Monthly Archives: October 2021

Embryology

Abortion is not an act of love – The Christian Post

By Zachary Mettler | Monday, October 18, 2021A pregnant pro-life demonstrator and her daughter kneel before the Supreme Court in Washington October 6, 2008. Amid a presidential race that may decide its future direction, the Supreme Court began a new term today with cases about tobacco company lawsuits, protecting whales from Navy sonar and a government crackdown on dirty words on television. | (Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

The abortion industry often uses lofty language to dress up appalling actions. Phrases like termination of a pregnancy, abortion care, reproductive health care and pro-choice are just a smattering of examples.

This tactic was on full display recently at the United States Capitol.

During the House Oversight Committees hearing on newly enacted pro-life laws, Dr. Ghazeleh Moayedi, an OB-GYN, testified against Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB8). The bill took effect on September 1 and outlawed abortions after a preborn babys heartbeat can be detected.

While speaking against SB8, Dr. Moayediaddedthis pernicious line.

I know firsthand that abortionsaves lives. For the thousands of people Ive cared for, abortion isa blessing, abortion is anact of love, abortion isfreedom (emphasis added)."

If you did a double-take after reading that, youre not alone.

These brash and brazen lies should shock the conscience.

Lets start with the doctors assertion that abortion saves lives.

Weve heard much about following the science over the last year and a half. And when discussing life in the womb, the science is crystal clear. Life begins at conception.

The scientific field of embryology confirms this.

Keith Moore, Ph.D.,writesinEssentials of Human Embryology, Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes or germ cells during a process known as fertilization (conception).

T.W. Sadler, Ph.D.,concludesinLangmans Medical Embryology, The development of a human begins with fertilization.

And Bruce M. Carlson,M.D., Ph.D.writesinPattens Foundations of Embryology, Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote) The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.

As to when life begins, the science is settled.

Therefore, every abortion takes at least one life. That of the preborn child.

Now, is abortion a blessing or an act of love?

Not even close.

Thomas Aquinas defined love as willing the good of the other.

A woman who actively wills the elimination and destruction of her preborn child is acting directly contrary to love. As are those men who encourage their partner to abort their child.

And if you ask almost any parent, theyll tell you that though parenthood is challenging and trying, children are a blessing.

Abortion, the violent and systematic elimination of those children, isnt.

For those who deliberately obscure what abortion really is, the Good Book has something to say: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. (Isaiah 5:20).

Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 encyclicalEvangelium Vitae, translated The Gospel of Life, wrote, Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenseless human beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon.

Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace, he added.

Americans frequently pride themselves on living in the freest, greatest, and most exceptional nation on earth. Why else would a nearly 20 foot tall, bronze Statue of Freedom sit atop our U.S. Capitol building?

But consider, can a nation that kills nearly 1 millionpreborn children each year really be called exceptional, great or free?

If you were one of the hundreds of thousands of preborn children aborted in the United States this year, how would you see our nation?

To be clear, abortion isnt an act of love.

Choosing life is.

Zachary Mettler is a staff writer for The Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family.

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Abortion is not an act of love - The Christian Post

Embryology

Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York Presents Innovative Research at ASRM’s 77th Annual Meeting – KKTV 11 News

RMA of New York leads the way with ground-breaking innovative genomics and artificial intelligence research to improve patient care and IVF success rates

Published: Oct. 19, 2021 at 9:00 AM MDT

BALTIMORE, Md., Oct. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Physicians and scientists at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York presented a record 35 original scientific abstracts at the 77th annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in Baltimore, Maryland. Research topics included single cell DNA sequencing, disparities in health care outcomes, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the patient journey.

"Despite the unprecedented and ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team of trainees, care providers, and scientists demonstrated personal resilience, scholarly excellence, and unprecedented scientific ingenuity," stated Dr. Alan B. Copperman, Co-Director of RMA of New York, Vice Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

COVID-19 and its effects on fertility and pregnancy were a focus of this year's academic congress. In a highly anticipated study led by Dr. Devora Aharon and co-authors at RMA of New York, the team explored whether there was any evidence of correlation between the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and the implantation rate of euploid embryos, and determined that vaccinated patients did not demonstrate compromised implantation rates or live birth rates. Further expanding on COVID-19 and fertility, a study by RMA of NY and Generate Life Science (Los Angeles, CA) demonstrated that sperm counts are not affected in healthy donors who test positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Jenna Friedenthal presented novel research focused on gaining greater insights into the development of mosaic embryos. Her research on single cell sequencing of whole human blastocystsexpands our current understanding of the genetic composition of human embryos. Exploring early development, the results demonstrate that some degree of embryonic mosaicism may be part of normal human embryonic blastocyst development.

Additionally, Dr. Alan Copperman and RMA of New York's Clinical Embryology Associate Laboratory Director, Richard Slifkin, were selected to host a symposium highlighting the future of fertility with artificial intelligence in the IVF laboratory. Dr. Copperman added, "This is the year we really were able to leverage big data and create personalized predictive models that provide clinical decision support to help patients make more informed decisions.From the molecular to the personal to the community level, we are making tremendous strides towards preventing and treating infertility and enhancing access to care for all."

About Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, LLP

Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York) is widely recognized as a global leader in state-of-the-art reproductive medicine. Led by an integrated team of doctors and scientists with extensive reproductive endocrinology, fertility and urology experience and training, RMA of New York consistently reports high success rates in the treatment of infertility to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RMA of New York is committed to increasing access to care by helping patients optimize their insurance coverage and access financing options for treatment. RMA of New York is sensitive to the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, women choosing single-parent motherhood, and women pursuing fertility preservation for elective indications as well as those in need of oncofertility services. Headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, RMA of New York has six patient care facilities in New York, including four facilities in Manhattan, as well as sites in Brooklyn, White Plains, Mount Kisco, throughout Long Island, and abroad in Mexico City. For more information, please visit http://www.rmany.com .

Media Contact: Agnes Stachnik, astachnik@rmany.com

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SOURCE Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York

The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc.

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Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York Presents Innovative Research at ASRM's 77th Annual Meeting - KKTV 11 News

Embryology

Is there a link between vaccines and infertility in men? – Cosmos Magazine

Vaccines do have side effects, but there are some social-media users peddling myths that COVID-19 vaccines cause male infertility and sexual dysfunction.

This is not the case there is no established link between COVID vaccines and male fertility, though falling ill with COVID-19 may pose a risk of sexual dysfunction.

Currently there is no evidence that sperm count, semen volume and sperm motility are negatively affected by a vaccine. In fact, there is no evidence that any vaccine at all causes infertility in either males or females.

One preprint study, submitted in May 2021, found no difference in sperm characteristics of 43 men before and after vaccination with Pfizer. The volunteers came from a pool of men receiving IVF services, and 32% of the participants already had ineffective sperm.

Another study published in JAMA quantified sperm volume of 45 men before and after two doses of an mRNA vaccine (either Pfizer or Moderna) and saw no decrease in sperm count 70 days the life cycle of a sperm following the second dose. In fact, it found that semen volume, sperm count and sperm motility all significantly increased.

Eight of the men had low sperm count prior to vaccination, but this increased to normal levels after.

Because the vaccines contain mRNA and not the live virus, it is unlikely that the vaccine would affect sperm parameters, the authors point out in the paper.

In 2017, about seven in 1000 men of reproductive age were affected by male infertility. With 2.8 billion people fully vaccinated globally, we would expect to see a significant and large increase in reported male infertility in 2021 except we havent seen this reported.

The International Federation of Fertility Societies, the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the British Fertility Society and the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists have all released statements that there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility.

There were no Therapeutic Goods Administration reports of infertility or fertility issues following the administration of 28.7 million vaccine doses in Australia, but there were six mentions of penile discomfort. There was no established link, however, between the vaccine and the discomfort.

Regardless, public concern does remind us that research about COVID-19, vaccines and male fertility is crucial.

The nature of vaccine hesitancy is complex. Sometimes, rumours can circulate because a question was asked that became misconstrued over time as a statement.

Other times, a fact may be taken out of context.

The Society for Male Reproduction and Urology (SMRU) and the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction (SSMR) issued a joint statement with this example: It should be noted that about 16% of men in the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial experienced fever after the second dose. Fevers can cause temporary declines in sperm production. Thus, if a man experiences fever as the result of the COVID-19 vaccine, he may experience a temporary decline in sperm production, but that would be similar to or less than if the individual experienced fever from developing COVID-19 or for other reasons.

Since the life cycle of a sperm is only 70 days, future sperm production is unlikely to be affected by a fever.

In another instance, a circulating video involving Dr Roger Hodkinson stated that ACE2 receptor is present in the testes and its actually on the cells that produce spermatozoa. The video was accompanied by rhetoric claiming that this showed vaccines were unsafe.

However, many facts were omitted.

First of all, this information was based on a paper published in Biology of Reproduction. In the study, researchers found that the ACE2 receptor, which is found on the cell membrane of some organs, was high in the testes and interacted with SARS-CoV-2. Because of this, the researchers suggested there should be further research into the association between male reproductive health and male COVID patients.

The key here is that this study was not about vaccines it was about the coronavirus itself.

The researchers told FactCheck that the paper is a hypothetical article about the potential effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on male reproductive health, not about the impact of COVID-19 vaccine on male reproductive health.

Ironically, the paper didnt prove that SARS-CoV-2 influenced male fertility, either.

But it did prompt further research.

There isnt an established link between COVID-19 and sperm count, but there is evidence that the virus is present in the testes and penis.

An autopsy of six men who died of COVID showed that three of them had a lower sperm count than expected, although this is a small sample and may not represent all survivors.

Likewise, the biopsy of another patient who recovered from COVID showed that the virus was still present in the testes three months later.

The same team also found that coronavirus affected the penis, with the virus still present in the penile tissue of two men seven and nine months after their diagnosis. Both men had developed erectile dysfunction, potentially because the infection reduced blood flow.

This trend is consistent with studies on the 2006 SARS outbreak, which is a close cousin of COVID.

