Swedish Womb Transplant Update

One of the nine women who received uterus transplants in Sweden earlier this year has now had a fertilized embryo transferred into her body. The embryo is from the woman's own egg, so if it implants and if she can carry to term, the resultant baby would be her genetic child. The woman suffered from MRKH syndrome, which prevents proper uterine development but does not affect ovaries or eggs. The donated uterus came from the woman's own mother, so if the procedure works, she would not only be the first woman to bear a live child with a donor uterus, but also the first woman to bear a child with the uterus from which she, herself, earlier emerged.

Harvard Prof Isn't Recruiting Neanderthal Moms

Oh, good. This story isn't true. There isn't actually a Harvard professor who wants to recruit a woman to bear a Neanderthal child from an embryo constructed, using stem-cell and cloning technology, from Neanderthal bone DNA. Turns out there was some translation error in the account of his interview with a German magazine. And the professor is upset. He's not actually proposing to clone a Neanderthal baby; he only thinks the issue should be up for discussion. For several years.
Oh, good.

Gingrich Would Ban Stem Cell Research, Regulate IVF

Newt Gingrich is telling conservative audiences in Florida that, if elected, he will ban all human embryonic stem-cell research, including research done on excess embryos from fertility clinics. He regards embryonic stem-cell research as "the use of science to desensitize society over the killing of babies." This is a reversal of positions he took in two different interviews in 2001, in which he expressed support for federally funding research on leftover fertility-clinic embryos which would otherwise be discarded. Over this weekend Gingrich also indicated that he would create a commission to look into the ethics of IVF: “I believe life begins at conception, and the question I was raising was what happens to embryos in fertility clinics, and I would favor a commission to look seriously at the ethics of how we manage fertility clinics....If you have in vitro fertilization, you are creating life; therefore, we should look seriously at what the rules should be for clinics that are doing that, because they are creating life.”

The roughly $125 million saved by cutting all of NIH's human embryonic stem-cell research funding could presumably be used to help offset some of the billions and billions of dollars required to create the new moon-base Gingrich says he wants by the end of his second term.

Who Should Control the Use of Frozen Embryos?

An Argentinian court has held that a woman can, over her ex-husband's objections, attempt to achieve pregnancy using frozen embryos created when they were still married. Here's the AP story. This is out of line with most previous holdings in the same area. A small number of US courts have held in favor of husbands who wanted to prevent their ex-wives from using frozen embryos left over from the happier days of their marriages. Look at Ellen Waldman's work, here. The UK held the same, and the European Court of Human Rights declined to overturn them. About the only court in the world, before this Argentinian case, to hold in favor of the woman, was Israeli--and this was consistent with a long, but complex and controversial, pronatalism of Israeli law. Have a look at Ellen Waldman's scholarship in this area. .