BioBites

Bioethical news articles for October 31st:

Pensioners’ Calls for Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Debate: “A PENSIONERS’ lobby group in York has called for a ‘full and frank debate’ on issues around euthanasia and assisted suicide, as a controversial campaigner prepares to come to the city. As reported in The Press on Friday, Australian Dr Philip Nitschke is to hold a seminar in the city centre next month, including advice for elderly or terminally ill people who want to commit suicide. The news drew criticism from York vicar Father Tim Jones as well as Age Concern York’s Sally Hutchinson, but was welcomed by Joyce Pickard of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and defended by York Council for Voluntary Service, which will host the event at the Priory Street Centre.”

Australian Gay Couple Hit Family Jackpot: “AN Australian gay couple have told of their joy at becoming parents to two sets of male twins. The couple, known only as Tony and Brett, revealed their unconventional family to the nation last night after bringing the babies home from India. The couple told the Nine Network they started the surrogacy process in 2009, flying to Delhi to meet a fertility doctor. After a number of failed attempts, doctors recommended two women be implanted with four eggs from donors and fertilised with the men’s sperm, they told A Current Affair. The dads said they were shocked when, weeks later, tests revealed both women were pregnant with twins. They were told there was only a 10 per cent chance of twins – and the chance of two sets was even smaller.”

Suicide Machine Doesn’t Grab Attention At Auction: “According to UPI.com, a machine used by Dr. Jack Kevorkian in assisted suicides, which failed to meet the minimum $60,000 quota bid at an auction in New York, was withdrawn from the auction, Friday. The largest bid for the Thanatron, a name coined from the Greek word for death, was $50,000, Detroit Newsreported. Before the auction, experts had said the machine might go for as much as $200,000.”

Bringing Back the Dead: “Is cloning a viable technique for saving species from extinction, and what are the ethical and ecological implications of bringing animals back from the dead? FOR JUST SEVEN SHORT but exciting minutes in early 2009, something magical happened. After many years of hard toil and many failed attempts, scientists in Spain were able to briefly bring an extinct creature back to life – not using time travel, but cloning. It was an idea first aired to cinema audiences in the film Jurassic Park in 1993, but this was the first time that bringing an extinct animal back to life had ever approached reality.”

You’re on Your Own on IVF: “THIS will seem callous, but wrapping any conversation about children up in cuddly pink, fleece-lined jumpsuits doesn’t help what has to be a serious policy debate. There is no “right” to have a child. While it must be devastating for couples who, for whatever reason, are unable to conceive, there are limits to society’s obligations to help them. Like most controversial health decisions, this is a tale of clashing rights and finite resources. Last year the Federal Government made changes to the Medicare safety net, effectively capping the amount it would pay out for assisted reproductive treatments (ARTs). The safety net kicks in once people have spent a certain amount (depending on their circumstances) on medical care in a year and means thereafter taxpayers pay almost 80c in the dollar for expensive treatments. The Government says when it came to ARTs this reimbursement had only allowed specialists to charge excessive fees, and was not benefiting patients. A recent Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation report from the University of Technology Sydney found it was mostly wealthier people benefiting from the safety net. Once the Government put limits on the safety net, some people could no longer afford as many cycles as they needed to conceive and have a child.”

You're on Your Own on IVF

Marissa Jaret Winokur Trying for Baby Number Two via Surrogate: “Marissa Jaret Winokur has been trying to conceive another child but she’s ‘still not pregnant.’ The Hairspray actress describes her “different feeling” trying to get pregnant with a surrogate the second time around. She and husband Judah Miller have been ‘trying for a year,’ she said in an interview withCelebrity Baby Scoop. ’We keep trying! We’ve tried a few times now but it’s not working as easily as we thought it was going to. We’ve been working with another surrogate and it just hasn’t been going easy. But we’re not giving up yet,’ she said. Marisa underwent a hysterectomy after being diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 27.  She and Miller welcomed Zev via a surrogate mother.”

Marissa Jaret Winokur

Men’s Sperm Quality Decreases with Age: “It is a fact that a woman’s chances of having children naturally decreases with age. However, it is not only women that have to worry about their biological clock, as a recent research warns that men also have something to worry about: their quality and quantity of sperm decreases from age 40 and above and this simply means that a man’s chances of impregnating a woman reduces with age. Men who do not have kids before age 41 stand the risk of producing low quality sperm that can eventually affect fertility, researchers have warned.”

Donor’s Bid to be Included on Birth Certificate: “A sperm donor at the centre of a recent landmark court case has said that he is “determined to do whatever is necessary” to be named on his daughter’s birth certificate after the NSW Government announced last week that it will hold an inquiry examining the adequacy of listing only two parents on birth certificates. While donors have not been considered legal parents under state law since 1984, the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages currently has no provisions to record the names of sperm, egg or embryo donors despite the NSW Department of Health already doing so. It follows on from the landmark case in August where a male sperm donor’s name was removed from his daughter’s birth certificate in preference for the mother’s female ex-partner, despite a close and long-term relationship with the child.”

Side Effects of Fertility Treatment May Increase Ovarian Cancer Risk: Study: “In-vitro fertilization may increase the risk of ovarian cancer and tumors in women with fertility problems, according to new research. A Dutch study of women who sought in-vitro fertilization in order to bear children, found that their rate of borderline ovarian tumors were twice that of subfertile women who did not seek in-vitro fertilization techniques. The findings, published in the medical journal Human Reproduction, were of some concern to the researchers. The 15-year study looked at 19,146 women who received in-vitro fertilization in the Netherlands and compared them to 6,006 women who also had trouble conceiving, but did not seek treatment. The overall rate of ovarian malignancies for women who received treatment were two-fold over women who did not.”