A meta-analysis published in March suggested that there hadnt been enough time to assess the long-term effects of COVID-19 on sperm count and quality, but there is definite evidence of an effect on testes and penile tissue, including inflammation and testicular discomfort in up to 19% of male patients.

While the effect of COVID-19 on sperm count is inconclusive at this stage, it is still highly unlikely that COVID vaccines can cause male infertility.

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Is there a link between vaccines and infertility in men? - Cosmos Magazine

Embryology

Assisted reproductive technology: Definition, types, and ethics – Medical News Today

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) refers to fertility treatments and procedures that can help with difficulties or an inability to conceive children. ART techniques involve the manipulation of eggs, sperm, or embryos to increase the likelihood of a successful pregnancy.

Infertility is when people cannot conceive after a period of regular sexual intercourse without the use of birth control. Evidence suggests that roughly 10% of women aged 1544 in the United States have difficulty conceiving or staying pregnant. Research also indicates that worldwide, 812% of couples experience fertility problems, and 4050% of cases may stem from factors that affect males.

According to the CDC, approximately 1.9% of all U.S. infants are born using ART. While the technology can be successful, it can also be expensive. Individuals wishing to conceive a child using ART in the U.S. can check their infertility coverage by state.

In this article, we will discuss some of the different types of ART, including their success rates, benefits, risks, costs, and the ethics of the technology.

ART refers to medical procedures that aim to achieve pregnancy. These complex treatments involve influencing gametes, or eggs and sperm, to increase the chances of fertilization. ART is typically an option for people for whom other infertility treatments may not work or those who have already tried treatment but have not become pregnant.

People considering ART will often discuss options with a healthcare professional and may require a consultation from a fertility specialist.

While people primarily use ART to address infertility, others may use it for genetic purposes or avoid pregnancy complications. Some people may also refer to ART as fertility treatment or medically assisted reproduction.

It may be difficult for many people to access fertility services such as ART due to its high cost and limited coverage by private insurance and Medicaid.

There are several types of ART procedures that involve different techniques and reproductive cells. A doctor can advise which ART will be most suitable depending on the circumstances. The most common type is in vitro fertilization (IVF).

IVF involves a doctor extracting eggs and fertilizing them in a special lab. Specialists can combine this with an embryo transfer (IVF-ET) and transfer the resulting embryos into a persons uterus. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology states that IVF-ET accounts for 99% of ART procedures.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists the 2018 success rates of IVF treatments for one oocyte retrieval from people using their own eggs as:

A person may also use a tool called an IVF success estimator to estimate their chance of having a baby using IVF.

It may take more than one IVF cycle to result in pregnancy, and some people may not conceive with IVF at all. The benefits of IVF are an increased chance of fertilization and pregnancy. Potential complications may include:

The National Conference of State Legislatures lists the average cost of a single IVF cycle as $12,00017,000.

Click here to learn more about IVF.

Some methods of ART are similar to IVF but use laparoscopic surgery to deliver the gametes directly into the fallopian tube. Some people may choose this method for religious reasons, or their insurance may only cover this type of ART.

Similar to other forms of ART, there is an increased chance of multiple pregnancy. Additionally, due to the laparoscopy, there is a risk of complications from the surgery, such as infection, organ puncture, or side effects from anesthesia. Intrafallopian transfers are typically more expensive than IVF.

Due to the higher costs and risks of this type of ART, specialists rarely use these procedures. As such, there is not much data available on their success rates.

Types include:

Frozen embryo transfer (FET) has become increasingly common in the U.S. It involves thawing previously IVF frozen embryos and inserting them into a persons uterus. A 2017 study found that 52% of people who had FET had ongoing pregnancies.

According to the United Kingdoms Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, FET is as safe as using fresh embryos in treatment. However, some evidence suggests an increased risk of preterm birth with FET. Another possible risk of FET is that not all frozen embryos survive the thawing out process.

The estimated cost of FET varies but can be up to $6,000.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a procedure that specialists can perform alongside IVF to help fertilize an egg. An embryologist, or embryo specialist, uses a tiny needle to inject a single sperm directly into the center of an egg.

ICSI fertilizes between 5080% of eggs. The success rate of ICSI is similar to those of IVF, and it may be an effective method of ART for people with sperm-related infertility. ICSI is typically an add-on procedure to IVF, so it will be more costly than IVF alone.

Things to consider about ICSI include the following:

Third-party ART is when another individual donates eggs, sperm, or embryos to an individual or couple. It can also include surrogate and gestational carriers. These refer to when another person is either inseminated with sperm from the couple using ART or implanted with an embryo from those using ART.

Evidence suggests that 50% of transfers with donated frozen embryos result in pregnancy, and 40% result in a live birth. Other benefits of third-party ART include the following:

Depending on which type people choose, third-party ART can be very costly. Sperm donation is typically the cheapest option, costing around $1,000 per vial.

The other options can vary in cost for a single vial, and many cycles will require multiple vials. Estimated costs are:

Preparation for an ART treatment includes practicing behaviors that may help improve the chances of ART success. This can involve dietary changes, such as taking supplements that a healthcare professional recommends and reducing alcohol and caffeine intake.

