Bioethics In The News — Tuesday, February 14, 2006

February 14, 2006

Egg Donation for Cloning to Expand in Britain (BBC, The Times)

Currently in the UK egg donation for research purposes is restricted to women who are already undergoing medical treatment. This is not providing enough eggs for the scientists who have been granted cloning licenses, so the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority is expected on Wednesday to approve egg donation from women who otherwise would not have any reason to undergo the ovulatory hyperstimulation and egg retrieval procedure.

The key elements here are 1) the procedure puts women at some risk of fertility damage, kidney damage, and even death in rare cases; and 2) there is no benefit for the women donating. The Times captures it well:

Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: “The journal Nature last week described egg donation as an ‘unpleasant, invasive process’ which can cause ‘life-threatening side effects’. How extraordinary then to find the HFEA endorsing donation at a time when scientists are at last acknowledging the significant risks associated with the process.”

Clinical Trials in China (Wall Street Journal)

Western pharmaceutical companies are conducting clinical trials in China because it is less expensive than running them in the US or Europe, and because, in many cases, “Chinese authorities . . . want trials conducted in their own country before allowing the drugs to be sold” (subscription required). These authorities, on guard that Western companies not exploit Chinese patients or cut corners in the trials, have established a regulatory system to oversee clinical trials. The main downside the WSJ article identifies is that patients often cannot afford the drugs once they leave the trial.

Company Tags Employees (Financial Times)

A private video surveillance company has implanted electronic RFID (radio frequency identification) chips into the arms of two employees as a means of identifying them and controlling access to sensitive areas of their facilities. Some worry about privacy issues, but others assure that it is not a tracking device. Expect to hear a lot more about RFID in the future.

Eavesdropping on the Hippocampus (Nature News)

Scientists at MIT inserted wires directly into the region of the brain of rats involved in learning and memory, then let the rats run a course. When the rats paused, they replayed the course in their minds, probably helping to reinforce the memory. Neuroethics is one of the latest bioethics topics, and (shameless plug) the topic of CBHD’s 2006 summer conference. A PDF of the conference brochure is available here.