the Human Future

Bioethical news articles for February 6th:

Scientists Want Designer Babies with Three Parents: “Scientists in Australia want to create designer babies with the DNA of three parents to try to prevent mitochondrial mutations. ‘We want to remove the mother’s bad mitochondria and replace it with healthy mitochondria through In Vitro Fertilization,’ said professor Peter Illingworth of assisted conception services program IFV in Australia. ‘We know women who have a defective mitochondria pass that on to their children. About one child a week is born in Australia with a mitochondrial condition. It is rare but very debilitating.’ Scientists told the Sunday Telegraph that the genes that determined behavior and appearance come from the nucleus of the cell and would not change the child’s genetic make up.”

Safety in Numbers: How Three Parents can Beat Genetic Diseases: “Media outlets have been reporting that scientists are planning to ‘create designers babies’ with three parents. Professor Justin St John, Director of the Centre for Reproduction and Development at Monash University explains the technology being proposed and its feasibility. We inherit most genes from both parents, which determine things like hair colour, eye colour and behavioural patterns, but there’s a small proportion of DNA that we inherit only from our mothers. This DNA is from a region of the ovum (egg) called the cytoplasm, which houses organelles called mitochondria.One of the main functions of mitochondria is to generate energy and that’s why they’re known as the powerhouses of the cell. Within each mitochondria, there’s a small round piece of DNA called the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA). This has some very important genes because they’re directly involved in the process of making energy. If any of these genes are mutated, then the individual will have severe disabilities related to not being able to generate enough energy or some of their cells will not function properly. So we inherit our mtDNA only from our mother and what we inherit is the mtDNA that’s in her eggs just prior to fertilisation. Then our father’s sperm comes along and it delivers the chromosomal genes which join with our mother’s chromosomal genes and that’s the bulk of the DNA in the body.”

Safety in numbers

Don’t Ever Legalise Euthanasia, says European Body: “Euthanasia ‘must always be prohibited’ in Europe, the Council of Europe has ruled. The declaration came from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a body which is made up of representatives from 47 countries across the European continent. The resolution said: ‘Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.’ The statement came as the Assembly also considered other issues surrounding end-of-life decisions.”

“Euthanasia on Wheels” Starts Next Month: “Six specialised euthanasia teams consisting of one doctor and one nurse will begin making house calls in the Netherlands next month. Right to Die NL (NVVE) says the teams will visit people who want to end their lives and are eligible for euthanasia under Dutch law, but whose wishes are being thwarted. Such situations can occur when, for instance, doctors refuse to take requests for euthanasia seriously. The NVVE will open an ‘end-of-life clinic’ in The Hague on 1 March. People not able to have euthanasia administered at home by their family doctors will be able to end their lives at the clinic from around mid-2012. The NVVE expects to receive about 1,000 euthanasia requests per year. The organisation stresses that people will not be able to opt for euthanasia on impulse: they will have to go through a lengthy intake procedure as required under Dutch law.”

Selling Yourself – Broke Students Look to Donation for Profit, Fun and that Warm Fuzzy Feeling: “Katharine Miller, junior communication major, donated plasma to pay off her credit card debt. Miller donated twice before she decided her time and effort were not worth the compensation. ‘I had a bad experience with the people that worked at the center who wouldn’t listen to me when I told them I was going to get sick,’ Miller said. Plasma, sperm and egg donation have become common ways for individuals to supplement their income. The benefits, procedures, financial compensation and risk factors—both medically and emotionally—differ greatly depending on type of tissue being donated. According to Dr. Vincent Serio, director of Medical Services at Boise State Health and Recreation, plasma donation has minimal risks and is a relatively safe way for students to earn money. ‘The most common side effect would be fatigue. You lose a pint of blood or plasma and you probably don’t want to go out and play football for Boise State,’ Serio said. Linda Alexander, egg donor coordinator at Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine, explained that unlike selling plasma, eggs are not sold but donated, and the egg donation process is entirely different. Donors are compensated for their time and effort, not their reproductive tissues.”

