March 20, 2017 at 8:07 AM

Eminent UK reproductive and genetics experts have become the first in the world licensed to provide a revolutionary IVF procedure using donor DNA which they spent decades developing enabling women carrying potentially fatal mitochondrial disease to have healthy, genetically-related babies.

Mitochondrial donation to prevent mitochondrial disease has been permitted in the UK since pioneering legislative changes in 2015 and endorsement in 2016 by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), establishing the worlds first regulated system to provide mitochondrial donation.

Today the HFEA granted the first clinical mitochondrial donation licence to the Newcastle Fertility Centre at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom.

Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (AMDF) CEO Sean Murray applauded the licensing as a major step forward for the mitochondrial disease community worldwide, and congratulated Mary Herbert, Professor of Reproductive Biology at the Institute of Genetic Medicine, and her team.

Professor Herberts work developing and refining mitochondrial donation has been widely published and is internationally-renowned, along with colleague Professor Sir Doug Turnbull, director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research at the Institute of Neuroscience, Mr Murray said.

Its very exciting that women can now access mitochondrial donation through licensed, reputable clinicians in the UK who are world experts in mitochondrial disease and reproductive technologies.

The UK Government and regulators have undertaken a rigorous and comprehensive global scientific and ethical review of the treatment over a ten-year period.

Each painstaking step has added to the evidence the AMDF expects the Australian Government to consider in changing our laws to make mitochondrial donation available to Australian women, he said.

Mitochondrial donation in the UK is restricted to women at risk of having a baby suffering severe mitochondrial disease, a debilitating genetic disorder that starves the bodys cells of energy, impairing major organs like the brain, heart, liver, muscles, ears and eyes.

The disease has few treatments and no cure and can cause any symptom in any organ at any age.

The procedure is subject to numerous safeguards overseen by the HFEA such as carefully selecting women to undergo the procedure as a clinical risk reduction treatment, providing full information about potential limitations and risk, undertaking genetic testing when the embryo is at 15-weeks gestation, and closely monitoring the outcomes over time.

Mitochondrial donation could prevent at least 60 Australian babies each year from suffering a severely disabling and life-threatening form of mitochondrial disease, Mr Murray said.

The Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation and local families affected by mitochondrial disease looks forward to the Australian Government following the UKs lead and amending our laws to give families here the choice to access mitochondrial donation to have healthy biological children.

Meanwhile, the first live birth of an apparently disease-free baby to a woman at risk of passing mitochondrial disease to her child was announced in September 2016 by US scientists who carried out the procedure in Mexico, where laws do not preclude it.

However, although the AMDF cautiously welcomed the news, Mr Murray said there is concern about the lack of published information, regulation or independent monitoring.

While this appears to be a promising development demonstrating a successful outcome for mitochondrial donation to prevent mitochondrial disease, the AMDFs Scientific and Medical Advisory Panel looks forward to details being published in a peer-reviewed journal so we can closely assess the matter, Mr Murray said.

Ukrainian scientists also announced the birth in January 2017 of a baby with donor mitochondrial DNA to a woman with unexplained infertility, but without mitochondrial disease, who had been unable to conceive with conventional IVF. Details have not been published to date.

The AMDF supports making mitochondrial donation techniques available to women at risk for having children with severe forms of mitochondrial disease that could lead to a child's early death or substantial impairment, he said.

We also support regulation and strict oversight of clinics offering the procedure and recognise it will be important to monitor outcomes closely, as it would be with any new IVF technique.

The AMDF does not currently support mitochondrial donation to treat infertility. As far as we are aware, its use for purposes other than preventing inheritable disease has not been subject to rigorous scientific and ethical review or research, as has been the case for preventing mitochondrial disease.

Mitochondrial donation involves transferring nuclear genetic material from the affected mothers egg into a donor egg that has had its nuclear DNA removed and retains only its healthy mitochondrial DNA.

The mothers and fathers nuclear DNA contributes more than 20,000 genes or 99.9 per cent of the babys genetic make-up and determines its appearance, intelligence, behaviour and other personal characteristics.

The 0.1 per cent contribution (37 genes) from the donor egg means the resulting babys cells can effectively convert food and oxygen into the energy needed to power its organs.

