A Birmingham couple have been declared a surrogate babys legal parents after the countrys top judge effectively rewrote the law to help them. President of the High Court Family Division, Sir James Munby, allowed the boy, now almost three, to be legally recognised as their son. The boy referred to only as X was born in India in December 2011 to a surrogate. But the city couple for whom he was intended had no idea they had no parental rights under English law when they returned to Britain with him. The child was made a ward of court and the surrogate and her husband remained his legally-recognised parents. But the Birmingham couples anguish was ended today. Sir James waived the six-month time restriction within which parental order bids must be made under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. In a ruling of considerable public importance, he said the boys best interests demanded he formed part of a lawful family. He told the court: Can Parliament really have intended the gate should be barred forever if the application for a parental order is lodged even one day late? That is very antithesis of sensible; it is almost nonsensical." View post: … Continue reading →

Over the past 10 years, researchers have restored the fertility of female cancer patients who would otherwise have been left infertile after treatment, having been offered oocyte cryopreservation. The technique enables women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later time to conceive a child. Several babies have been born to cancer patients using this technique, which is no longer classed as experimental. However, the growing trend in developed countries to delay having children until later in life has resulted in egg freezing being increasingly used by healthy women as insurance against age-related infertility. "So far nearly 2000 babies have been born from eggs frozen, without an increase in the incidence of any birth defects," says author Professor Dominic Stoop, Director of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at UZ Brussels in Belgium. Another fertility restoring approach for young women with cancer is the freezing and transplantation of ovarian tissue. In 2004, a Belgian woman became the first to give birth to a healthy baby, 7 years after banking her frozen ovarian tissue before starting chemotherapy. This technique has gone on to result in the birth of 37 additional healthy babies to cancer patients. "The main advantage of ovarian … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 2-Oct-2014 Contact: Dominic Stoop dominicstoop@gmail.com The Lancet @TheLancet Ovarian tissue and egg freezing to preserve fertility should no longer be reserved for cancer patients, and healthy women should also be offered these options to safeguard their future chances of conceiving a child, say world renowned fertility experts writing in a new Series on fertility preservation, published in The Lancet [Paper 3]. Over the past 10 years, researchers have restored the fertility of female cancer patients who would otherwise have been left infertile after treatment, having been offered oocyte cryopreservation. The technique enables women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later time to conceive a child. Several babies have been born to cancer patients using this technique, which is no longer classed as experimental [1]. However, the growing trend in developed countries to delay having children until later in life has resulted in egg freezing being increasingly used by healthy women as insurance against age-related infertility. "So far nearly 2000 babies have been born from eggs frozen, without an increase in the incidence of any birth defects"*, says author Professor Dominic Stoop, Director of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at UZ Brussels in Belgium. Another … Continue reading →