The Virgin Father: “Trent Arsenault has never had sex, but he’s the father of fifteen children—and counting. The more he antagonizes the FDA, and unnerves television audiences across America, the more his in-box is flooded with requests for his sperm. Trent Arsenault was in the Borg Cube when he heard the knock. ‘Trent,’ his father called through the door. The Borg, tucked into a canyon southeast of San Francisco, consists of a modest two-­bedroom ranch house plus a few tents Trent has erected in the backyard. It’s a warren of floor-to-ceiling modular shelving built to hold all of Trent’s worldly property, which he stores in 800 bins weighing 24,000 pounds. In what was designed to be the living room, a Tempur-Pedic adjustable bed is situated within the shelving units, and an identical second bed next to the first serves as a workstation, with swing-out hospital trays for a desk. A flat-screen TV is mounted face down, directly over Trent’s pillow, and another is mounted in his shower. Wires snake everywhere. A hose system on a timer automatically refills the birdbaths outside. Behind the house, near a lemon tree, a 50-foot antenna collects radio-­astronomy data from solar flares and broadcasts Trent’s ham-radio signal. Inside, there is a low, near-constant murmur of electronic machinery: radio static, conference-call chatter from Trent’s IT security work, digital chimes, a dulcet computer voice announcing Trent’s next appointment. It is an elaborate system, and it reminds Trent, in a good way, of the devouring cybernetic empire in Star Trek. ‘The more complex the better.’ ‘Trent,’ his father said. He knocked again. ‘Trent, are you in there?’ This was last March. Trent hadn’t seen his father in almost a year. For months, he hadn’t responded to his parents’ calls and letters, and at first they hadn’t known why. They hadn’t known that in 2006, Trent hung out a shingle on the Internet and became a do-it-yourself sperm donor, giving his semen away to whoever asked. He was part of a growing movement of peer-to-peer sperm donation that bypassed regulated banks, and in some cases dropped the customary anonymity, but Trent went further, offering unusual transparency by posting records on his website, including STD-test results, his driver’s license, family photos, and a link to his Facebook page. The FDA, having learned what Trent was up to—he suspected a local sperm bank had tipped off the agency—launched an investigation, eventually filing a ‘cease manufacture’ order. Trent had become consumed with the FDA action and avoided informing his parents. ‘I became unreachable to my family for a while,’ he says.

Trent Arsenaul

Court Overturns Assisted Suicide Restrictions: “Georgia’s top court struck down a state law that restricted assisted suicides, siding on Monday with four members of a group that helped a cancer-stricken man die and said the law violated their free speech rights. The home where, police say, members of an assisted suicide ring known as the Final Exit Network helped cancer victim John Celmer, 58, end his life in Cumming, Ga. The Georgia Supreme Court‘s unanimous ruling found that the law violates the free speech clauses of the U.S. and Georgia constitution. It means that four members of the Final Exit Network who were charged in February 2009 with helping a 58-year-old man die won’t have to stand trial, defense attorneys said. Georgia law doesn’t expressly forbid assisted suicide. But lawmakers in 1994 adopted a law that bans people from publicly advertising suicide, hoping to prevent assisted suicide by the likes of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the late physician who sparked the national right-to-die debate.”

If Pets can, Why Not Humans?: “We said our goodbyes with love and respect … and I’m sure he appreciated it. I know we did. He had lived a long, full and happy life. Deeply loved by his family and friends, he got to do what he was born to do. Together we romped through the hills and dales of Northeast Iowa in search of his passion: the wily pheasant. When he wasn’t hunting, he was the most devoted companion anyone could ever wish for. Simply put, he was a dog you could trust, and he returned that trust with an unyielding sense of peace and happiness. Near the end, he began to suffer. His mannerisms and advancing years told me his days in this dimension were numbered. I was heartbroken, but instead of crying, I did what he had taught me to do so very well: I kept smiling. When I gave the matter some deep reflection, there was really nothing else to do but rejoice in a life so joyously lived. No regrets. No bitterness. We’d been good owners, and in return he’d been the best pooch of all time. Rather than prolong our beloved Labrador’s agony any longer than necessary, we decided to ease his pain. We made arrangements with our local veterinarian and took him in for what we knew would be the last time. The compassionate vet handled the matter with grace and respect. He examined Abe thoroughly and then told us without hesitation we were doing the right thing. It was time to send Abe to glory, not prolong his distress for some selfish reason. When I relayed the story to a friend and told him how peaceful the entire process had been, his reply caught me a bit off guard, ‘Too bad we don’t treat humans as well as we do our pets.’”

Robotics Class Reoutfits Robot for Use by Law Enforcement: “Garrett Gautz, a senior at Monroe High School, confidently worked the controls of an xBox 360 attached to a laptop. On the screen, a camera recorded his direction of a robot 30 feet away. The arm craned up and down, the treadmill rolled back and forth, the hand opened and closed. Garrett, 17, then directed the robot over wooden obstacles. About 30 students, staff and Monroe County sheriff’s deputies looked on in Steve Ketron?s classroom as the robotics team presented the newly outfitted robot to the sheriff?s department. ‘I like it,’said Garrett, who worked on the electrical and programming part of the robot. ‘It seems like it could do a lot of different things.’ The robot will be put into operation at the sheriff?s office as a safety device for officers, said Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield. ‘It prevents us from having to put a live body in those (dangerous) situations until we know what we have,’ he said.”