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells that generate 90 per cent of the energy fuelling our bodies, particularly muscles and major organs. Depending on which parts of their bodies are most affected and to what extent, people with mito can lose their sight or hearing, be unable to walk, eat or talk normally, have strokes or seizures, develop liver disease or diabetes, suffer cardiac, respiratory or digestive problems, or experience developmental delays or intellectual disability.

More than 1 in 200 Australians at least 120,000 people have genetic mutations that predispose their mitochondria to fail early, and may develop mitochondrial disease sometime in their lives. Many people are symptomatic but undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, some are not yet symptomatic, and others are unknowingly at risk of passing the disease to their unborn children.

Original post:
World's first licence for mitochondrial donation IVF may enable ... - News-Medical.net

Michelle Taute busts the myth that all girls schools are free from sexism

One of the myths surrounding all girls schools is that sexism is non-existent. This is, after all, the subliminal message of marketing campaigns by such institutions, whose rhetoric focuses on the idea that girls are only able to reach their full potential through a dearth of their male counterparts. Many parents and students alike are convinced that discrimination based on gender will be prevented by simply excluding the opposite sex. As someone who has attended three all-girls schools in both England and South Africa, I am not convinced.

What we had failed to notice, was that this sexism was not just the misinformed opinion of a few, but was actually an institutional problem.

In many ways, the school I attended prior to Cambridge was at the forefront of battling sexism. Our headmistress was heavily involved in the Girls School Association and advocated the role of single-sex education in enabling the breaking of the glass ceiling. She espoused the belief that being a woman was not a limiting factor but an empowering one. This doctrine pervaded every level of my schools society. One of its most obvious manifestations was in our PSHE sessions. Overwhelmingly, our guest speakers were women who had come to share their experiences on how they had challenged the limitations put on them by virtue of their gender. Two of our most impressive speakers were Baroness Butler-Sloss and Baroness Warnock. The former is famous for being the first female Lord Justice of Appeal, while the latter helped to advise the government on embryo experimentation and chaired the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology. Both are incredibly influential members of society who are testimonies to the capabilities of women. They are the living proof that women are mens equals. Their avowal that it is possible to be a woman and reach the highest echelons of your chosen profession was an axiom my fellow pupils and I embraced whole-heartedly. Ironically, it was one of the incidents of sexism at my school which made me most aware of this fact.

Tired of how our sixth-form kitchen had become a bio-hazard, teachers decided to put up posters saying: Clean up your mess, your mother doesnt work here! While the epigram had a salient point as to the kitchens hygiene, the student body was outraged by the blatant sexism. Overnight, these posters were embellished with pictures of men and were amended to nor does your father or, in some cases, the latter clause was simply replaced with parents. I was never as proud of my fellow students as I was that week.

Unfortunately, this was not the only incident of sexism. One of the male teachers was famous for his saying: An essay should be like a girls skirt. Short enough to be interesting but long enough to have everything covered. He was not the only member of staff to hold such views. Another teacher told his class how he would not marry a woman who would not cook his dinner for him. At the age of 60, you would have thought he had mastered this skill, but evidently not. Pupils, of course, laughed this off as a product of a bygone era. These were all old, white, male teachers. Their opinions seemed immaterial to us. Yet what we had failed to notice was that this sexism was not just the misinformed opinion of a few, but was actually an institutional problem.

Why getting women in STEM is a feminist issue

The educational programme I studied, the International Baccalaureate, promoted diversity. Yet despite this, only one of the 13 texts we studied for English Literature was written by a woman. Furthermore, all of the authors were white. Our teachers were at liberty to choose the works they wanted but clearly female, ethnically diverse, and LGBT writers were not high on their list. Even at Cambridge, the English course is dominated by male works. While each of these signs on their own can appear innocuous, in the bigger picture, they show a worrying trend to value women at a lower rate than men.

While my experiences at all girls schools were largely positive, sexism does remain an issue. More needs to be done to challenge both this everyday sexism and this institutional disregard for female contribution to academic debate in the wider world. I hope Cambridge will be at the forefront of this

See the article here:
My all girls' school: empowering, feminist and sexist - Varsity Online

Another new medical textbook has confirmed that human life begins at conception.

The details in The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology by professorsKeith Moore, T.V.N. Persaud, and Mark Torchia add even more validity to the pro-life position. Even at the earliest moment, when the unborn child is a one-cell zygote, it already is a unique, living human being, the authors wrote.

