IN THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER
Verfaillie scores again with adult stem cells
Nitschke slams euthanasia conscience vote
Dr Nitschke said that his group was no longer seeking to change the law. "We've effectively abandoned the legislative solution; we are pursuing a technical solution. And it's not difficult to do; this is not a cure for cancer we're looking for."
In the course of his public debate with Catholic bioethicist and bishop- elect Professor Anthony Fisher at the University of Sydney, Dr Nitschke also advocated infanticide. "If a child is born and one can only see that that child will lead a life which is not worth living, as assessed by the person whose child it is, it (should be) sometimes appropriate for the child to have its life ended," he said. ~ Catholic Weekly (Sydney), Aug 24 Singapore births plummet
Economic reasons are often cited. In financial downturns in 1986 and 1998, there were significant drops in the number of births. The medical director of the Thompson Fertility Centre, Dr Cheng Li Chang, says that "raising children is becoming more costly, especially since our education system is so competitive."
But the chairman of Family Matters! Singapore, Chan Soo Sen, disagrees, saying "It's easy to blame the recession for the decline, but the main reason is that people don't view it as a priority." In fact, a generous 2001 baby bonus program which gives cash for six years to parents who have second and third children, appears to have failed -- perhaps, says sociologist Paulin Straughan, because the incentives are largely financial. People could not be blamed for putting their careers first after long, hard years in education. ~ Straits Times, Aug 20
Prescribing drugs for kids can be risky
"Most of the tools we use as paediatricians are kind of hand-me- downs that have been tested and tried in adults," a specialist in neonatal intensive care told the Boston Globe. The problem is that children are not simply smaller adults, but have a different physiology. The US Congress is considering a bill which would require that drug companies test new drugs for safety, effectiveness and dosing information for children, but it faces stiff opposition. Its opponents say that requiring special trials for children would slow down approvals of new drugs and make it more difficult to bring drugs to market. ~ Boston Globe, Aug 20 India to introduce death penalty for fake drugs
Amongst the counterfeited medicines are antibiotics, cough syrups (some with double the legal codeine level) and drugs for tuberculosis and malaria. Past investigations have uncovered drugs containing chalk powder. The committee says that India is plagued by inadequate drug testing, a shortage of drug inspectors and lack of enforcement. ~ bmj.com, Aug 23 Nature may tighten disclosure rules
The executive editor of the Nature research journals, Charles Jennings, says that his group is studying whether the authors of reviews should also be asked to provide disclosure. Last year the New England Journal of Medicine was forced to relax its requirements to allow its authors to receive up to US$10,000 from interested companies because it was unable to find authors willing to contribute if the amounts were lower.
Mr Jennings told The Scientist that good disclosure policies were needed to maintain public trust. "If the public comes to believe that basic science is systematically tainted by researchers' financial interests, that is not good for science, regardless of whether the public perception is accurate or not." ~ The Scientist, Aug 14 Egg donation: new career option for Indian women
IVF specialists from Leelavati Hospital told The Telegraph that they prefer young married women, under 33, who have already proved their fertility by giving birth. Although the donors are mostly women from poor families, university students also offer to sell their eggs.
Some Calcutta doctors are firmly opposed to paid egg donation. "Soon there could be a racket starting with some men having a group of women whose eggs they could sell," says Dr R. Soonavala. The IVF procedure is also risky for the donor because of the dangers posed by ovarian hyperstimulation, anaesthesia and egg extraction. ~ The Telegraph (Calcutta), Aug 17 IN BRIEF: thalidomide; Brazilian drugs; Vatican on cloning; lost dad
FEATURE: commercial realities of US IVF
Internet sperm marketing reaches lift-off
As an example, the first British baby conceived with sperm bought on-line was born recently to an infertile couple in south-east England. The incident was treated as a novelty by the British press. However, on-line sperm banks have been operating in the US for some time. According to the Chicago Tribune, 40% of the clients of California Cryobank, one of the few 115 American sperm banks which meets industry standards for infectious disease and genetics testing, are single women and lesbians. The other 60% are married couples who are seeking a donor similar to the husband.
This and other sperm banks provide on-line baby pictures and personality test results. "The trend is more and more corporate- marketing-oriented," says Terri Kapsalis, a health worker who is writing a book about sperm banks. "Reproductive medicine has become a cash cow for practitioners serving unmarried women who used to be denied services or made to undergo psychological testing before insemination."
As an example of the sophistication of sperm marketing, Fairfax Cryobank, in Virginia, has created "Fairfax Doctorate", a special category of sperm from donors with PhDs. "People like to buy educated sperm," comments the director of Midwest Sperm Bank, which advertises only on the internet. ~ BBC, Aug 19; Chicago Tribune, Aug 20 
Politicians should not be allowed a conscience vote on euthanasia, campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke said in a Sydney debate this month. "That has led us to where we are now," he said. "We are driven to more strategies and initiatives (such as plastic bags and carbon dioxide generators) that will ultimately let people go down this path whether politicians pass legislation or not."
The magnitude of the counterfeit drug problem in India is so great that an expert committee has recommended that the maximum penalty for sale or manufacture should be death. "Profiting from spurious drugs that might harm or kill innocent people is equivalent to mass murder," said Health Minister Sushma Swaraj. A government survey found recently that 9% of drug samples were of poor quality and that fake medicines made up 0.3% of the samples.
Egg donation is opening up as a "career option" for Indian women, like professional blood or kidney donors, says The Telegraph newspaper of Calcutta. The Indian Council of Medical Research has approved guidelines for doctors which allow them to buy eggs from women, usually for between 10,000 and 25,000 rupees.
Sex selection advertisements for a Virginia fertility clinic are running in the New York Times, the first time that the procedure has been marketed in a mainstream American publication. The Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF) offers an "exclusive scientifically-based sperm sorting gender selection procedure" called MicroSort which can be used to prevent sex-linked genetic diseases or for "family balancing".
Although two years ago the Times exposed fertility clinics advertising sex selection aimed at Indian expatriates in the US, it has failed to report similar ads in its own pages -- and on the internet, where GIVF is quite prominent. Marcy Darnovsky, of the Center for Genetics and Society, observes that the GIVF marketing techniques use "a classic consumer come-on", by offering "FREE MicroSort" for customers who sign up for the invasive and potentially dangerous procedures of egg donation or preimplantation genetic diagnosis.
ABI publications this week
by Michael Cook, The Age (Melbourne), Aug 19
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Australasian Bioethics Information
ISSN 1446-2117
Website:www.australasianbioethics.org
Director: Dr Amin Abboud
Editor: Michael Cook
New Zealand Associate: Carolyn Moynihan