Category Archives: Embryology

Embryology

Harry Potter’s World Similar to the Magic of Endocrinology – Medscape

Clinicians don't cease diagnosing patients once our clinical work is done. Most of us can recall debating whether to point out an atypical mole or another concerning finding to a stranger in public.

Like the doctor back in 2018, who saw a lump on the neck of a woman on TV and reached out via a video on Facebook, which found its way to her. She was eventually diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Patients even recognize their own experiences and help lead others to clinical care.

And our diagnostic abilities can sometimes prove entertaining when interpreting plotlines in all sorts of storytelling, with endocrinology often making appearances in literature and film.

For instance, much debate has ensued about what Tiny Tim probably suffered from in Dickens's A Christmas Carol; a combination of tuberculosis and rickets makes the most sense to me, as detailed in a report in JAMA.

Malcolm Gladwell pointed out that Goliath in the biblical story probably got his stature and his inability to miss a shepherd boy's slingshot from a pituitary tumor. And the plot of Steel Magnolias revolves around type 1 diabetes.

Most recently, I began to see endocrinology everywhere in probably the most successful series of stories of recent times: the Harry Potter chronicles.

If, like me, you have a Potter-obsessed household, you might have watched the Return to Hogwarts special on HBO earlier this year. One of the observations that piqued my attention was when Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe joked about the hormones running rampant as the characters and actors who played them navigated adolescence, growing from children to teens as they made successive movies.

Popular culture has picked up on the comedy of these sometimes awkward pubertal transitions, repeatedly skewered by Saturday Night Live. However, this line made me ponder other less-famous hormones that could explain some of the fantastical findings of the wizarding world.

Hormones invisible chemical messenger are truly magical. They are most famous for sexual development but also empower growth, bone strength, fluid homeostasis, weight, carbohydrate metabolism, salt balance, blood pressure regulation, and any other function you can imagine; indeed, thyroid hormone is crucial for almost every system of the body.

Perhaps, the notable transformation of the main characters through puberty isn't the only hormonal influence we should credit. (This article may contain spoilers: My husband didn't read the Harry Potter series until we read it to our second grader so sadly learned at the age of 37 about the tragedy that befell Dumbledore.)

Just for fun, here are some other hormonal diagnoses that could explain some of the dark arts represented in the series.

Could Hagrid the giant have acromegaly? Clinical signs include enlarged hands and feet as well as excess growth of the ears and nose. A good way to check for these changes is to compare old photographs with the present condition. The actor who plays Hagrid, Robbie Coltrane, looks very different from the character after his transformation. Someone check his IGF-1 the hormone that manages the effects of growth hormone!

Neville Longbottom, the series' late bloomer, is the poster child for teens with constitutional delay of growth and puberty. This often frustrating but benign condition that plagues the "slow developer" tends to run in families and causes those who have it consternation as they wait to grow while their peers surpass them in stature and other ways; it also leads for them to be underestimated, as we witness with Neville in the Harry Potter series.

Voldemort: Depicted without a nose, if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had congenital central abnormalities, he should be screened for central pituitary hormone deficits because the pituitary gland shares common embryology with other midline structures. (His evil has nothing to do with his possible underlying endocrinopathies.)

The Weasley family: if any of these redheaded wizards presented with adrenal insufficiency and rapidly progressive obesity, a POMC (proopiomelanocortin) mutation should be considered.

Nearly Headless Nick's near-decapitation might have affected his thyroid or parathyroid glands Hogwarts physician Madame Pomfrey should pay special attention to his thyroid stimulating hormone and calcium levels, at least if she is willing to take advantage of Muggle remedies.

Moaning Myrtle, who was killed by the Basilisk in the girls' lavatory, continues with tantrums and moans as she haunts the same bathroom at Hogwarts. Could it be that Myrtle's groans and psychiatric overtones were a sign of hypercalcemia, and she was using the facilities as she tried to pass a kidney stone? At the very least causes of polyuria should be investigated, including diabetes insipidus and diabetes mellitus. A unifying diagnosis of never being able to leave the bathroom and vision changes requiring serious glasses like hers would be untreated septo-optic dysplasia or other causes of pituitary malformation or disruption.