Their textbook is not outside the mainstream. A few years ago, pro-life blogger Sarah Terzo compiled a list of dozens of textbooks and medical experts that also stated that human life begins at conception.

The Federalist reports about the new book:

the book confirms the premise of the pro-life movement.

The authors of this textbook state in two separate cases that human development is a continuous process that begins when an oocyte from a female is fertilized by a sperm from a male, and also that human development begins at fertilization when a sperm fuses with an oocyte to form a single cell, the zygote. In other words: human life begins at conception.

The textbook contains a number of interesting facts about an unborn babys development, starting from the moment of fertilization. Live Action News, which first reported about the new edition of the textbook, listed some of these details:

All major external and internal structures are established during the fourth to eighth weeks.

Upper limb buds are recognizable at day 26 or 27 as small swellings on the ventrolateral body walls.

Embryos in the sixth week show spontaneous movements, such as twitching of the trunk and developing limbs.

By the end of this week (8th week), the embryo has distinct human characteristics; however, the head is still disproportionately large, constituting almost half of the embryo.

SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you like this pro-life article, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!

Abortion activists, especially those at Planned Parenthood, are fond of saying that no one really knows when life begins, and a woman should be able to decide her views on the matter of abortion and human life.

Planned Parenthood Vice President Dawn Laguens recently got a lot of attention after she avoided answering interview questions on national TV about what an unborn baby is.

Fox Newss Tucker Carlson asked her, You work for the countrys biggest abortion provider, if you can hear the heartbeat of this fetus, what is it? Is it a piece of tissue or is ita separate human being?

I think thats up to each individual to decide what they believe, Laguens replied.

This is a complete denial of science. Textbooks, researchers and many others have confirmed over and over again that a baby in the womb is a separate, living human being from the moment of fertilization. To believe otherwise is wrong.

Read more here:
College Embryology Textbook Confirms: Human Development Begins at Fertilization - LifeNews.com

Welcome to The Virtual Human Embryo (VHE), a 14,250-page, illustrated atlas of human embryology, which presents all 23 Carnegie Stages of development during the 8-week embryonic period.

This $3.2 million, 11-year initiative engaged a team led by Dr. Raymond F. Gasserone of the leading embryologists of the last half century. His team created thousands of restored, digitized, and labeled serial sections from the world's largest collection of preserved human embryos. They used these serial sections to create animations, fly-throughs, and 3-D reconstructions.

The VHE is now available to researchers, educators, and students everywhere. Read More...

See the article here:
Virtual Human Embryo Project - The Endowment for Human ...

Lorin Hoffman-Lurz Published 2:59 p.m. PT March 17, 2017 | Updated 2:59 p.m. PT March 17, 2017

Undefeated members of the 3 Egg Omelet are from left to right: Kayla Hurl, Abby Milanesa and Siana Barrett. The proud moderator is Francine A. Bradley, Ph.D., extension poultry specialist emerita, U.C., Davis.(Photo: Provided)

The 2017 California State Senior Avian Bowl Finals were held Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. Several teams composed of high school aged students competed in this poultry knowledge bowl. Local student, Abby Milanesa of the Buena Vista 4-H club and her two teammates: Kayla Hurl from Parkfield and Siana Barrett from Dos Palos entered the competition as the 3 Egg Omelet. They went undefeated in each heat and claimed the California State Senior Avian Bowl Championship. In addition to each girl winning a belt buckle for their efforts, they will now advance to the National Avian Bowl contest this November which will be held at the National Poultry and Egg Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

An Avian Bowl is a double-elimination knowledge bowl based on poultry-related subject matter. 4-H members from any state who want to compete must use the Clemson University study guide to prepare. This years topics included embryology, biosecurity, understanding food poisoners and several other avian subjects. Each state hosts a qualifier in which both junior and senior teams compete against each other. Questions vary and team contestants must use a buzzer to answer the questions to earn points. Seeding is accomplished by a written exam before the competition.

This isnt 14 year old Abbys first State Avian Bowl win. I started competing in Avian Bowl when I was nine, stated Abby. That year, I was on a team with my sister, Ellie, and Mariah OGrady. It was the first year I was allowed to compete at the state level, and it was my sister and Mariahs last year eligible to compete as juniors, so it was the only year we would have ever have been able to compete together. I studied really hard and we won the State Junior competition that year.

