in the lab, we stopped studying and treating infertility. If you were having trouble getting pregnant, off to the IVF doctor you go to start mixing up a baby in the lab.

Two new studies presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) conference in Barcelona had this to say about male infertility.

Obesity in men has a negative effect on sperm volume and quality. Men with a higher BMI showed lower sperm volume and more abnormal sperm.

And another study found that men with Type-1 Diabetes had sperm with “genetic abnormalities in their sperm of sufficient severity to reduce its ability to fertilise an egg.”

Some experts in the UK are saying we should deny expensive fertility treatments to the obese.

This startling birth raises all sorts of ethical questions, particularly whether a 70-year-old should be accepted as a patient by any infertility program. But there is yet another twist to this birth. It comes almost exactly 30 years after a woman named Lesley Brown gave birth, also via C-section, in a hospital near Manchester, England. Brown was the mother of the very first baby created by in vitro fertilization, the very technique used in the Indian septuagenarian birth. (MSNBC)

Private research at U.S. clinics has fueled in-vitro fertilization. (Los Angeles Times)

NHS penny-pinching is behind the dangerously high number of test-tube twins. For safety’s sake we must change the rules. (Times Online)

The influential Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, set up in 2004 to advise the Government, recommended yesterday that frozen eggs become an established procedure in fertility treatment. (Stuff)

Professor Guido De Wert, the chair of the task force, has launched a consultation process with ten European fertility centres. The aim of the ESHRE task force is to assess how advanced the microarray technique is, its potential use for embryo screening and, ultimately, develop a code of practice to regulate its use. (BioNews)

Ruth Deech, former chair of Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, reflects on how the science that gave an infertile couple a baby has been extended to saving lives.

When Louise Brown was born of the first successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978, the reaction was intense and mixed. Some 5,000 couples immediately signed up for the same treatment, while the Catholic Church promptly objected, drawing battle lines that are still evident today.  (Available by Subscription only from Nature)

I read an op/ed column in today’s SF Chronicle by a pundit I don’t know, Tom Teepen, that ranted hysterically about something called the Colorado “Human Life Amendment” that will appear on November’s ballot. From his column:

There will be immediate consequences if the proposition is enacted. The morning-after pill and IUDs for birth control, for instance, would become contraband, but further, the explosion of lawsuits would be atomic.

Could a pregnant woman be charged with child endangerment or child abuse if she is spotted smoking or having a drink? Must she be denied any medical procedure that she might come to need if it could potentially harm the fetus?

Women or girls who have an illegal abortion would be charged with murder and, inasmuch as the act would incontestably have been premeditated, could be executed.

Really? Sounds serious. I had heard vague comments about this proposal but had not given it much thought, so I decided to check what’ going on. Here’s the text of the actual amendment:

Person Defined: As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the terms “person” or “persons” shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.

About this, Teepen claimed:

The question of just when life begins has been a conundrum since deepest antiquity. The folk answer has been at the quickening, when the fetus becomes rambunctious enough to make its presence known.

So Teepen would support personhood protections after quickening? Don’t hold your breath.

Besides, I always find it rich when the side of the political spectrum that claims the mantle of “rational,” fall back on “folk wisdom” to justify their points.

In reality, the Human Life Amendment is misnamed and Teepen has misstated the issue. The question isn’t a question of “when human life begins.” Basic embryology tells us it begins biologically–which is what human life is–when fertilization is completed, indeed, at the zygote stage the new individual has a unique genetic makeup (unless shared with an identical twin or triplet), and his or her gender is wired in.

But personhood is something different. It isn’t a scientific question involving biology. It is a philosophical determination. So, what voters are really being asked to decide is when should a human life be given moral value? Thus, the campaign will force people to contemplate moral issues they would rather shrug off.

This discussion, if it is focused properly, could be important, even if the amendment loses, as it could serve to highlight the danger presented to universal human rights by the Peter Singers of the world who have been pushing personhood restrictions for years–to the point that many in bioethics assert that human non persons include not only all embryos and fetuses, but also infants to about one year of age, people with Alzheimer’s, the Terri Schiavos of the world, etc. The consequence is that these vulnerable human beings are being targeted for killing, organ harvesting, and as experimental lab rats.

So, I think it is good that the people of Colorado will be forced to grapple with this issue. But the discussion shouldn’t be about abortion. The Amendment would not stop abortion so long as it remains a federal constitutional right, and given the S. Court’s decisions re birth control decided before Roe v. Wade, it seems impossible that, despite Teepen’s hysteria, it would inhibit birth control. But it might just get people to say no to the increasing tendency to instrumentalize human life for crass exploitation.

If the media don’t demagogue the issue like Teepen did, it could be an interesting debate.

Within three decades, women of any age - from children to pensioners - could successfully conceive as infertility is effectively eradicated, it is claimed. (Daily Mail)

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:
“The Biopolitics of Bioethics and Disability” by Shelley Tremain, 101-106
“Bioethics and Disability Rights: Conflicting Values and Perspectives” by Ron Amundson and Shari Tresky, 111-123
“‘You Say You’re Happy, but…’: Contested Quality of Life Judgments in Bioethics and Disability Studies” by Sara Goering, 125-135
“At the Margins of Moral Personhood” by Eva Feder Kittay, 137-156
“Criticizing and Reforming Segregated Facilities for Persons with Disabilities” by Adrienne Asch, Jeffrey Blustein and David T. Wasserman, 157-167
“Mind the Gaps: Intersex and (Re-productive) Spaces in Disability Studies and Bioethics” by M. Morgan Holmes, 169-181
“Dis-orienting Paraphilias? Disability, Desire, and the Question of (Bio)Ethics” by Nikki Sullivan, 183-192
“The Individualist Model of Autonomy and the Challenge of Disability” by Anita Ho, 193-207
“Deciding on Death: Conventions and Contestations in the Context of Disability” by Margrit Shildrick, 209-219