And though Dolores Umbridge doesn't have an obvious endocrine disorder, she seems like the kind of person who would visit an endocrine office after doing loads of "her own research" and arrive with a list of labs she demands.

Severus Snape provides a good opportunity to point out someone with excessively greasy skin and abnormal sweating (hyperhidrosis) as an adult, symptoms that perhaps would be best managed by our colleagues in dermatology.

The Dementors: These demons clearly work for insurance companies, tormenting the young wizards with denials and prior authorization requests.

Enzyme names sound a lot like spell incantations. Iodothyronine deiodinase? HMG CoA reductase? Future authors looking for new spells need look no further than their closest endocrine textbook.

Please note, I consider all my patients to be miraculous and worthy of admiration these comparisons are all in good fun and in no way diminish the weight of these conditions.

As Rubeus Hagrid himself said, "I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with.'"

Like magic, endocrinology can't be seen with the naked eye, but it's everywhere we look, if only we choose to look.

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Harry Potter's World Similar to the Magic of Endocrinology - Medscape

Embryology

Women, Witches, and Abortion: A Misguided Attack on Justice Alito – Public Discourse

On Roe, Alito cites a judge who treated women as witches and property. Thus reads the title of a recent op-ed in the Washington Post by Jill Elaine Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Her effort to discredit the leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Courts Dobbs abortion case rests on the writings and career of seventeenth-century jurist Sir Matthew Hale. Hasday says Justice Alito relies on Hale because he is desperate to establish that the early American legal system was opposed to abortion. In her view, he has to cite this especially odious misogynist on this point because that is the best Alito can do.

This charge is misguided in so many ways that it is difficult to know where to begin. But it is worth scrutinizing carefully and refuting clearly so that we can turn our attention to the real question raised by the draft opinion, which is the legal history and status of abortion.

An Alleged Obsession with Hale

First, Hasdays attack grossly overstates the importance of Hale, as the Alito opinion does not cite him as the only source for any legal fact. In the British common-law system, which relied not on a written constitution but on past judicial precedents, Hale was one of a number of legal scholars whose digests of those precedents was used by fellow judges. Justice Alito cites a consensus of the major writers in this fieldnoting at one point, for example, that the same legal principle is found in Bracton, Coke, Hale, Blackstone, and a wealth of authority.

In fact, there is a very good reason why Alito has to cite Hale: Justice Harry Blackmun cited him in his majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, to argue that British and early American law generally permitted abortion.

That great defender of womens reproductive rights Harry Blackmun had to resort to citing a witch-hunter and rape apologist for his arguments? Was he desperate to show that American legal history is pro-abortion? In any case, Alito had to cite Hale to respond to Blackmuns historical claim and show why it is flawed.

Misrepresenting Alito

Second, in claiming that it is Justice Alito whose interpretation is flawed, Hasday simply misrepresents him. His draft opinion notes that Hale described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a great crime. Hasday here accuses Justice Alito of glossing over the fact that this referred to a situation in which the woman is quick with child. Well, no, Alito says exactly that. And he elsewhere says forthrightly that under the common law abortion was a crime at least after quickeningi.e., the first felt movement of the fetus in the womb, which usually occurs between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy.

Justice Alito says much more that Hasday ignores. He cites Hale and Blackstone and historical treatises by John Keown and Joseph Dellapenna, as well as specific court cases, to show that abortion was seen as unlawful even when quickening may not have occurred. And Hale, Blackstone, and many other authorities said that performing an abortion before quickening can be prosecuted as homicide if the woman dies. This was an early version of the legal concept of felony murder: if someone is already committing a crime, a death resulting from that illegal situation can be charged to the offender as murder. The paradigm example is that a shooting death during a bank robbery can result in a murder prosecution for the robber, even if that person did not fire the shot. Incidentally, this was also an interesting way to encourage prosecution of abortionists who endanger women.

By contrast, a patients accidental death resulting from a lawful medical procedure was not a homicide. An early abortion, then, was not seen as lawful medical practice, though it was a lesser offense than an abortion after quickening.

Historical Debates

Third, Hasday claims that Justice Alitos historical account is rebutted by an amicus brief filed in Dobbs by a group of historians. But footnote twenty-four of the Alito opinion cites that brief, as well as a brief by legal scholars that contradicts it. The first brief claims that quick with reference to the unborn child meant the mothers subjective perception of the childs movements; the second claims that it often simply meant alive and was believed to occur early in pregnancy.