Deirdre OGrady, one of Abbys 4-H poultry project leaders, said, Abby knew she had stiff competition going in, but with her years of Avian Bowl experience was able to finish strong. Abby continued, There were 2 teams from Ventura County, and one of them I already knew. I also knew they were really good. When I saw them, I got really nervous, and I didnt think we would beat them. After the written test, the Ventura County team was seeded first and we

were second. The first time we came up against them, initially we were losing by 10 points. Then we came back to quickly answer the knowledge questions which gave us the lead in that round, and it came down to the last question. We were the only team who beat them, and we beat them twice. It wont be the first time Abby has travelled to Kentucky. Her sister won the state title in 2015 and the family traveled to Kentucky. Ellies California team won that year. Abby said I am really excited to be going to Nationals, and I have A LOT of studying to do between now and then. I also am really glad that I have 2 very strong teammates to compete with.

To receive more information about the National Avian Bowl or the Monterey County 4-H Program, contact Lorin Hofmann-Lurz, Monterey County 4-H Program Representative at 759-7386 or lhofmannlurz@ucanr.edu.

Read or Share this story: http://bit.ly/2nAS2OP

Read more from the original source:
Abby Milanesa of the Buena Vista 4-H wins state title - The Salinas Californian

THE first three-parent babies could be born in the UK this year after doctors were given the go-ahead to start performing controversial new IVF therapy.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has granted a licence to a team at the University of Newcastle, who have pioneered the new treatment.

Getty Images

HFEA chair Sally Cheshire announced the development in her opening speech at the authoritys annual conference this morning.

She said: This significant decision represents the culmination of many years of hard work by researchers, clinical experts, and regulators, who collectively paved the way for Parliament to change the law in 2015, to permit the use of such techniques.

Patients will now be able to apply individually to the HFEA to undergo mitochondrial donation treatment at Newcastle, which will be life-changing for them, as they seek to avoid passing on serious genetic diseases to future generations.

The treatment has the potential to allow couples who carry, and therefore risk passing on, deadly genetic diseases to conceive healthy babies.

Though it is dubbed a three-parent treatment,babies born as a result of the therapy would only inherit personality traits, those that affect appearance and other features that make a person unique, from theirmum and dad not the donor.

The move comes after the HFEA gave the therapy, called mitochondrial donation, the green light in December last year.

Speaking after that historical decision, MrsCheshire said: This is life-changing for those families.

But critics have warned it marks the first step towards so-called designer babies.

The NHS is now poised to spend 8million offering the IVF to 25 couples.

The licence is the first stage of the process, and gives the Newcastle clinic the green light to perform the procedure.

The second stage requires each patient application to be individually approved by the HFEA, they confirmed.

Earlier this year the first baby to be born using the technique was welcomed into the world by his parents in Mexico.

The baby boy was born in April after his parents, who are from Jordan, were treated by a team of American specialists in the country.

Scientists at the University of Newcastle, which has been at the forefront of pioneering the treatment, have already lined up women to have the therapy, known as mitochondrial replacement therapy.

The team hopes to treat up to 25women a year with NHS funding.

Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, who has led the team at Newcastle in developing the new IVF therapy, said he is delighted for patients.

This will allow women with mitochondria DNA mutations the opportunity for more reproductive choice, he said.

Mitochondria diseases can be devastating for families affected and this is a momentous day for patients who have tirelessly campaigned for this decision.

He said in December, his team will aim to treat up to 25 carefully selected patients each year, and would offer follow-up care for any children born.

Getty Images

Fertility experts across the UK also welcomed the development.

Professor Adam Balen, chair of the British Fertility Society, said the granting of a licence to the Newcastle centre marks a historical step towards eradicating genetic diseases.

The decision is the latest step in a 10-year process from the first proof of concept studies.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, who funds the centre for mitochondrial research at Newcastle said: Affected couples in the UK who have dreamt of having a baby free of mitochondrial disease will have an option open to them for the first time, he said.

Now we must give the first patients and their doctors the time and space to discuss the next steps with the patience, sensitivity and scientific rigour that they have displayed throughout.

Fertility clinics in the UK will not automatically be given the right to offer the treatment.

Rather, each clinic will have to apply to the HFEA for permission to do so.