It could also involve regular exercise and quitting smoking. Once ART is successful, prenatal care and tests can keep the pregnant person and baby healthy during pregnancy.

Many aspects of ART raise ethical issues, such as:

There are no simple answers on the ethical issues of ART. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has a collection of ethics documents available here.

Persons considering ART can review their state laws or call the Office on Womens Health Helpline at 1-800-994-9662.

Many types of ART are available to treat infertility. The success rates of ART vary according to the type of ART people choose, and factors such as the individuals age and health.

A specialist will suggest ART based on an individual or couples preferences and type of infertility while also weighing the risks, benefits, and costs.

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Assisted reproductive technology: Definition, types, and ethics - Medical News Today

Embryology

Polygenic screening of embryos is here, but is it ethical? – The Guardian

The birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978 provoked a media frenzy. In comparison, a little girl named Aurea born by IVF in May 2020 went almost unnoticed. Yet she represents a significant first in assisted reproduction too, for the embryo from which she grew was selected from others based on polygenic screening before implantation, to optimise her health prospects.

For both scientific and ethical reasons, this new type of genetic screening is highly controversial. The nonprofit California-based organisation the Center for Genetics and Society (CGS) has called its use here a considerable reach by the assisted-reproduction industry in the direction of techno-eugenics.

The polygenic screening for Aurea was provided by a New Jersey-based company called Genomic Prediction. The gene-sequencing company Orchid Biosciences in California now also offers an embryo-screening package that assesses risks for common diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and schizophrenia.

Genetic screening of IVF embryos for health reasons, known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis or PGD, is not new in itself. In the UK, it is permitted by the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates assisted conception technologies, to look for specific gene variants associated with around 500 diseases, including cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs disease.

The diseases conventionally screened with PGD are mostly caused by a mutation in only a single gene. They can be nasty but are typically rare. In contrast, most common health problems, such as heart diseases or type 2 diabetes, are polygenic: caused by complex interactions among several, often many, genes. Even if particular gene variants are known to increase risk, as for example with the BRCA1/2 variants associated with breast cancer, such links are probabilistic: theres no guarantee that people with that variant will get the disease or that those who lack it will not.

Thats simply how most genes work: in complex, interconnected and often poorly understood ways, so that the gene variants an individual carries dont guarantee which traits they will develop. And environmental factors such as upbringing and diet, as well as unpredictable quirks of embryo development, also have a role. Were products of (genetic) nature, nurture, chance and an interplay between all three.

Yet the availability today of genetic data for many thousands of individuals, thanks to the plummeting costs of genome sequencing and the popularity of genomic profiling companies such as 23AndMe and Orchid, has transformed our understanding of how genes relate to traits. The technique known as a genome-wide association study (GWAS) can sift through vast databanks to look for statistical associations between an individuals gene variants and pretty much any trait we choose. Such studies have found that often substantial amounts of the differences between individuals can be linked to different variants (alleles) of many genes. Each gene might contribute only a tiny effect too small to be apparent without plenty of data - but added together, the influence of the genes can be significant.

So someones genetic profile the variants in their personal genome can be used to make predictions about, say, how likely they are to develop heart disease in later life. They can be assigned a so-called polygenic risk score (PRS) for that condition. Aureas embryo was chosen because of low PRSs for heart disease, diabetes and cancer. PRSs can be used to predict other things too, such as a childs IQ and educational attainment.

But such predictions are probabilistic, both because we cant say exactly how our genes will play out in influencing that trait and because genes arent the only influence anyway. So theres nothing inevitable or deterministic about a PRS. An individual with a high PRS for skin cancer might never develop it, while someone who scores low might do so. Someone with a genetic profile that predicts a modest IQ might turn out to be brilliant.

This is one reason why using PRSs in embryo screening which is legal and largely unregulated in the US is controversial. Unlike single-gene diseases, where the health outcome can be almost certain, its not clear how much faith we can put in predictions for polygenic traits. Yet we make choices based on probabilities all the time. We cant be sure that a particular school will be best for our childs education, but we may decide it will improve the chances of a good outcome. If one embryo has low PRSs for common diseases and another has high ones, doesnt it make sense to pick the first? Aureas father, North Carolina neurologist Rafal Smigrodzki, has argued that part of a parents duty is to make sure to prevent disease in their child. Polygenic testing, he says, is just another way of doing that.

Embryo screening is already used for BRCA1 and 2, even though it is by no means certain that women who carry them will develop breast cancer. Advocates of PRS screening say that it merely improves the risk assessment by widening the genetic factors considered. Most families with a history of breast cancer do not carry the BRCA allele and would benefit from polygenic screening, says Genomic Predictions founder, Stephen Hsu, a professor of physics at Michigan State University. The potential public health benefits are huge. Ethics philosophers Sarah Munday and Julian Savulescu have argued in favour of allowing polygenic screening for any trait that can be shown to be correlated with a greater chance of a life with more well-being.