Justice Alito goes on to say we need not choose between these accounts because, in the nineteenth century, they became irrelevant. Due to medical and scientific advances, in 1859 the American Medical Association began successfully urging American legislators to update their abortion laws by treating abortions at every stage as a crime. By the time state legislatures were ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, twenty-eight of the thirty-seven states had taken this step, and the rest soon followed. So whatever else these legislatures meant by the Fourteenth Amendments references to due process (cited by Roe) or liberty (cited by Casey), those words could not have meant a legal license for abortion.

Hasday wants to suggest that the move toward stronger anti-abortion laws arose from a demeaning view of women. But during that same part of the nineteenth century, American law was moving to reject British common laws tendency to wink at a husbands physical abuse of his wife. And the AMA in 1871 explained why the quickening distinction was obsolete and should be deleted from American laws, quoting with approval the widely respected legal compendium Archbolds Criminal Practice and Pleadings:

It was generally supposed that the foetus becomes animated at the period of quickening; but this idea is exploded. Physiology considers the foetus as much a living being immediately after conception as at any other time before delivery, and its future progress but as the development and increase of those constituent principles which it then received. It considers quickening as a mere adventitious event, and looks upon life as entirely consistent with the most profound foetal repose and consequent inaction. Long before quickening takes place, motion, the pulsation of the heart, and other signs of vitality, have been distinctly perceived, and, according to approved authority, the foetus enjoys life long before the sensation of quickening is felt by the mother. Indeed, no other doctrine appears to be consonant with reason or physiology but that which admits the embryo to possess vitality from the very moment of conception.

Twentieth century findings in embryology have only confirmed and elaborated that statement.

Misrepresenting Hale?

While I have no interest in defending Sir Matthew Hales very flawed views of women, marriage, or witches, it is far from clear that he originated those views or was unusual in holding them. His treatises were intended not as creative works of legal philosophy, but as compendia of principles abstracted from the range of past British judicial rulings.

Hasday criticizes the Alito opinion for describing Hale as an eminent authority in this regard. But Justice Alito was only quoting a six-to-three opinion in the US Supreme Court case of Kahler v. Kansas (2020), about the need to consult the eminent common-law authorities (Blackstone, Coke, Hale, and the like) on issues of criminal law like the insanity defense. That majority opinion was written by Justice Elena Kagan, not widely seen as a misogynist.

Apparently, as a judge Matthew Hale did convict two women of practicing witchcraft. Especially in the period from 1560 to 1630, before Hale was accepted to the Bar, witchcraft trials had already led to the execution of thousands of people throughout Europe; in Salem, Massachusetts, they led to the execution of 20 people (14 women and 6 men) in 1692 and 1693. In this regard, tragically, Hale was a man of his time. But the charge that he generally saw women as witches seems overblown.

The Checkered History of Marital Rape

Hasday further claims that Hale was uniquely influential in promoting the legitimacy of rape within marriagenot in inventing the idea, but in formulating the argument that the wife is the property of her husband. She quotes Hale as saying: The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.

Hasday offers no evidence that Hale was the originator even of this rationale, as opposed to a chronicler of British legal doctrine. One might even question whether the argument here is that a wife is simply her husbands property, as it seems more to rest on contract law: in the marriage contract, both parties have consented to being available to each other for sexual relations (that is what in this kind refers to) for life. Hale is not likely to have held that property can make valid contracts or be bound by them. Nonetheless, its true that the argument is demeaning and was later rightly rejected in British and American law.

In the United States it was first rejected in 1976, by the legislature of Nebraskaa state expected to pass anti-abortion laws if Roe is reversed. The exemption for the husband was not rejected by all the states until 1993and some states, like the pro-abortion state of California, still treated marital rape differently from other rape. In the meantime, some state courts rejected the exemption as unconstitutionalbeginning with New York in 1984, and the strongly anti-abortion state Alabama in 1986. With this legal history in mind, it is clear that the attempt to link opposition to abortion with support for marital rape is flawed.

