Mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRTs) are designed to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases from mother to child. While MRTs, if effective, could satisfy a desire of women seeking to have a genetically related child without the risk of passing on mtDNA disease, the technique raises significant ethical and social issues. It would create offspring who have genetic material from two women, something never sanctioned in humans, and would create mitochondrial changes that could be heritable (in female offspring), and therefore passed on in perpetuity. The manipulation would be performed on eggs or embryos, would affect every cell of the resulting individual, and once carried out this genetic manipulation is not reversible. Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques considers the implications of manipulating mitochondrial content both in children born to women as a result of participating in these studies and in descendants of any female offspring. This study examines the ethical and social issues related to MRTs, outlines principles that would provide a framework and foundation for oversight of MRTs, and develops recommendations to inform the Food and Drug Administration's consideration of investigational new drug applications.

Heritable human genome editing - making changes to the genetic material of eggs, sperm, or any cells that lead to their development, including the cells of early embryos, and establishing a pregnancy - raises not only scientific and medical considerations but also a host of ethical, moral, and societal issues. Human embryos whose genomes have been edited should not be used to create a pregnancy until it is established that precise genomic changes can be made reliably and without introducing undesired changes - criteria that have not yet been met, says Heritable Human Genome Editing. From an international commission of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.K.'s Royal Society, the report considers potential benefits, harms, and uncertainties associated with genome editing technologies and defines a translational pathway from rigorous preclinical research to initial clinical uses, should a country decide to permit such uses. The report specifies stringent preclinical and clinical requirements for establishing safety and efficacy, and for undertaking long-term monitoring of outcomes. Extensive national and international dialogue is needed before any country decides whether to permit clinical use of this technology, according to the report, which identifies essential elements of national and international scientific governance and oversight.

"Not everything in medical science has a clear beginning. The first realization of infertility and putative remedies remain shrouded in contextual history, but likely goes back to the dawn of our species, well before there was a written record. Childlessness was, and is still, considered a burden in some communities"--

Clinical Ethics at the Crossroads of Genetic and Reproductive Technologies offers thorough discussions on preconception carrier screening, genetic engineering and the use of CRISPR gene editing, mitochondrial gene replacement therapy, sex selection, predictive testing, secondary findings, embryo reduction and the moral status of the embryo, genetic enhancement, and the sharing of genetic data. Chapter contributions from leading bioethicists and clinicians encourage a global, holistic perspective on applied challenges and the moral questions relating the implementation of genetic reproductive technology. The book is an ideal resource for practitioners, regulators, lawmakers, clinical researchers, genetic counselors and graduate and medical students. As the Human Genome Project has triggered a technological revolution that has influenced nearly every field of medicine, including reproductive medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, andrology, prenatal genetic testing, and gene therapy, this book presents a timely resource. - Provides practical analysis of the ethical issues raised by cutting-edge techniques and recent advances in prenatal and reproductive genetics - Contains contributions from leading bioethicists and clinicians who offer a global, holistic perspective on applied challenges and moral questions relating to genetic and genomic reproductive technology - Discusses preconception carrier screening, genetic engineering and the use of CRISPR gene editing, mitochondrial gene replacement therapy, ethical issues, and more

Genome editing is a powerful new tool for making precise alterations to an organism's genetic material. Recent scientific advances have made genome editing more efficient, precise, and flexible than ever before. These advances have spurred an explosion of interest from around the globe in the possible ways in which genome editing can improve human health. The speed at which these technologies are being developed and applied has led many policymakers and stakeholders to express concern about whether appropriate systems are in place to govern these technologies and how and when the public should be engaged in these decisions. Human Genome Editing considers important questions about the human application of genome editing including: balancing potential benefits with unintended risks, governing the use of genome editing, incorporating societal values into clinical applications and policy decisions, and respecting the inevitable differences across nations and cultures that will shape how and whether to use these new technologies. This report proposes criteria for heritable germline editing, provides conclusions on the crucial need for public education and engagement, and presents 7 general principles for the governance of human genome editing.

A wide-ranging history of assisted reproductive technologies and their ethical implications. Finalist of the PROSE Award for Best Book in History of Science, Medicine and Technology by the Association of American Publishers Since the 1978 birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in England, more than eight million children have been born with the help of assisted reproductive technologies. From the start, they have stirred controversy and raised profound questions: Should there be limits to the lengths to which people can go to make their idea of family a reality? Who should pay for treatment? How can we ensure the ethical use of these technologies? And what can be done to address the racial and economic disparities in access to care that enable some to have children while others go without? In The Pursuit of Parenthood, historian Margaret Marsh and gynecologist Wanda Ronner seek to answer these challenging questions. Bringing their unique expertise in gender history and women's health to the subject, Marsh and Ronner examine the unprecedented means—liberating for some and deeply unsettling for others—by which families can now be created. Beginning with the early efforts to create embryos outside a woman's body and ending with such new developments as mitochondrial replacement techniques and uterus transplants, the authors assess the impact of contemporary reproductive technology in the United States. In this volume, we meet the scientists and physicians who have developed these technologies and the women and men who have used them. Along the way, the book dispels a number of fertility myths, offers policy recommendations that are intended to bring clarity and judgment to this complicated medical history, and reveals why the United States is still known as the "Wild West" of reproductive medicine.

This interactive clinical textbook takes a system- and case-based approach in understanding mitochondrial disorders in clinical practice.

Welcomed as liberation and dismissed as exploitation, egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) has rapidly become one of the most widely-discussed and influential new reproductive technologies of this century. In Freezing Fertility, Lucy van de Wiel takes us inside the world of fertility preservation—with its egg freezing parties, contested age limits, proactive anticipations and equity investments—and shows how the popularization of egg freezing has profound consequences for the way in which female fertility and reproductive aging are understood, commercialized and politicized. Beyond an individual reproductive choice for people who may want to have children later in life, Freezing Fertility explores how the rise of egg freezing also reveals broader cultural, political and economic negotiations about reproductive politics, gender inequities, age normativities and the financialization of healthcare. Van de Wiel investigates these issues by analyzing a wide range of sources—varying from sparkly online platforms to heart-breaking court cases and intimate autobiographical accounts—that are emblematic of each stage of the egg freezing procedure. By following the egg’s journey, Freezing Fertility examines how contemporary egg freezing practices both reflect broader social, regulatory and economic power asymmetries and repoliticize fertility and aging in ways that affect the public at large. In doing so, the book explores how the possibility of egg freezing shifts our relation to the beginning and end of life.

This unique book focuses on the DNA viruses in the human population that are associated with cancers. It covers most of the viruses that are thought to contribute to human malignancy. This book represents a comprehensive review of the field of DNA tumor virology. Right now, while there are books out there that cover individual viruses that are also covered in this book, there is no single book that covers this topic comprehensively. This book is the first current, comprehensive review of its kind in the market.

Bioelectrochemistry: Fundamentals, Experimental Techniques and Application, covers the fundamental aspects of the chemistry, physics and biology which underlie this subject area. It describes some of the different experimental techniques that can be used to study bioelectrochemical problems and it describes various applications of biolelectrochemisty including amperometric biosensors, immunoassays, electrochemistry of DNA, biofuel cells, whole cell biosensors, in vivo applications and bioelectrosynthesis. By bringing together these different aspects, this work provides a unique source of information in this area, approaching the subject from a cross-disciplinary viewpoint.