April 15, 2025
(New York Times) – The numbers raise concerns about the risk of genetic anomalies as those children eventually seek partners and give birth. Somewhere in the Netherlands, there are men who have unknowingly fathered dozens of children through sperm donation. … Read More
April 11, 2025
(NBC News) – After his niece took an over-the-counter DNA test, McMahon learned that he wasn’t actually related to his family at all. It was his sister Carol Vignola who first learned about the DNA test results and did some … Read More
April 10, 2025
(New York Times) – During a recent five-year period, a substantial portion of maternal deaths in America — almost one-third — took place more than six weeks after childbirth, at a time when most new mothers think they are in … Read More
April 10, 2025
(WSJ) – Early last year, this quiet city in central China started offering serious cash incentives for couples to have more children, up to around $13,000 for a second child and $23,000 for a third. Births surged 17% for the … Read More
April 10, 2025
(Australian Broadcasting Co) – Monash IVF has apologised after a woman unknowingly gave birth to a stranger’s baby after the wrong embryo was transferred. The major fertility company became aware of the mix-up in February after the birth parents asked … Read More
April 10, 2025
(New Scientist) – A baby has been born after being conceived via IVF performed by a machine, with a medical professional merely overseeing the process In one step, the machine uses an AI model to select the healthiest sperm cells … Read More
April 10, 2025
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 392, no. 11, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
April 8, 2025
(New York Times) – While it was known that some staff members devoted to H.I.V. prevention in other countries had been lost, The New York Times has learned that all such experts have now been terminated or are awaiting reassignment … Read More
April 8, 2025
(New York Times) – If the current legal landscape when it comes to embryos seems messy, it’s a result, in no small part, of the unsettled nature of what preceded it. For over a century, courts generally did not grant … Read More
April 7, 2025
(BBC) – A “miracle” baby girl has become the first child in the UK to be born to a mother using a donated womb. The baby’s mum, Grace Davidson, 36, was born without a functioning uterus, and received her sister’s … Read More
April 7, 2025
(The Independent) – A quote from James after the publication of his caffeine study neatly underlines how Oster’s attitude diverges from the attitude of the medical establishment: “Certainly, there is no evidence to suggest that caffeine benefits either mother or … Read More
April 4, 2025
(New York Times) – A growing body of evidence now shows that cannabis is destructive to male fertility. Experts have long known that tobacco and alcohol use can impact male fertility. And since at least the 1970s, researchers have suspected … Read More
April 4, 2025
(BBC) – The US couple, aged 37 and 38, ardently believe that the world needs to have more babies or risk civilisational collapse. They have become the poster children for pronatalism, a movement that believes falling birth rates are a … Read More
April 3, 2025
(New York Times) – She used her wealth strategically to expand opportunities for women, underwriting the development of the pill and supporting the suffrage movement. Katharine Dexter McCormick, who was born to a life of wealth, which she compounded through … Read More
April 3, 2025
(New York Times) – Orchid screens embryos’ DNA for hundreds of conditions, such as retinitis pigmentosa, which can be traced to a single genetic variant. But the company also goes further, offering what is known as polygenic screening, which gives … Read More
April 2, 2025
Hastings Center Report (vol. 55, Issue 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
April 1, 2025
(Michigan Advance) – Starting Tuesday it will no longer be a crime to enter into a surrogacy contract in Michigan. The Michigan Family Protection Act will go into effect April 1, officially repealing a ban that made Michigan the only … Read More
April 1, 2025
(Axios) – The Supreme Court on Wednesday is due to hear a high-profile case blending patients’ rights with reproductive care access, stemming from South Carolina’s move to block Medicaid recipients from getting care at Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. … Read More
March 28, 2025
(Wired) – In an advance for treating male infertility, researchers transplanted a patient with his own sperm-forming stem cells that were collected from testicular tissue when he was a child. Jaiwen Hsu was an active 11-year-old when he developed pain … Read More
March 28, 2025
(ProPublica) – Texas Republicans have proposed changes to the state’s strict abortion ban they say would make clear that doctors can terminate pregnancies for serious medical risks without having to wait until a patient’s condition becomes life-threatening. The legislation comes … Read More
March 27, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – He Jiankui stands by a controversial research approach that landed him in prison as he aims to tackle Alzheimer’s disease Chinese scientist He Jiankui set off global outrage and landed in prison after he skirted ethical … Read More
March 26, 2025
(Nature) – Data from 300,000 births reveal how essential biological measurements are altered by carrying and delivering a baby. Biologists have built one of the most detailed pictures ever of the changes that occur in women’s bodies before and after … Read More
March 26, 2025
(BBC) – Many fertility patients in the UK are being offered unnecessary add-on treatments that have little or no proof of improving the likelihood of pregnancy, a report suggests.Add-ons are optional, non-essential treatments some private clinics offer in addition to … Read More
March 25, 2025
(New York Times) – On June 24, 2022, the same day the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, I received a call from the fertility clinic where I’d been undergoing in vitro fertilization, informing … Read More
March 19, 2025
(Undark) – Fertility clinics should provide easy access to mental health support for those undergoing IVF treatments. Although literature from my fertility clinic acknowledged that in vitro fertilization would be stressful on the body and mind, those words did not … Read More