Theres a scientific basis to the concept [of PRSs] and its a type of genetic assessment that has a future in medicine, says bioethicist Vardit Ravitsky of the University of Montreal. Yet most regulators and many experts feel that there is not yet any justification for using them to try to improve the health outcomes of IVF children. Its not seen as ready for primetime use, says Ravitsky. Its still at a research stage. So when you start jumping straight into implementation, especially in a reproductive context, youre in a minefield. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine in July pointed out that benefits of PRS embryo selection are likely to be very small, all the more so for people not of European heritage, for whom genomic data are less extensive and so less reliable for prediction.

If PRS gives you the power to reduce your offsprings lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes from 30% to 27%, is that worth the time, money, and emotional investment? asks bioethicist Hank Greely of Stanford University in California. And to whom? Thats very different, he says, from the confidence with which single-gene diseases can be screened and avoided.

And once such screening methods are permitted, where does it stop? Already, American couples can screen embryos for gender, complexion and eye colour. Whats to stop a company offering to screen for a non-disease trait such as height or intelligence? Theres no reason to think polygenic embryo screening will end with conditions like heart disease and diabetes, says Katie Hasson, associate director of the CGS. Screening for schizophrenia and other mental illnesses is already on offer. These directly echo eugenic efforts to eliminate feeble-mindedness. We are talking about deciding who should be born based on good and bad genes.

Genomic Prediction has previously offered to screen for gene variants associated with intellectual disability, but Hsu stresses that now the company only offers the service for serious disease risks. We decided that traits like height and cognitive ability are too controversial and detract from our ability to help families reduce disease risk, he says.

Its not clear that screening for such non-disease traits would work anyway. I think the things that parents are most interested in, like intelligence, sports and musical ability, will have extremely small to nonexistent convincing PRS results, says Greely. A study in 2019 suggested that using polygenic screening to select embryos for height and IQ would be likely to make only a tiny difference on average and theres a fair chance you wouldnt end up picking the best embryo.

So what should be permitted? Hsu says: We hope that in the future, society as a whole, perhaps on a nation-by-nation basis, will reach a consensus on which non-disease traits are acceptable for embryo screening. Some have objected to his implication that, say, welfare dependence or criminality are in the genes. Hsu has also attracted controversy because of his comments on whether there are genetically based differences in IQ between racial groups, although he says he is agnostic on the issue. An outcry about his remarks on such matters compelled him to resign in 2020 as his universitys senior vice-president of research and innovation.

Hsu was also one of the scientists suggested by Dominic Cummings to run the UKs new Advanced Research and Invention Agency. In 2014, Cummings blogged about how the NHS should cover the cost of selecting embryos for IQ; in 2019, he was pictured outside 10 Downing Street with Hsu.

To avoid any Gattaca-style genetic stratification of society, Hsu has expressed the hope that progressive governments will make this procedure free for everyone. But Hasson believes that this wouldnt solve the problems of inequality that such techniques could exacerbate. Even if PRSs for smartness, say, have little real predictive value, she says that belief in genomic predictions can itself be a driver of intense inequalities in society by reinforcing ideas of genetic determinism. Families that invest their money, time and hopes in this kind of screening and selection will have children they believe are genetically superior and those children will be treated as superior by their parents, care-givers and educators.

Social pressure could make it hard to resist polygenic screening if its on offer in our hyper-competitive societies. Once you do IVF, you feel pressure to use any add-on service or test that the clinic offers you, says Ravitsky. Look at what happens today when a woman declines prenatal screening or amniocentesis. Many women feel judged, not just by peers but by healthcare providers. The idea that its all about autonomy of choice can be an illusion, she says.

Even if PRSs have little real value in forecasting the prospects of a child, evidently a market exists for them. In countries such as the US where assisted conception is weakly regulated, companies can make unrealistic and exploitative promises. Couples might even elect to have a child via IVF specifically to avail themselves of such opportunities. Its a gruelling process that carries risks in itself, but women might feel compelled to use it, even though Ravitsky thinks that allowing someone to do so for this reason alone would be borderline malpractice.

Yet the genie is out of the bottle. I believe that polygenic screening will become very common in the near future, Hsu says. Reasonable people will wonder why the technology was ever controversial at all, just as in the case of IVF. The HFEA is still considering its implications, says its chief executive, Peter Thompson, who stresses that it is currently illegal in the UK. Even if there were more scientific consensus about the value of PRSs, he adds, there is an important distinction between embryo selection to avoid serious harm and for so-called enhancement, like greater intelligence. The latter would represent a fundamental public policy shift. It raises a range of ethical concerns and could only be contemplated if it has the backing of society more generally, he says.

We urgently need public and policy conversations about polygenic embryo screening, says Hasson. Finding the right balance between autonomy and social responsibility is the fundamental dilemma of liberal democracies. We let people spend their money, and make decisions powerfully affecting their kids, on far more clearly bogus information than PRS, says Greely.

As a society, were very far from knowing how we want to use these potential technologies, says Ravitsky, but, she adds, we are already living in the grey zone.