Lesbian Parents “Betrayed” by Gay Father Demanding to See His Son: “A two-year-old boy with ‘three parents’ – his lesbian mother, her partner and a gay father – is at the centre of an Appeal Court test case on the status of ‘alternative’ families. The mother says she made a pact with the father during a restaurant meeting before the boy was conceived that she and her lover would fill the role of ‘primary parents’ within a ‘nuclear family’ and that he would not stand on his paternal rights. But now she and her partner say they feel ‘bitter and betrayed’ after the father – a former close friend who attended the birth and held the new-born baby in his arms – demanded overnight and holiday contact with his biological son. All three parents are highly-paid professionals living in central London and the father, in his 40s, insists he was always far more than a mere sperm donor and he wants to play a full paternal role in the life of the only child he is every likely to have. The father was formerly in a ‘marriage of convenience’ with the mother, although they are now divorced, and three Appeal Court judges are being asked to rule on whether the little boy would be best off with ‘three parents and two homes.’”

Custody fight between three parents

Australian IVF Doctor Sued for 7m Pounds After Child Born with Genetic Disorder: “An IVF doctor in Australia who was involved in the conception of a child affected by a genetic disorder is being sued for ‘wrongful birth’. Keeden Waller was born following IVF in 2000 but four days afterwards had a stroke which caused permanent brain damage resulting in him being unable to walk, talk or feed himself. Keeden’s parents, Debbie and Lawrence Waller, are suing Dr Christopher James for around 10 million Australian dollars for negligence, reports the Sunday Morning Herald. The couple allege they had told Dr James about the condition, which Keeden inherited from his father, yet he failed to inform them there was a 50 percent chance that their child could be affected too. The New South Wales Supreme Court heard how Dr James gave the Wallers the telephone number for a genetic counsellor but did not himself seek out information on the risk. The number was for the main switchboard of the hospital where the counsellor was based and went unanswered when called. The Wallers did not call back and Dr James did not mention the genetics counsellor again during the course of treatment. ‘We love Keeden now that he’s here, but if we had the right information and the right options we wouldn’t have gone ahead with the birth, not in the way we did’, Mrs Waller told the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘Had things been done right, Keeden would never have been here. He would never have to go through the suffering he goes through – seizures and all.’”

Bioethical news articles for January 27th:

European Assembly Slams Euthanasia: “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has given a big boost to opponents of legalised euthanasia. This body, which (somewhat confusingly) is not part of the European Union, is an advisory body in Strasbourg with more than 300 delegates whose pronouncements on human rights are highly influential in the EU. This week PACE passed a resolution on living wills (or advance directives) which states as a fundamental principal: ‘Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.’ Furthermore, an amendment was passed stating that ‘surrogate decisions that rely on general value judgements present in society should not be admissible and, in case of doubt, the decision must always be pro-life and the prolongation of life.’”

Assisted Suicide Debate Revived: “to legalise assisted suicide, just a year after her last effort was roundly defeated in the Scottish Parliament. The Independent Lothians MSP unveiled a new consultation on the issue—which pushes for ‘a friend at the end’—at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday despite the failure of her first bid to make it legal for the ill and the dying to seek help to kill themselves. Prior to the defeat of Ms MacDonald’s last bill Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s most senior Catholic clergyman, warned that it would inevitably lead to repeated attempts to change the law. Ms MacDonald’s new proposals come in spite of the comprehensive defeat of the previous End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill in a free vote at Holyrood just over a year ago. The Catholic Church was instrumental in the successful campaign against her legislation.”

Surrogacy not so Taboo Anymore: “Ask any couple their deepest desire, and the answer is sure to sound clichéd but true – a wish to cradle the tiny body of their first child, within the warmth of their arms. And as technology today enables childless couples to realise this dream through a number of invasive and non-invasive procedures, nature’s own alternate remedy- that of surrogacy- remained a topic so taboo, even wishful thinking of it was all but done beneath hush-hush tones. All that though, is going in for a toss. Fertility clinics in the city today are flooded with enquiries by childless couples wanting to have atleast one of their bloodline carried forward by way of a child. And as surrogacy remains the safest option for the same, better awareness and understanding of how to handle oneself in society during the nine months of surrogacy have only helped promote the cause further.”

