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

The New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 366, Issue 19, May 10, 2012) is now available on-line and by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Reproductive Technologies and the Risk of Birth Defects” by M.J. Davies et al, 1803-1813.

When Martha and Matt Merrill tried in-vitro fertilization at UW Health’s Generations Fertility Care, doctors implanted only one embryo. Daughter Harper was born in April 2011.  (Wisconsin State Journal)

Vejthani Hospital Bangkok recommends a gender selection procedure for a couple who desire to choose a child’s gender at Vejthani ART Center.  (Business Wire)

ALMOST half of South Australians believe embryos left over from fertility treatment should be used for research, a survey has found.  (The Advertiser)

Sex reassignment is an intricate and sensitive physiological, psychological, and social process that usually entails the loss of reproductive capacity. Reproductive technology can prevent this loss, but should it be used for that purpose? A recent case in Israel raises this question.  (BioNews)

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback [official website] has signed a bill [SB 62 materials] allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs that they “reasonably believe” might result in the termination of a pregnancy, his office announced [press release] Monday. Critics of the legislation claim that it will allow pharmacists to refuse to distribute emergency contraception [Kansas City Star report], but supporters claim that the bill was aimed at the abortion drug RU-486 and is only a narrow amendment to a 1969 Kansas law which says that no one should be required to participate in performing an abortion procedure. Four states—Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota—have laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives, and three others—Florida, Maine and Tennessee—have refusal measures that do not specifically mention pharmacists. The law will take effect in July.  (Jurist)

Several states, including Kansas and New Jersey, are debating so-called “wrongful birth” laws that would prevent parents from suing a doctor who fails to warn them about fetal problems.  (NPR News)

Camilla Grondahl asked genetics researcher Gholson Lyon a simple, heartbreaking question: Was she carrying a lethal gene that might kill her unborn baby?  Grondahl, 29, didn’t want to terminate her pregnancy, which began in 2010. She just wanted to know what the scientist knew.  (Bloomberg)

A 2011 law that put restrictions on drugs used to induce abortions has been tossed out in Oklahoma County District Court.  The court found that House Bill 1970 is “an unconstitutional law in violation of the fundamental rights of women to privacy and bodily integrity” guaranteed by the Oklahoma Constitution, according to an order issued Friday. (Tulsa World)

The founder of the pro-life movement says for the first time in many years, he has hope that he could see the end of abortion before he dies, because of a bill in Ohio that would outlaw abortion, however supposed pro-life Republicans are preventing its passage.  (Greeley Gazette)

A controversial fertility doctor has raked in £25million in a single year. Mohamed Taranissi and his wife received the colossal sum through their IVF clinic, giving fresh evidence to critics who say that the creation of human life has become a multi-million pound industry.  (Mail Online)

Aggressive fertility treatments practised at IVF clinics in the UK are putting women and babies at risk, experts say.  (The Telegraph)

IVF clinics in the UK are practising aggressive fertility treatments that are putting women and children at unjustified risk, experts say. The commercially driven industry uses unnecessary procedures, high doses of powerful drugs and risky interventions to help desperate couples spending thousands of pounds to conceive.  (Gulf Times)

At the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, a popular destination for women hoping to preserve their fertility by freezing their eggs, Dr. William Schoolcraft, the founder and medical director, has started to notice something different: more of the women are arriving with company.  (Post-Gazette)

A large Australian study has found a small but significant increase in the risk for birth defects in babies conceived with assisted reproductive technologies.  (The New York Times)

An Indiana diocese asked a federal court on Monday to reject a lawsuit by a former parochial school teacher who claims she was fired for violating Roman Catholic doctrine by using in vitro fertilization to try to get pregnant.  (GazetteXtra)

Politicians in Australia have been debating whether to change the law regarding the issuing of birth certificates to babies who are stillborn.  (BBC News)

International Conference,

13–15 December 2012,

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

In a historical perspective, selective reproduction is nothing new: across the world, infanticide and selective neglect of children have a long history; and the widespread deployment of sterilisation and forced abortion in especially the 20th century is well-documented. But the development and routinisation of increasingly sophisticated biomedical technologies that aim to prevent or promote the birth of particular ‘kinds of children’ has placed selective reproduction under the aegis of science and expertise in novel ways. For social scientists, this development raises a range of questions – questions about how these biomedical technologies are used, regulated, and commercialised; about how public concern and criticism have shaped their use; about the roles they play in personal and political deliberations and imaginings; and about their consequences for the ways we think about individuality and collectivity, responsibility and choice.

For more information

Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill Friday that relaxes Arizona’s requirement for health plans to cover contraception, legislation that supporters called a protection for religious freedom and that critics called an attack on women.  (Real Clear Politics)

Customer service, medical testing, manufacturing… just some of the things that are outsourced to India. Some call it globalization, while others cry exploitation.  (Fox 10 News)

The medical correspondent for the London-based Daily Telegraph, Stephen Adams, shined the media spotlight on a medical journal article in favor of killing babies.  (Amarillo Globe-News)