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Polygenic screening of embryos is here, but is it ethical? - The Guardian

Embryology

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Earliest evidence of herd-living and age segregation amongst dinosaurs | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

Embryology

Opinion: Ireland’s outdated definition of ‘Mother’ leaves thousands of families in limbo – TheJournal.ie

ITS INCREDIBLY SAD when your children have fewer rights than other children because of who you love and who you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Irene moved home with her wife Maude and their two children from Belgium last year: We quickly realised our childrens legal connection to my wife had been stripped away just by moving across borders. Maude is our childrens genetic mother. Legally, she is a stranger.

Under Irish law, children who are donor-conceived and born outside of Ireland to same-sex parents cannot be legally connected to both parents. This is based on the patriarchal definition of mother enshrined in Irish law as a female who gives birth. This characterisation assumes that the only way to be an emotional and physical caregiver is to give birth.

Yet, for heterosexual couples with donor-conceived children, even when the child isnt genetically connected to either parent, as long as the mother gives birth, both parents are automatically on the birth certificate.

Assisted reproduction

The Children and Family Relationships Act signed into Irish law last May stipulates if a child is born through assisted reproduction, both parents can now be on the birth certificate.

But you must be two women who conceive through an Irish fertility clinic, with a traceable sperm donor and your children must be born in Ireland. Couples can apply for retrospective parentage, even if they used a foreign clinic but only if their children were conceived before May 2020 and were born in Ireland. Gay male couples who use surrogacy and thousands of families like Irene and Maudes are excluded.

Irene and Maudes two children were conceived through Reciprocal IVF in Belgium. This means the couple used Maudes eggs but Irene was their childrens birth mother. Despite this, Maude has no legal claim to her biological children because she didnt physically give birth and they were born in Belgium.

Irene and Maude with family Source: Dearbhla Crosse

Ranae von Meding, CEO of Equality for Children, and her wife Audrey faced similar difficulties prior to the change in the law.

I gave birth to both of our children but my wife is their biological mother. We are covered under recent legislation as our children were born in Ireland and conceived before 2020. But we still havent been able to get their birth certificates changed.

The majority of LGBT+ couples and around one in six heterosexual couples in Ireland require assisted reproduction to conceive a child. Since Ireland is one of two EU countries not providing public funding for fertility treatment, the cost is so prohibitive that many are forced to access services abroad. Back in 2015, Reciprocal IVF wasnt even available in Ireland so Ranae and Audrey had Reciprocal IVF in Spain and their embryos are still in Portugal.

If we want to use our embryos, any future children we have wont be covered as technically they will have been conceived after May 2020. Potentially we could face a situation where some of our children would have legal rights to both their parents but our other children wont.

Surrogacy

When it comes to surrogacy, there isnt any legislation. Infertility, medical conditions or being in a same-sex couple are just three reasons why people consider surrogacy. A woman (surrogate) gives birth to a child on behalf of a couple or individual usually by carrying the embryo created solely by the intended parents.

Many Irish heterosexual couples undergo surrogacy in Ukraine where they are automatically the legal parents once the child is born. Yet, under Irish law, the surrogate is considered the mother, even if she has no biological link to the child. The legal definition of mother discriminates against all couples who use surrogacy as their child is birthed by a surrogate.

Although mothers can apply for guardianship after two years, this only lasts until the child is 18. In theory, a mother can gain legal rights to her child by adopting them but so far no family has been successful. This is because certain medical issues like previous cancer are the very reason women who choose surrogacy cannot avail of adoption.

Aisling had twins through surrogacy in Ukraine in 2017 after recurrent miscarriages. Yet, she wasnt entitled to maternity leave a right afforded to all other parents, including adoptive parents. She also cant bring her children out of Ireland without signed permission from their father.

The Report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction recommended that a child born through surrogacy should be that of the commissioning couple.

As Aisling says, legislature must allow us to be legal mothers; I am the only mother my children have ever known.

As Ukraine only allows heterosexual couples to avail of surrogacy, same-sex couples go to the UK, US, or Canada. Gordon and his husband Dan went to Canada as it was important to have both their names on the birth certificate. But as soon they got to Ireland, it was invalid because the mother who gave birth has to be on it.

Their daughter was born in Canada during lockdown last year just before Canada was placed on the mandatory hotel quarantine list.

We said we couldnt quarantine in a hotel in Dublin with our three-year-old and two-week-old baby but were told if we got arrested our children would be taken away from us as legally we had no claim. Fortunately, the government changed the criteria allowing babies 30 days or younger to quarantine at home. We flew on her the 29th day.

But while transiting through Heathrow, security confiscated the breastmilk, leaving them without even formula to feed their daughter. Gordon says:

Border control asked what our relationship was to our children despite showing them the documents. Eventually they agreed to issue our children visitors visas as they have Canadian passports. We nearly missed the flight. We had no bags, no buggies, no breastmilk. I cried all the way home.

