News and blogs

Frances Flinter, Council Member and Chair of the our reproduction, parenthood and families Advisory Group explores the timeliness and purpose of our embryo models project.

We are conducting a rapid review project to assess and advise on the ethical and regulatory issues raised by research using human stem cell-based embryo models.

We have published our new five-year strategy ‘Making ethics matter’.

The Department of Health and Social Care has received a set of recommendations from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for changes to the HFE Act, which governs fertility treatments and embryo research in the UK.

Ranveig Svenning Berg explores the topic of surrogacy in the UK, following proposals published in March, for reforms to the current laws.

It has been reported in the media that a small number of babies have been born in the UK following the use of mitochondrial DNA transfer techniques.

The Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission have published their joint proposals for a new law and system to govern surrogacy in the UK.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ new policy briefing suggests that an update to the current law on surrogacy in the UK is needed to help provide better support and protection to surrogates, surrogate children, and their families.

Frances Flinter – Council Member and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Genetics at Guy’s & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust – talks us through some important issues to consider in relation to the introduction of whole genome sequencing of newborn babies.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is pleased to announce it has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care to conduct an independent review of the disagreements that can arise between families and healthcare teams in the care of critically ill children in England.

The Australian Senate have passed a Bill, known as ‘Maeve’s law’, that will make it legal for those at risk of passing on a severe mitochondrial disorder to their offspring to avoid this outcome by the use of assisted reproductive techniques known as ‘mitochondrial donation’.

The Government’s new policy would offer people the option of keeping or disposing of their eggs at 10-year intervals, for a maximum storage period of 55 years.