Older mothers and global/national responsibilities

Much of the debate about elderly motherhood has focussed on the anomalous situation of a woman simultaneously qualifying for an old age pension and child benefit. It is an engaging topic, but the discussion needs to be widened to include a consideration of global/national responsibilities: the relationship of a woman who provides an egg to, following its fertilisation, the woman in whom the embryo is implanted....[Read More]

What has happened to the review of the Polkinghorne Guidelines on research using fetal tissue?

In England and Wales in 2007, almost 200,000 women elected to terminate a pregnancy. Yet my research into fetal stem cells carried out under the ESRC Stem Cell Initiative, found obtaining fetal tissue for research, including stem cell research, surprisingly difficult (1). To some extent the quasi-official regulations that govern...[Read More]

What matters to women considering stem cell research using aborted fetuses?

This January, ReNeuron Group Plc announced that the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had granted permission for a Phase I clinical trial of its ReN001 stem cell therapy in the treatment of patients left disabled by an ischaemic stroke, the most common form of the condition. The...[Read More]