Biological fathers arent automatically recognised under Irish law and the legal father of the child is the person married to the surrogate. Gordon says the government shouldnt just fix the legislation for one group but fix it for everyone, We have to prove guardianship in court. In Canada, there are legal frameworks in place to protect both us as parents and our surrogate. The legal hoops and costs it takes to bring children born to a surrogate home to Ireland are discriminatory. All I want is for future generations to not have to deal with this.

Why the delays?

EU Commission President Ursula Van der Leyen has stated that a parent in one country should be considered a parent in all countries. So why is this not the case?

Firstly, Irish law has not caught up with developments in embryology and assisted reproduction legislation. Equally, Irene says, Its difficult to ensure parentage in one EU member state transfers to another. Family law and the definition of a family is a member state competence, which isnt something the EU can impose.

Gordon, Dan and their eldest child Tadhg. Source: Dan and Gordon

The Irish state is however legally obliged to comply with the Convention of the Rights of the Child within which Article 8 requires recognition of parent-child relationships involving a genetic link. So far, it hasnt.

For the first five years of their childrens lives, Ranaes wife Audrey wasnt legally allowed to do anything.

A parent who isnt considered a legal parent cant make basic decisions about their childs upbringing like consent to a blood test, a vaccination or educational facilities. Children wouldnt benefit from the same family inheritance law.

Ranae says, If the legal parent were to become incapacitated, the unrecognised parent has no legal right to their child and thats very frightening.

With surrogacy, as legal guardianship ends at 18, children wont be able to make future decisions about parental care if anything unexpected happened.

Secondly, there is no internationally accepted legislation on surrogacy. Commercial surrogacy is still illegal here and throughout most of Europe. But like most reproductive health restrictions, making it illegal doesnt make it safer.

This leads to concerns not only for the protection of intending parents but the welfare of surrogate mothers. Irish Families Through Surrogacy says Irish solicitors only work with reputable clinics in Ukraine and the Irish embassy there will help ensure more stringent parameters, yet more urgent legislation in Ireland is needed to protect our children.

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Karen Tobin, partner at Family law firm Comyn Kelleher Tobin says, the Assisted Reproduction Bill wont go far enough in its current format as it only considers altruistic surrogacy with a genetic connection and doesnt include international surrogacy.

The further delay on international surrogacy legislation announced this week is another devastating blow to the thousands of families in legal limbo. Irish Families Through Surrogacy expressed its dismay at the Sunday Business Post report that this will now no longer happen due to legal constraints.

The 1994 Hague Convention significantly improved international adoption standards, so similar criteria is necessary for the regulation of surrogacy, such as a register of countries with like-minded human rights charters.

The State is failing to recognise the varying facets of parenthood. At a minimum, birth certificates should simply register parents and the definition of mother must be amended to reflect this. As the fabric of families changes, so too must Irish law.

As Ranae says, Ireland should be shamed for what theyve done to our families. In 2015, Ireland said yes to love. What we have now isnt equal.

Dearbhla Crosse is a freelance writer, teacher and advocate on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

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Opinion: Ireland's outdated definition of 'Mother' leaves thousands of families in limbo - TheJournal.ie

Physiology

Stress and the gut: pathophysiology, clinical consequences …

Stress, which is defined as an acute threat to homeostasis, shows both short- and long-term effects on the functions of the gastrointestinal tract. Exposure to stress results in alterations of the brain-gut interactions ("brain-gut axis") ultimately leading to the development of a broad array of gastrointestinal disorders including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other functional gastrointestinal diseases, food antigen-related adverse responses, peptic ulcer and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The major effects of stress on gut physiology include: 1) alterations in gastrointestinal motility; 2) increase in visceral perception; 3) changes in gastrointestinal secretion; 4) increase in intestinal permeability; 5) negative effects on regenerative capacity of gastrointestinal mucosa and mucosal blood flow; and 6) negative effects on intestinal microbiota. Mast cells (MC) are important effectors of brain-gut axis that translate the stress signals into the release of a wide range of neurotransmitters and proinflammatory cytokines, which may profoundly affect the gastrointestinal physiology. IBS represents the most important gastrointestinal disorder in humans, and is characterized by chronic or recurrent pain associated with altered bowel motility. The diagnostic testing for IBS patients include routine blood tests, stool tests, celiac disease serology, abdominal sonography, breath testing to rule out carbohydrate (lactose, fructose, etc.) intolerance and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Colonoscopy is recommended if alarming symptoms are present or to obtain colonic biopsies especially in patients with diarrhoea predominant IBS. The management of IBS is based on a multifactorial approach and includes pharmacotherapy targeted against the predominant symptom, behavioural and psychological treatment, dietary alterations, education, reassurance and effective patient-physician relationship. When evaluating for the stress-induced condition in the upper GI tract, the diagnostic testing includes mainly blood tests and gastroscopy to rule out GERD and peptic ulcer disease. The therapy for these conditions is mainly based on the inhibition of gastric acid by proton pump inhibitors and eradication of Helicobacter pylori-infection. Additionally, melatonin an important mediator of brain gut axis has been shown to exhibit important protective effects against stress-induced lesions in the gastrointestinal tract. Finally, probiotics may profoundly affect the brain-gut interactions ("microbiome-gut-brain axis") and attenuate the development of stress-induced disorders in both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Further studies on the brain-gut axis are needed to open new therapeutic avenues in the future.

