The implications of the gender-based prohibitions relating to human germline genome editing in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the implications of the gender-based prohibitions relating to human germline genome editing (hGGE) in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 1990, as amended in 2008? DESIGN: A three-phase primary research design consisting of a mixed-methods online public survey of 521 UK citizens aged 16-82 years, 13 semi-structured interviews with experts and professionals involved in the future of hGGE, and structured interviews with 21 people affected by genetic conditions. The research was conducted between March 2018 and October 2019. RESULTS: Gender-based prohibitions in the HFE Act weaken its intent to prevent germline cells that have been altered from resulting in a pregnancy and the possible birth of people with edited genomes. This weakness could become increasingly problematic as genome editing technologies develop and social advances seek to eradicate gendered expectations and gendered binaries. CONCLUSION: The HFE Act should be amended to avoid gender-based discrimination and the potential gender-based prohibitions have to circumvent germline genome editing being used before the technology is considered safe enough to prevent disease.

Publicity, politics, and professoriate in fin-de-siècle Vienna: The misconduct of the embryologist Samuel Leopold Schenk.

This essay uses the case of the fin-de-siècle Vienna embryologist Samuel Leopold Schenk to analyze the factors at play in allegations of misconduct. In 1898, Schenk published a book titled Theorie Schenk. Einfluss auf das Geschlechtsverhältnis (Schenk's theory. Influence on the sex ratio). The book argued that, by changing their diet, women trying to conceive could influence egg maturation and consequently select the sex of their offspring. This cross between a scientific monograph and a popular advice book received enormous publicity but also spurred first the Vienna Medical Association and then the Senate of the University of Vienna to accuse Schenk of poor science, self-advertisement, quack medical practice, and wrong publisher choice. Formal proceedings against Schenk ended in 1900 with the unusually harsh punishment of early retirement. Schenk died two years later. I examine the elements of the case, from the science of sex determination and selection, to the growth of print media and advertising within the changing demographic and political landscape of Vienna. I argue that the influence of the public, via the growing media, upon science was the main driver of the case against Schenk, but also that the case would have had a more limited impact were it not for the volatile political moment rife with anti-Semitism, nationalism, and xenophobia. I draw the attention to the importance of setting cases of misconduct in the broader political history and against the key social concerns of the moment.

On recent advances in human engineering.

Advances in embryology, genetics, and regenerative medicine regularly attract attention from scientists, scholars, journalists, and policymakers, yet implications of these advances may be broader than commonly supposed. Laboratories culturing human embryos, editing human genes, and creating human-animal chimeras have been working along lines that are now becoming intertwined. Embryogenic methods are weaving traditional in vivo and in vitro distinctions into a new "in vivitro" (in life in glass) fabric. These and other methods known to be in use or thought to be in development promise soon to bring society to startling choices and discomfiting predicaments, all in a global effort to supply reliably rejuvenating stem cells, to grow immunologically non-provocative replacement organs, and to prevent, treat, cure, or even someday eradicate diseases having genetic or epigenetic mechanisms. With humanity's human-engineering era now begun, procedural prohibitions, funding restrictions, institutional controls, and transparency rules are proving ineffective, and business incentives are migrating into the most basic life-sciences inquiries, wherein lie huge biomedical potentials and bioethical risks. Rights, health, and heritage are coming into play with bioethical presumptions and formal protections urgently needing reassessment.

The HFEA in context.

While the regulatory role of the HFEA, its independence and its shortcomings are debated in the context of a fiscal economic crisis, the larger sociological importance of the Authority may be overlooked. Harder to calculate than its annual budget and more elusive than its technical remit as a licensing body, the cultural value of the HFEA as a historical and symbolic entity that was born out of a pioneering debate unique to the UK must be included in a discussion of its future role. Against its perceived shortcomings as an expensive and outdated quango is the importance of the Authority as a public instrument for enhancing the future of translational bioscience. From this point of view, the HFEA is crucial not only to ensuring the successful realization of a domestic bioscience agenda but also to protecting the international reputation of UK Plc as a best-practice model of publicly supported bioinnovation.

The future of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

The UK Government has proposed that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) should be abolished and its functions transferred to the Care Quality Commission. This commentary explores the problems with this proposal and suggests that an independent review of how the HFEA carries out its functions and a subsequent reform of some of its practices represent a better option for the UK.

The legacy of the HFEA.

This is possibly a premature title as the future of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) remains undecided. Nonetheless there is widespread agreement that change is needed and the HFEA, or its successor, will be shaped by previous activities of the existing organisation. It is pertinent then to reflect on its legacy.

Hart-Devlin revisited: law, morality and consent in parenthood.

The debate about law and morality is not new but changing social structures and advances in science, medicine and technology have impacted the decisions courts have to make. Within the fast-changing societies of the 21st century, is judicial decision-making cognisant of these advances and how do the judiciary currently reconcile difficult emergent issues concerning law, science and morality? The dilemma of decision-making regarding frozen embryos, the gametes of deceased donors and the issue of consent is analysed by reference to recent case law and the problem of decision-making in relation to the newly possible.

Regulation before the HFEA.

As a result of the birth of Louise Brown, the Government, in 1982 set up the committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology (The Warnock Committee). This committee made a number of recommendations including one that recommended the setting up of a body to regulate these procedures. The Medical Research Council and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the interim set up a voluntary body to regulate the centres doing IVF. This was called the Voluntary Licensing Authority (VLA) for Human in-vitro Fertilisation and Embryology. Centres were visited and licensed. This body regulated the centres until the statutory body the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was formed in 1990.

El concepto legal de persona en Colombia: ¿razones biológicas para modificarlo?

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La experimentación con embriones sobrantes en España: un comentario a la Ley 45/2003 que modifica la Ley 3511988 sobre Técnicas de Reproducción Asistida

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The banking of Embryonic Stem Cells: the Legal and Ethical Framework in the UK

La derivación de líneas de células madres embrionarias humanas suscita preguntas fundamentales sobre el estado del embrión humano. En el Reino Unido ha sido adoptada una postura relativamente liberal y el gobierno muestra su apoyo a la investigación con células madre embrionarias. Este artículo examina el marco que se utiliza para regular las conductas en -esta sensible materia en el Reino Unido, con la referencia particular al papel de los bancos de células madres de este país (AU)

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Contemporary issues in the regulation of artificial reproduction and embryology in the UK.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 was one of the most comprehensive and flexible vehicles for regulation of artificial reproduction and embryology of its area. However, its serviceability has recently been brought into question by both the materialisation of unforeseen dilemmas and the response of legal actors to these dilemma's which has often been ethically and democratically deficient. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the reproach of the regulatory authority and judiciary to the use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and cloning by cell nuclear replacement.