Parents’ Mixed Nationality Led to Surrogacy Chaos: “US citizen J Pearllinda Vanburen Green had contacted the Ameerpet-located Rama Fertility Centre 18 months ago, after having gone to Mumbai and Goa looking for surrogacy service, for which the country has currently become synonymous with for couples the world over. She had come to the fertility centre with her husband, Eric Dalton Green’s semen sample from a New York-based Cryobank. While the husband’s name was there on the semen sample, she had failed to inform the clinic that her husband was only based out of the US but was not a US citizen himself. He was a Jamaican. It was this missing piece of information that led to much chaos, that climaxed on Wednesday evening when she abandoned the baby at regional passport office (RPO). Green, on her part, always believed that like in America, a child born on Indian soil would be an Indian and thus entitled to an Indian passport. Officials of the fertility clinic found out about the father’s nationality only after the child was born and the process of the birth registration was initiated. ‘Although only the names of the mother and father are needed for birth registration, we also give nationality of the parents and their passport numbers to facilitate movement when it comes to the child’s passport application. She could not give the passport copy of her husband and said he was a Jamaican,’ said PSN Prasad, chairman of Rama Fertility Clinic, Ameerpet.”

Surrogate Baby to Soon get ID Paper: “Running from pillar to post to get clearance to fly home with her seven-week-old baby boy, US national J. Pearllinda Van Buren may finally have something to look forward to. According to officials, she may soon get an identity certificate for her baby, named Emperor, who was born through surrogacy at a city clinic on December 7. The identity certificate will help Ms Van Buren, 48, fly with her baby to Jamaica, where she is based. The baby was denied an Indian passport because he is not an Indian national. What has compounded problems for Ms Van Buren is the fact that her husband, Eric Dalton Green, a Jamaican national and the only person with biological connection to the baby, cannot come to India. Ms Van Buren explained that her husband developed a fear of flying as a child, after his father died in an air crash, and cannot fly out here at any cost.”

J. Pearllinda Van Buren with Emperor

Sex-Change Husband to File Suit to Register Son as Legitimate Child: “A 29-year-old man, who was born a woman but has legally changed his sexual status due to gender identity disorder, plans to file a lawsuit demanding that the government acknowledge his son born by artificial insemination as his legitimate child, he told Kyodo News Thursday. ‘I want (the country) to recognize him as our child,’ the man, who resides in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, said. ‘I have decided to file a suit in Tokyo so that the Justice Ministry will take this issue seriously.’ The man changed his sex from female to male in 2008 and got married. His wife gave birth to the boy the following year through artificial insemination using his younger brother’s semen. But when the couple submitted the birth registration at a municipal office in Hyogo Prefecture where they lived at that time, they were told the boy cannot be registered as his legitimate child because he is not the biological father.”

Call for Providers to Set Out Assisted Suicide Policy: “Protection advisers have called on life companies to clarify whether they will pay out in cases of assisted suicide. Zurich, Aviva, Aegon, Friends Life, PruProtect, Bright Grey, LV= and Ageas Protect all confirm they do not have any exclusions for assisted suicide cases and say each case would be treated on an individual basis.It is illegal in the UK to help someone with a terminal illness end their life, meaning many people travel to Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe where there are more liberal laws. Earlier this month, the Independent Commission on Assisted Dying published a report calling for assisted suicides to be legalised for people with certain terminal illnesses.”

Hungary Passes Law Promoting New Pro-Life Constitution: “As one of the eastern European nations seeing high abortion rates, a pro-life Hungary would be a huge victory for women and unborn children. Susan Yoshihara of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, says that is happening. Excerpts from her report: Hungarian leaders have passed a law protecting the traditional family, defying ongoing criticism that their new constitution would curtail abortion… The new law says … ‘Embryonic and foetal life shall be entitled to protection and respect from the moment of conception,’ and the state should encourage ‘homely circumstances’ for child care. It obliges the media to respect marriage and parenting and assigns parents, rather than the State, primary responsibility for protecting the rights of the child. The law enumerates responsibilities for minors, including respect and care for elderly parents. The purpose of the law is ‘to create a predictable and safe regulatory environment for family protection and the promotion of family welfare, and to enforce the Fundamental Law,’ the nation’s new constitution, which came into force on January 1st and was passed by a vote of 262-44 last April. The Fundamental Law nullified Hungary’s communist-era constitution and dates its democracy from the revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956 and Soviet collapse in 1990. Hungary is the last Central European nation to pass a post-communist constitution. The constitution calls for the protection of life from conception and bans torture, human trafficking, eugenics, and human cloning.”