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Stress and the gut: pathophysiology, clinical consequences ...

Physiology

New faculty profile: Joe Pierre studies diet, gut physiology, and the microbiome in health and disease eCALS – wisc.edu

Joe Pierre joined the UWMadison faculty in October 2021 as an assistant professor in the Department on Nutritional Sciences. Funding for this nutrition-focused position comes from the Dairy Innovation Hub, which has supported 11 faculty positions so far at UWMadison, UWPlatteville and UWRiver Falls.

What is your hometown? Where did you grow up?I grew up in Green Bay and Door County, Wisconsin, a little over 2 hours northeast of Madison.

What is your educational/professional background, including your previous position?I attended UWMadison as an undergraduate (BS in natural science) where I was a student athlete in track and cross country from 2005-2008. I then completed a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences through the IGPNS program at UW. Following graduation, my postdoctoral fellowship training was in gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the UW faculty, I was most recently an assistant professor of pediatrics, microbiology, immunology, and biochemistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

How did you get into your field of research?The gastrointestinal tract serves as the largest external surface of the body and is tasked with digesting and absorbing nutrients, mediating cohabitation with trillions of microorganisms, and acting at the largest endocrine and immune organ. As I learned more about the many important roles the gut plays in human health, I became more fascinated by how diet and resident microbial communities fundamentally shape metabolic and immune responses in the gut and throughout the body. My fellowship training was focused on the tools and concepts for studying the gut microbiome and host metabolites. Putting all these experiences together, it was a natural next step to bring these experiences and interests back to the field of nutritional sciences.

What are the main goals of your current research program?My research program has been centered around understanding the roles of diet, gut physiology, and the microbiome in health and disease. We have existing NIH funding examining the role of diet and bariatric surgery on breast cancer outcomes, the role of the microbiome/mycobiome in inflammatory bowel disease, and how extraintestinal microbial communities (in circulation) shape cardiovascular events. At UW, my program will continue to utilize diverse experimental tools (bariatric surgery, parenteral nutrition, gnotobiotics, microbial sequencing, and enteroids) to gain deeper insights into nutritionally relevant areas emphasizing dairy components in the context of disease treatment, prevention and optimizing human health.

What attracted you to UWMadison? UWMadison is a research powerhouse with thousands of talented faculty colleagues, laboratory resources, core facilities, along with thoughtful and hardworking students and trainees to interact with. If there is a scientific hypothesis worth testing, you can successfully pursue it at the UW.

What was your first visit to campus like?I believe my first visit to campus was as a child (my brother was an engineering student), but I remember touring campus as a high school track recruit with then head coach, Ed Nuttycombe. The impression and beauty of this campus never gets old.

Whats one thing you hope students who take a class with you will come away with?I hope my students are inspired by the materials and concepts and go on to pursue lifelong curiosity outside of the classroom that enriches their lives and professional careers.

Do you share your expertise and experiences with the public through social media? If so, which channels do you use?I am an infrequent user of social media but maintain a Twitter and LinkedIn account.

Do you feel your work relates in any way to the Wisconsin Idea? If so, please describe how.Absolutely. The pursuit of basic and translational research knowledge especially in metabolism, nutrition, and health benefits the residents of Wisconsin and beyond. More specifically, a key emphasis of my program is gaining deeper insights into the use of dairy components and products in human health and nutrition. Milk is a fundamentally important source of nutrition in mammalian biology. Dairy products contain complete protein, hundreds of bioactive peptides and enzymes, and unique lipids that have been key assets to human agriculture and success for millennia. Beyond human health, dairy is economically important to Wisconsin and many populations around the globe.

Whats something interesting about your area of expertise you can share that will make us sound smarter at parties?It may sound clich, but we really are a product of what we eat. Beyond energy, our diets begin an enormously complex cascade of metabolites, microbial adaptation and selection, and host cell and organ system responses that are fascinating and interconnected in many ways that were still trying to understand. Appreciating the catalyzing role of diet synergizes with the biochemical, genetic, environmental, lifestyle and microbiological academic pursuits in understanding human biology.

What are your hobbies and other interests?As a father of several young kids, I spend a lot of time at home, with the occasional camping trip or golf outing.

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New faculty profile: Joe Pierre studies diet, gut physiology, and the microbiome in health and disease eCALS - wisc.edu

Physiology

This day in history, October 18: James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins honored with Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for…

Ten years ago: Fifty wild animals were released by the owner of a Zanesville, Ohio, farm, Terry Thompson, who then took his own life; authorities killed 48 of the creatures, while the remaining two were presumed eaten by other animals. Republican presidential candidates laced into each other in a debate in Las Vegas; Mitt Romney emerged as still the person to beat, even as he was called out on the issues of illegal immigration, health care and jobs. Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (gee-LAHD shah-LEET) emerged from five years in captivity as Hamas militants handed him over to Egyptian mediators in an exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

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This day in history, October 18: James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins honored with Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for...