ARE men the new endangered species? According to a Melbourne bio-ethicist, they’re way up there with pandas and polar bears. (The Age)

Infants born from embryos which were frozen and then thawed before being implanted into a woman had a higher birth weight and were less likely to suffer abnormalities. (Telegraph)

A code of practice to regulate the use of electronic chips to screen embryos is to be drawn up by the European Fertility Society’s ethics task force. (BBC)

The discovery shows the animals can be used as surrogate sperm producers for men who cannot produce viable sperm of their own. (Times Online)

Just four factors can predict with 70 percent accuracy whether a woman will become pregnant through “test-tube” baby technology known as in vitro fertilization, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Bioethics (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:
“DEADLY PLURALISM? WHY DEATH-CONCEPT, DEATH-DEFINITION, DEATH-CRITERION AND DEATH-TEST PLURALISM SHOULD BE ALLOWED, EVEN THOUGH IT CREATES SOME PROBLEMS” by KRISTIN ZEILER, 12-Jun-2008
“AGAINST THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO WITHDRAW FROM RESEARCH” by ERIC CHWANG, 11-Jun-2008
“ADVANCING AN ADVANCE DIRECTIVE DEBATE” by CHRISTOPHER BUFORD, 11-Jun-2008
“MANAGING INTENTIONS: THE END-OF-LIFE ADMINISTRATION OF ANALGESICS AND SEDATIVES, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SLOW EUTHANASIA” by CHARLES DOUGLAS, IAN KERRIDGE AND RACHEL ANKENY, 11-Jun-2008
“IS POST-MORTEM HARM POSSIBLE? UNDERSTANDING DEATH HARM AND GRIEF” by FLORIS TOMASINI, 28-May-2008
“THE FALLACY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF PROCREATIVE BENEFICENCE” by REBECCA BENNETT, 9-May-2008
“DEAF BY DESIGN: DISABILITY AND IMPARTIALITY” by DAVID SHAW, 8-May-2008
“ENHANCEMENTS, EASY SHORTCUTS, AND THE RICHNESS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES” by MAARTJE SCHERMER, 25-Apr-2008
“WHY WE ARE NOT MORALLY REQUIRED TO SELECT THE BEST CHILDREN: A RESPONSE TO SAVULESCU” by SARAH E. STOLLER, 25-Apr-2008
“MEDICAL CONFIDENTIALITY: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS IN GREECE” by STAVROULA A. PAPADODIMA, CHARA A. SPILIOPOULOU ANDEMMANOUIL I. SAKELLIADIS, 25-Apr-2008
“THE MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AND THE FAMILY: THE CASE OF BREAST CANCER PATIENTS AND THEIR HUSBANDS” by ROY GILBAR AND ORA GILBAR, 11-Apr-2008
“BEYOND ABORTION: THE LOOMING BATTLE OVER DEATH IN THE ‘CULTURE WARS’” by JAMES EVANS, 11-Apr-2008
“REASSESSING INSURERS’ ACCESS TO GENETIC INFORMATION: GENETIC PRIVACY, IGNORANCE, AND INJUSTICE” by ELI FEIRING, 11-Apr-2008
“ADMINISTRATIVE GATEKEEPING – A THIRD WAY BETWEEN UNRESTRICTED PATIENT ADVOCACY AND BEDSIDE RATIONING” by SIGURD LAURIDSEN, 11-Apr-2008
“CLARIFYING APPEALS TO DIGNITY IN MEDICAL ETHICS FROM AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” by RIEKE VAN DER GRAAF AND JOHANNES JM VAN DELDEN, 4-Mar-2008
“HUMAN NATURE AND ENHANCEMENT” by ALLEN BUCHANAN, 4-Mar-2008
“OUTLINING ETHICAL ISSUES IN NANOTECHNOLOGIES” by ANTONIO G. SPAGNOLO AND VIVIANA DALOISO, 23-Jan-2008

A London doctor used genetic screening to help a woman conceive Britain’s first baby guaranteed to be free of hereditary breast cancer. (ABC News)

Sociology of Health & Illness (OnlineEarly) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:
“New reproductive technologies, genetic counselling and the standing of the fetus: views from Germany and Israel” by Yael Hashiloni-Dolev and Noga Weiner, 19-Jun-2008
“Men, masculine identities, and health care utilisation” by Jack H. Noone and Christine Stephens, 18-Jun-2008
“Approaches to methadone treatment: harm reduction in theory and practice” by Margaretha Järvinen, 18-Jun-2008
“Towards a sociology of disease” by Stefan Timmermans and Steven Haas, 18-Jun-2008
“Waking up to sleepiness: Modafinil, the media and the pharmaceuticalisation of everyday/night life” by Simon J. Williams, Clive Seale, Sharon Boden, Pam Lowe and Deborah Lynn Steinberg, 28-Apr-2008
“The embryo as moral work object: PGD/IVF staff views and experiences” by Kathryn Ehrich, Clare Williams and Bobbie Farsides, 28-Apr-2008
“Biomedicine, holism and general medical practice: responses to the 2004 General Practitioner contract” by Kath Checkland, Stephen Harrison, Ruth McDonald, Suzanne Grant, Stephen Campbell and Bruce Guthrie, 28-Apr-2008

Fertility experts have called for a dramatic cut in the number of twins born after IVF treatment.

IVF clinics in the UK will be expected to reduce the number of multiple births from a national average of one in four to 10% over the next three years. (BBC)

The government is thinking of enacting a law to regulate surrogacy in a bid to make the deal struck between the prospective parents and the woman lending her womb legally binding on both sides. (The Telegraph)