Month: September 2012

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Multicultural IVF Call – Australia

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MULTICULTURAL donors are being called on to help fill a growing IVF demand for children from different racial backgrounds.

Demand for IVF is outstripping supply, resulting in a shortage of both sperm and eggs.

The shortage has prompted a new advertising campaign by award-winning clinic Tas IVF looking for donors.

And for the first time the clinic has called for multicultural donors.

Tas IVF director Bill Watkins said there was a growing number of people from different racial backgrounds, including people from the Middle East and India, wanting sperm and eggs. Read full article.

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Britain considers three-parent fertility treatments

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LONDON — Britain launched a public consultation Monday to ask whether controversial “three-parent” fertility treatments should be available to families hoping to avoid passing on incurable diseases.

The potential treatments, now only at research stage in laboratories in Britain and the United States, would involve implanting genetically modified embryos into women for the first time.

The techniques have become known as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) because the offspring would have genes from a mother, a father and from a female donor.

They are designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases — incurable inherited conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide. Read full article.

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Lesbian Couple, Surrogate Mother and Sperm Donor in Three-Year Legal Battle Over Right to be Child’s Parents

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A lesbian couple have won custody of a child following a court battle with the youngster’s surrogate mother and sperm donor over who could be its legal parents.

The gay women were awarded sole custody rights of the youngster after a three-year legal wrangle ended in the High Court, it emerged today.

However, the judge’s decision has left the wife of the donor traumatised and upset at the ‘selfish’ determination of the lesbian couple to have a baby. Read full article.

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Antioxidants Tied to Older Men’s Sperm Quality

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(Reuters Health) – Middle-aged and older men who get enough antioxidants in their diets may have better-quality sperm than men who are lacking in the nutrients, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among men age 45 or older, those who got the most vitamins C and E, folate and zinc tended to have fewer DNA-strand breaks in their sperm.

That’s a measure of the genetic quality of sperm, which is known to decline as a man ages.

The findings, reported in the journal Fertility and Sterility, do not prove that antioxidants directly improve sperm quality – or boost the chances of a healthy pregnancy. Read full article.

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Ottawa Doctor Inseminates Wrong Sperm

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In Ottawa Canada, a renowned fertility specialist Dr. Norman Barwin allegedly artificially inseminated three women with the wrong sperm. Barwin currently volunteered to surrender his license which is now restricted.

In 1985, a woman went to Barwin to be inseminated with her husbands sperm, which had been frozen prior to starting cancer treatments. Later giving birth to a baby boy, later to discover the child was not her husbands. Read full article.

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Chemicals’ use sacrifices our health and well-being

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This month is the 50th anniversary of the publication of “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson’s landmark book calling attention to the harmful effects of chemical pesticides, specifically DDT. She charged that pesticides caused food contamination, cancer, genetic defects and the elimination of entire species.

In a CBS documentary, Carson said, “Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” Read full article.

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Killer Whales Live on After Menopause to Protect Sons

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Killer whale mothers live longer lives in order to protect their sons, a study has found. Females give birth in their thirties but can live for a further 50 years after having their offspring. Scientists from the University of Exeter used long-term records to identify possible reasons for this long non-reproductive phase of life.

They found that the presence of mothers ensured greater survival of adult sons to breeding age.

The findings are published in the journal Science. Read full article.

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Here’s Why You Really Do Need a Man

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Hanna Rosin’s new book, “The End of Men”, has people talking. In her book, Rosin argues that women are adapting better to modern society than men are – moving into new jobs and new careers.

It’s an issue that touches a lot of nerves. Are men really necessary? Despite research out this week that suggests the answer is no, scientists say males are vital to the survival of the human race.

The study in question found that some snakes sometimes have “virgin births” without any male input. Read full article.