The Deadly Business of an Unregulated Global Stem Cell Industry

In 2016, the Office of the State Coroner of New South Wales released its report into the death of an Australian woman, Sheila Drysdale, who had died from complications of an autologous stem cell procedure at a Sydney clinic. In this report, we argue that Mrs Drysdale's death was avoidable, and it was the result of a pernicious global problem of an industry exploiting regulatory systems to sell unproven and unjustified interventions with stem cells.Research for this paper was supported with the funding from an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant (LP150100739) and the National University of Singapore, Office of the Deputy President (Research and Technology)—Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund (WBS: R-171-000-055-646)

Parents, children and the porous boundaries of the sexual family in law and popular culture

This article focuses on a perceived ideological overlap between popular cultural and judicial treatments of sex and conjugality that contributes to a discursive construction of parenthood and parenting. The author perceives that in both legal and popular cultural texts, there is a sense in which notions of ‘natural’ childhood are discursively constituted as being put at risk by those who reproduce outside of dominant sexual norms, and that signs of normative sexuality (typically in the form of heterosexual coupling) may be treated as a sign of safety. These ideas are rooted in ancient associations between fertility, sexuality and femininity that can also be traced in the historical development of the English language. With the help of commentators such as Martha Fineman, the article situates parents and children within a discourse of family which prioritises conjugality, with consequences for the ways in which the internal and external boundaries of families are delineated

The "Lactation After Infant Death (AID) Framework": A Guide for Online Health Information Provision About Lactation After Stillbirth and Infant Death

Most parents who give birth to a stillborn infant, or who give birth then endure the death of their young infant, will encounter the onset of lactation (McGuinness et al., 2014). For breastfeeding parents who experience the death of their older infant, many will have established lactation or frozen stores of expressed human milk ([EHM] McGuinness et al., 2014). Despite this, lactation and EHM are rarely discussed with bereaved parents in healthcare settings (Britz & Henry, 2013; Carroll, Lenne, McEgan et al., 2014; Redshaw et al., 2014). As a result, many bereaved parents who have recently given birth are unprepared when they begin to lactate, and few are aware of the range of suppression, expression, or donation options that may be available to them (Carroll & Lenne, 2019; McGuinness et al., 2014; Welborn, 2012b). The lack of anticipatory guidance regarding lactation after infant death can be a significant source of distress for parents, exacerbating the emotional pain of their child’s death (Carroll & Lenne, 2019; McGuinness et al., 2014; Welborn, 2012b). This lack may also inadvertently compound the invisibility and ambiguity of parenthood experienced by many bereaved parents (Cacciatore et al., 2008; Layne, 2003; Oreg, 2019). Furthermore, parents bereaved as a result of giving birth to a stillborn infant or enduring their infant’s death are likely to experience breast engorgement, pain, and milk leakage (McGuinness et al., 2014) and, in the absence of reliable information, they may follow lactation management methods that prove ineffective or lead to mastitis or abscess. To prevent adverse outcomes, bereaved parents require anticipatory guidance or lactation support from qualified health professionals.This research is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP180100517)

Biosamples as gifts? How participants in biobanking projects talk about donation.

Funded by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre based at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust University of Oxford Oxford Biomedical Research Centre FellowshipPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Human cloning in film: horror, ambivalence, hope

Fictional filmic representations of human cloning have shifted in relation to the 1997 announcement of the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep, and since therapeutic human cloning became a scientific practice in the early twentieth century. The operation and detail of these shifts can be seen through an analysis of the films The Island (2005) and Aeon Flux (2005). These films provide a site for the examination of how these changes in human cloning from fiction to practice, and from horror to hope, have been represented and imagined, and how these distinctions have operated visually in fiction, and in relation to genre

The third way of umbilical cord blood banking

This paper analyses the current problems of public and private banks, and gives two hybrid models which facilitate the cell exchange and allocate resource more efficiently. One is the 'public and private combination' model, and the other is the 'donatable family banking' model. It analyzes these models in terms of cell exchange, quality and financial consideration. This paper provides an alternative perspective on how the cord blood industry can cooperate with stem cell science

Romanian IVF: a brief history through the ‘lens’ of labour, migration and global egg donation markets

© 2016 The Author This paper centres on a history of Romanian IVF, including the achievement of significant milestones and the establishment of key clinics. In addition to examining some of the legal and ethical aspects of IVF in Romania, the paper also details some important elements of IVF in neighbouring countries, providing a perspective on regional similarities and differences. Romania's neighbours with similar economies and national-religious contexts have very different IVF pasts and presents. This highlights the importance of migration and cross-border egg donation in understanding IVF in Romania. After providing an analysis of Romania's economy and migration, the paper examines Romania's egg donation history, arguing that it has a so-called ‘extractive reproductive economy’