The Sun

Prof Balen said given their pivotal role in developing the treatment the Centre for Life at Newcastle University is likely to be the only centre approved to offer the therapy.

The pioneering therapy aims to prevent potentially fatal diseases being passed from parents to their offspring.

Babies receivingmitochondrial replacement therapy would receive a tiny amount of DNA from a third person besides their mother and father.

Fertility specialists carrying out the treatment will aim to replace abnormal genes in themitochondria small structures that are found in every human cell.

Mitochondria are small structures found in our cells. They generate energy that is used to power every part of our body. Mitochondria have their own DNA, which only controls mitochondrial function and energy production, according to the Wellcome Trust. This is completely separate from our nuclear DNA, which is what makes us who we are, governing our appearance and personality. Mitochondrial disease can be fatal, affecting multiple organs. It includes diabetes, heart problems, epilepsy and stroke-like incidents, and in serious cases death. Mitochondrial DNA disease is passed from mother to baby. The new mitochondrial donation technique, uses DNA from the mitochondria of a healthy donor, the nucleus of a mothers egg and a fathers sperm to create an embryo. The technique allows for those women who carry potentially fatal genetic mutations to have healthy babies. As the nuclear DNA is not altered, mitochondrial donation will not affect a childs appearance or personality or any other features that make a person unique. It simply allows for a child to be free of mitochondrial disease.

Source: The Wellcome Trust

To do so involves taking the DNA from themothers egg that bears thefaulty genes, and transferring it into a donor egg, with healthy mitochondria.

Because the nucleus from the mothers egg is used the technique does not affect the babys appearance, personality, or other traits that make a person unique.

It simply allows the mitochondria which only controls a cells energy production to function normally, allowing a child to be born free of mitochondrial disease, which can prove fatal.

Mitochondria only hold around 0.1per cent of a persons DNA, which is always inherited from the mother and has no influence over individual characteristics.

Alamy

But faulty mitochondrial DNA can lead to a wide range of potentially fatal conditions affecting vital organs, muscles, vision, growth and mental ability.

In theory, mitochondrial replacement can not only prevent a child developing inherited diseases, but also protect future generations.

Last year, the UK became the first country in the world to legalise mitochondrial replacement after MPs and peers voted in favour of allowing it.

Critics say the technique is not fool-proof and small numbers of faulty mitochondria may still be carried over into the child.

They also argue that unforeseen problems might occur once the procedure is used to create human babies.

For instance, replacing the DNA might have more of an impact on personal traits than has been envisaged.

Dr David King, from the watchdog group Human Genetics Alert, said the HFEA had approved experiments on babies using the technology that was dangerous and medically unnecessary.

He accused experts backing the treatments of shameless emotional blackmail and scientific misrepresentations.

Dr King added: This decision opens the door to the world of GM (genetically modified) designer babies.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

Go here to read the rest:
First 'three-parent babies' could be born in UK this year as docs secure licence to perform controversial IVF - The Sun

Researchers in Newcastle have been granted permission to use anew 'three-parent baby' fertility technique that prevents children from inheriting lethal genetic diseases.

Three-person IVF was given the go-aheadby fertility regulator the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in December.

Now the regulator has approved a licence for scientists at Newcastle University meaning the first babies to be born with donated DNA from a third woman in addition to their mother and father are expected to be born later this year.

The UK was the first country to legalise mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), as the technique is known.

One in 200 children are born with faulty genes in their mitochondria, small structures inside cells that generate energy.

This can lead to a wide range of potentially fatal conditions affecting vital organs, muscles, vision, growth and mental ability.

Just 0.1 per cent of a persons DNA is held in the mitochondria. It is always inherited from the mother and has no influence over individual characteristics such as appearance and personality.

In mitochondrial replacement,an embryo containing healthy mitochondria from the donor is combined withnuclear DNA from the babys mother and father.

In theory, mitochondrial replacement can not only prevent a child developing inherited diseases, but also protect future generations.

Critics say the technique is not foolproof and small numbers of faulty mitochondria may still be carried over into the child, and even replicate in the developing embryo.

More to follow...

Read the original here:
First 'three-parent babies' to be born this year as licence approved for new fertility technique - The Independent

Last week saw an exciting breakthrough in embryology (reported elsewhere on BioNews), as stem cells from an adult mouse were used to grow a structure resembling a mouse embryo in vitro for the first time seemingly creating something out of nothing.

