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PubMed2002

Professional self-regulation and guidelines in assisted reproduction.

Australia's scientific expertise in ART has not been matched by similar standards in national regulation. Scientific breakthroughs in the early 1980s were followed by cohorts of State and national inquiries. Early guidelines by the National Health and Medical Research Council were followed by status of children legislation clarifying their parentage where donated gametes were used. The practice and procedure of ART was legislatively regulated in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia but left to guidelines and accreditation of the Fertility Society of Australia in the remaining States and Territories. The article examines the consequences of an absence of national regulation in dealing with embryo experimentation now that debates have shifted to human cloning and stem cell technology. The article also considers arguments for and against regulation in areas of parental procreative decision-making and embryo experimentation.

Advisory Committees↗

PubMed1997

[Anthrax: a malady of animals and of man which hides in the earth].

Anthrax is an infectious disease of herbivores, especially sheep and cattle, but also of horses, of pigs, of dogs, of wild animals and of humans. Bacillus anthracis causes the disease. This bacterium needs plenty of oxygen to procreate and to produce resistant spores, which remains viable in the soil during 3.5 years, at times during 15-20 years. The author tries to follow step by step the evolution of the ideas concerning the origin and the pathology as well as of the veterinarians measures against this disease during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many studies of the endemic anthrax were made from the beginning of the second half of the 19th century. Thanks to Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) in France and Robert Koch (1843-1910) in Germany, the anthrax could be identified with a soil-disease between 1870 and 1880. The statistics concerning the anthrax in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg compared to the geological and pedological structures of the soil, have fully confirmed the scientific findings at the end of the 19th century. Nowadays the anthrax has disappeared from our landscape thanks to the preventive inoculation and to the industrial use of the animal cadavers.

Animal Diseases↗

PubMed2002

Semen alterations in HIV-1 infected men.

BACKGROUND: Couples in whom the man is infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) increasingly request assisted reproductive technology (ART) to allow safe procreation. Semen quality is critical in such situations. METHODS: Semen characteristics were evaluated in 189 HIV-infected men requesting ART. At the time of semen analysis all men were healthy and 177 were receiving anti-retroviral therapy. Comparisons were made with HIV-seronegative men, partners of women requiring IVF because of tubal infertility, after matching for age and sexual abstinence delay. RESULTS: The most significant semen alterations found in the HIV-infected men were reduced percentages of rapidly progressive sperm [median (range), 10% (0-30%) compared with 15% (5-30%) in the controls, P < 0.001], and increased concentrations of non-spermatic cells [3 x 10(6)/ml (0.2-16 x 10(6)/ml) compared with 1.1 x 10(6)/ml (0.1-14 x 10(6)/ml) in the controls, P < 0.001]. HIV-infected men also showed lower ejaculate volumes [2.8 ml (0.6-9.3 ml) compared with 3.6 ml (1.1-11 ml), P < 0.05] and total sperm counts [262.5 x 10(6) (0-1003 x 10(6)) compared with 310.5 x 10(6) (48.3-1679 x 10(6)), P < 0.05]. CONCLUSIONS: Semen evaluation in a large population of HIV-infected men requesting ART evidenced several alterations. Some of these anomalies might be related to anti-retroviral treatments.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Schizophrenia as failure of hemispheric dominance for language.

Schizophrenic illnesses occur with approximately the same incidence in all human populations with a characteristic distribution (slightly earlier in males) of ages of onset. Given that the predisposition (which presumably is genetic) is associated with a procreative disadvantage why do such illnesses persist? Here it is suggested that these conditions are a manifestation of genetic diversity in the evolution of the specifically human characteristic of language, an innovation that has occurred by a process of progressive hemispheric specialization-the establishment of dominance for some critical component of language in one or the other hemisphere. Individuals who develop schizophrenic symptoms show lesser anatomical and functional asymmetries than the population as a whole; such symptoms may reflect 'dominance failure' for language.

Dominance, Cerebral↗

PubMed1988

Judgment, 12 February 1988.

The defendants were accused of performing illegal abortions. The Court of First Instance at Ghent, Belgium, acquitted them on the ground that the abortions were justified because of "a state of emergency." It reasoned that obeying the law in exceptional circumstances can have exorbitant consequences which the legislator could not have wanted in the present context of society. It stated that, whereas family life and procreation used to be central values in society, the right to a decent human existence has, at present, primary importance. It ruled that, in the present context of society, potential human life is a value that is not superior to the value of actualized life, given the fact that the future and the chances of development of potential human life are still uncertain. In November 1988, this decision was reversed and the defendants received one-month suspended sentences. See Revue de droit penal et de criminologie, No. 12, 1989, p. 1108.

Abortion, Illegal↗

PubMed2002

Genetics and social class.

OBJECTIVE: To assess claims that genes are a major determinant of social class. DESIGN: Using genetic epidemiological principles, five claims on the role of genes in determining social class are examined: (1) traits that run in families are usually inherited; (2) complex traits can be explained by alleles at a single gene locus; (3) complex traits are transmitted intact from one generation to the next; (4) natural selection explains social advantage. (5) Heritability estimates provide a valid estimate of the importance of genes in explaining complex human traits or behaviour. RESULTS: (1) Traits that run in families can result from environmental exposures that differ by social class. (2) The protein encoded by any single gene has too narrow a range of biological activity to explain traits as complex as social status. (3) Because alleles at different gene loci are transmitted independently, genetic inheritance cannot explain why offspring display the same complex traits as their parents. (4) The propagation of mutations that might result in a selective advantage takes much longer than the time for which any social class has achieved or maintained dominance. (5) Heritability measures are accurate only when environment is maintained constant. This is impossible in evaluating human traits. CONCLUSIONS: The roots of social class differences do not lie in our genes. Consequently, genetics cannot be used as a justification for maintaining a ruling class, limiting procreation among the poor, or minimising social support programmes.

Environment↗

PubMed1979