Blog

Dr Victoria Adkins continues her blog series, exploring debates around how to define artificially gestated entities and suggesting that compromise may be more attainable than consensus. In her work she considers:

  • How can and should an artificially gestated entity be defined?
  • What impact does a definition have—legally, socially, and medically?

This is the second blog in a three-part series by Dr Adkins, written as a visiting collaborator with the Future of Human Reproduction team. The series explores issues arising from advancements in reproductive technology. Her first blog was titled The Future of Artificial Placenta Technology: Should We Proceed with Caution?

Sperm and egg cell

At a recent IVG Ethics and Policy Symposium, we brought together representatives from European bioethics commissions and committees, academics and scientists, and the CEO of a US IVG biotech start-up to discuss the urgent issues raised by this new biotechnology. Here are six key takeaways.

Fetus

Our guest blogger and Visiting Collaborator, Dr Victoria Adkins, outlines the current status of research into artificial placenta technology and reflects upon some of the issues raised by taking a cautionary approach to the introduction of this technology.  

Simon Mawer

Author Simon Mawer talks about the inspiration for his novel Mendel’s Dwarf, his fascination with the language of science and what advances in genetics could mean for the future. 

A DNA sequence with a section removed.

To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science we’re turning the spotlight on the groundbreaking work of Profs Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who became the first all-female team to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool.

A DNA sequence.

A major exhibition of collaborative video works, Genetic Automata, draws on the aesthetics of iconic videogames to raise important questions about the role that science and genetics have played in shaping perceptions of race and identity. Georgia Walton visited the Wellcome Collection to find out more.

Wooden blocks showing 2023 turning into 2024.

Last year saw significant advances in reproductive science. We take a look back at some of the defining developments of 2023 and at the interdisciplinary research and engagement work that The Future of Human Reproduction (FoHR) team has been doing to respond to the conceptual and ethical questions raised by innovations in reproductive technologies.

Human embryos

The development of human stem cell based embryo models (SCBEMs) is progressing at pace, but what are these models, why are scientists creating them, and are they a cause for concern? Read our explainer to find out more.

Embryo research in a laboratory.

The 14-day rule, which limits the cultivation of human embryos in vitro for research purposes, has been enshrined in UK law for more than three decades. However, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has just announced proposals to change the law on the regulation of research involving human embryos. This blog explores the origins of the 14-day rule in the UK and considers the arguments for and against extending the current limit. 

A paper cut out of a human uterus held in a pair of hands.

Last week’s National Fertility Awareness Week highlighted the challenges that 1 in 6 people in the UK face when trying to have children. This blog focuses on uterus transplantation: a novel method of reproduction that hit the headlines this summer when the first transplant took place in the UK.

A hammer and gravel.

What role has law played in controlling new human reproductive technologies and what role should it play in the future? These are the key questions that The Future of Human Reproduction team set out to explore in a discipline-hopping, law taster workshop.

Reflections in water.

The Future of Human Reproduction project has just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Interviews with the FoHR team reveal the successes and challenges of the first year of working on an exploratory, interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences research programme.

A fetus in a glass bubble.

Claire Horn’s book Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth takes as its starting point the idea that, in the near future, advances in artificial womb technology (AWT) will make it possible for babies to be grown outside the human body for the first time.

An illustration showing the creation of a homunculus.

From babies in bottles to life-saving advances for premature infants, the scientific and cultural history of ectogenesis offers a fascinating glimpse of changing attitudes to reproductive progress.

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