Hungary Passes Law Promoting New Pro-Life Constitution

Stem Cells – Where are We Now?: “STEM CELLS: two small words that can invoke enormous hype, hope and sometimes confusion. In theory harnessing them could open up new therapies for a range of medical conditions. In practice it’s a complex field, strewn with technical and, in some cases, ethical difficulties, but progress is being made, a small number of clinical applications have already been proved and more clinical trials are under way. But first, in any discussion of stem cells there’s an important set of distinctions to make. Not all stem cells are the same – and how they are classified depends on where they came from. The most adaptable – and ethically contentious – are stem cells derived from early-stage embryos. These embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into over 200 cell types, so in theory they could offer the most latitude for developing cells for therapies.”

Picture a Technology Revolution. In Contraception. It’s Here: “default on human fertility, so that accidental pregnancy is a thing of the past and women become fertile only when they want to become pregnant. By nature, adolescence switches our fertility default to “on” and it is stuck there for the next 40 years. Globally, 100 million women want to delay, space or limit child bearing but have no control over their fertility. Even women who are lucky enough to have contraceptives like Pills or patches or injections have to keep switching fertility back off. The latest generation of long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are game-changers. On the Pill –1960s technology with minor tweaks — one in 12 women gets pregnant each year! With condoms, it’s one in eight. (No contraception would be eight out of ten.) With the most effective hormonal IUD available, that number is one in 700. That’s the same as sterilization, and yet fertility can be restored by a five-minute procedure and returns within a few cycles.”

Kylie Minogue Considers Egg Donor in Baby Battle: “op star Kylie Minogue has reportedly considered using an egg donor to have a baby after cancer treatment affected her fertility. The Spinning Around hitmaker was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and underwent surgery and chemotherapy to beat the disease. She was given the all-clear the following year (06), but discovered her treatment would affect her chances of being able to conceive naturally. Minogue, who is in a longterm relationship with Spanish model Andres Velencoso, admits she would consider using a donor egg in a bid to have a child, but is open to other methods of becoming a mother. Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Chrissy Iley, she says, ‘I’ve looked into various other options, but I don’t know if I’m going to go down any of those roads yet.’”

Kylie Minogue

New Life Agency Rolls Out Assisted Reproduction Insurance Program: “New Life Agency has announced a new Assisted Reproduction Insurance Program(R) (ARI). The Program will be spearheaded by infertility nurse, Ellen Argall, RN. New Life Agency, the only company specializing exclusively in Assisted Reproduction Insurance(R), thus far has partnered with three Fertility Centers to provide insurance for fertility patients. The ARI program provides a tremendous cost savings, as well as a peace of mind, to patients in need of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The average IVF cost is roughly $12,000 and is generally only for one cycle. Also, frozen embryos are typically not included in the cost and could result in another $3,000 for a frozen embryo transfer (FET). The ARI program includes both FET, as well as fresh cycles, and ensures that the patients pay one global fee upfront for their IVF treatments. And patients pay nothing else out of pocket for the entire IVF fertility program (18 months and includes insurance, consults, fertility treatment, testing and service within the chosen ARI Program Plan).”

Illinois Couple Implants Frozen Embryos, Gets Second Set of Twins: “A month after Anabella and Matteus Potter were born in 2009, their parents, Adriana and Robert, agreed to disagree on what to do with two other embryos created in the same petri dish as their twins. Grateful for the in vitro fertilization that enabled the Elmhurst, Ill., couple to become parents, Adriana Potter, 38, believed donating the embryos to advance reproductive technology or treat debilitating diseases would be the most life-affirming choice. Robert Potter, 44, imagined having more children or donating the embryos for another couple to do the same. Anabella and Matteus made up their parents’ minds. Watching the brother and sister blossom into beautiful toddlers compelled them to have both embryos implanted last November.”

The Potter Family

Wolverhampton Couples Limited to One Round of IVF: “Plans to save £175,000 to be ploughed into other health services have been approved following consultation by Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust (PCT). Currently childless couples can get two cycles of IVF, at a cost of up to £5,000 a time, or other treatments but this will be halved from April 1. People currently on the waiting list will still get the full two cycles. National guidelines recommend health chiefs allow for three rounds of IVF. But keeping the existing treatment levels would deprive other services of funding, health bosses said in a report to councillors. Women must be aged 23-39 to qualify, have no other children and both partners must be non-smokers. Tim Jones, commissioning development manager for Wolverhampton City PCT, said people had accepted the plans when consultation took place.”