If it were possible to apply this research to human embryology, it could make scientists less dependent on fertilised eggs; using in-vitro-derived embryos could speed up research and potentially assuage some ethical concerns.

This type of research and its ethical, social and legal implications sit firmly within the scope of BioNews, and within the public engagement and policy work of the Progress Educational Trust (PET). The creation of eggs and sperm outside the body has already been selected as a theme for our Annual Conference in December.

It is vital that questions such as this are discussed in BioNews by a range of commentators. We strongly believe that we should give a platform to a variety of people whether we agree with them or not so that our readers can assess different arguments and draw their own conclusions about challenging issues.

But, sadly, we can't create something out of nothing we need to raise funds to enable us to continue publishing BioNews. So please help us reach our 4,000 target via PayPal (click here), by text (text 'PROG23 10' or any other amount to 70070), or by post (as detailed here).

More here:
Creating something out of nothing - BioNews

Fifth graders at the Bolles Lower School Ponte Vedra Beach Campus science lab observed and tracked the development of chicks as part an embryology unit. The 4H of St. Johns County provided science teacher Carolyn Houston with an incubator and eggs from an egg-laying farm. The students then weighed and numbered ...

PLEASE LOG IN FOR PREMIUM CONTENT. Our website requires visitors to

to view the best local news. Not yet a subscriber?

Read more:
Bolles students observes chicks - Beaches Leader

7 March 2017 By David OSullivan david@TheCork.ie

Irish-owned Waterstone Clinic, formerly known as Cork Fertility Centre, has opened a state-of-the-art national centre of excellence at Lotamore House in Cork. The 13,000 sq ft advanced fertility unit is a major architectural and technological achievement and features a world-class laboratory with the latest embryology technology. The new development has also brought a significant boost to employment in Cork, with staff numbers at the clinic increasing by 30% to 55.

Waterstone Clinic, which consistently has one of the highest live birth rates in Europe, includes Cork Fertility, now relocated from its College Road premises to Lotamore House, as well as Waterford Fertility and Limerick Fertility. Due to the increasing number of patients travelling from Dublin, a fourth clinic, Dublin Fertility, has opened on Leeson Street.

Speaking about the new centre at Lotamore House, Medical Director of Waterstone Clinic, Dr John Waterstone said: We have been at the forefront of reproductive medicine in Ireland for 15 years and our facility in Cork reflects our achievements and ambitions as a national reproductive health care provider of the highest calibre. We believe we have created the most advanced fertility unit in the country which will allow us to provide an even better service for our patients.

Lotamore House is a historic 18th century Cork building, and we have sympathetically refurbished and restored it, preserving its fine period details while incorporating modern facilities and comforts. We have endeavoured to make a visit to Lotamore House as stress-free as possible for patients, with generous parking, spacious waiting areas and an interior design that maximises privacy.

The 1,500 sq ft laboratory space features the latest embryology technology including a large cryopreservation storage area and a dedicated Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) laboratory. PGD is a highly complex reproductive technology that prevents debilitating genetic conditions being passed on to children, and in 2014, the clinic announced the birth of the first baby in the Republic after PGD for cystic fibrosis.

The comprehensive range of treatments at Waterstone Clinic include IVF, ICSI, surgical sperm retrieval including MicroTese, sperm donation, egg donation, PGD and Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening (PGS). As the clinics medical consultants also hold Health Service Executive consultant posts, they can directly manage the care of any patients who require hospital admission or surgery.

The cutting-edge clinic is also the first in Ireland to use the new time-lapse incubator, EmbryoScope Plus. The system, which allows for the comprehensive monitoring of embryo development, will be provided free-of-charge.

Dr Waterstone stated: Most clinics in Ireland using time-lapse technology charge patients extra for the service. This practice reflects a trend towards increasing and undesirable commercialisation of assisted reproduction. I have long campaigned for regulation to combat the financial exploitation of vulnerable patients through expensive add-on investigations and treatments. Until such guidelines are in place, it is the responsibility of fertility clinics across the country to self-regulate and deliver honest advice and ethical management.

A series of patient information seminars will be held at Waterstone Clinic. The first seminar is on Thursday, March 23rd. Register at http://www.waterstoneclinic.ie/events

comments

Read more:
State-of-the-art national fertility centre of excellence opens in Cork - TheCork.ie