Overall, Hasdays charge that the Alito draft opinion is based on faulty history or an obsolete and demeaning view of womens rights does not withstand careful scrutiny. This and other misguided efforts to demonize critics of Roe deserve to be analyzed and refuted so thatideallythose attempting them will ultimately stop changing the subject and begin discussing the ugly realities of abortion.

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Women, Witches, and Abortion: A Misguided Attack on Justice Alito - Public Discourse

Embryology

L’Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards 2022 – Benzinga – Benzinga

On June 23rd, the Fondation L'Oral and UNESCO will be celebrating 45 eminent women scientists from over 35 countries and all regions of the world at an unprecedented For Women in Science International Awards Ceremony being held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The past three years have been some of the most challenging for science in recent history. Women have been on the frontlines, addressing unparalleled issues related to climate change, disease, and health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being essential to tackle today's emergencies, female scientists are not yet sufficiently visible and numerous.

PARIS, INTERNATIONAL RALLYING POINT FOR FEMALE SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE

Starting on June 20th, the entire week will be dedicated to making Paris a rallying point for some of the world's top scientific minds. A series of events will create interactions between these outstanding women scientists, including an Extraordinary Lecture at the Academy of Sciences and networking events, leading up to the Awards Ceremony at UNESCO on June 23rd.

In this special Ceremony gathering the laureates from the past three editions, 15 exceptional researchers will receive the L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards in recognition of their outstanding scientific achievements in recent years, along with 30 young female scientists, selected in 2020 and 2022, who will earn the title of International Rising Talents.

COUNTERING THE SIDELINING OF WOMEN SCIENTISTS

According to UNESCO recent data, the number of women pursuing scientific careers is increasing slightly, only one in three researchers is a woman globally1. In the research world, the glass ceiling persists: just 14%2 of senior academic positions in Europe are held by women and just 4% of the Nobel prizes in science have been awarded to women.

Alexandra Palt, L'Oral Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and CEO of the Fondation L'Oral, said: During the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen how women scientists are essential to respond to existential threats to our health, to society, to the planet. But still they are invisibilized and often face tremendous obstacles during their careers and research studies. This situation is the result of systemic barriers, unconscious bias, self-censorship but also discrimination. This is not just a problem for women: this is a problem for research. To be relevant, research has to be inclusive and needs all its talents to be mobilized.

According to Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of UNESCO: Many of the rising female talents being celebrated this year are excelling in fields that will be vital to decarbonizing our future, such as energy storage systems, hydrogen fuel systems and quantum optics, a field of study which is paving the way for more energy-efficient computers. Yet many of their peers working in similarly strategic fields are not getting the recognition that they deserve. UNESCO, as the UN agency in charge of science, which has made gender equality a priority, is determined to act to put an end to these inequalities. The L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science partnership is a relevant example of positive action in this field, giving a voice and visibility to women scientists and to their achievements to meet the challenges of our century.

Since its inception in 1998, the L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science program has honored and supported 3,900 women scientists. It continues to lobby for these women to receive the recognition that they deserve. These brilliant female researchers have contributed significantly to their respective scientific fields and to finding effective solutions to some of the most pressing and urgent challenges that we face as a global society. This year's celebration will be a way to acclaim them for their life's work and the many obstacles they have overcome.

DISCOVER THE LAUREATES AND INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS CELEBRATED THIS YEAR

More information on these 45 women in science awarded by clicking on this link

LAUREATES 2022

LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Professor Agns Binagwaho, PUBLIC HEALTH AND PEDIATRICS, Professor of Pediatrics and Vice-Chancellor of Global Health Equity University, Kigali, Rwanda

LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Professor Hailan Hu, NEUROSCIENCE, Professor and Executive Director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China

LAUREATE FOR EUROPE

Professor ngela Nieto, EMBRYOLOGY AND BIOMEDICINE, Professor at the Institute of Neuroscience (CSIC-UMH), San Juan de Alicante, Spain

LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Professor Maria Guzmn, INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND VIROLOGY, Director of the Research Center of the Pedro Kouri Institute (IPK), Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba

LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Professor Katalin Karik, BIOCHEMISTRY, Adjunct Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America, and Senior Vice President at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, United States of America

LAUREATES 2021

LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Professor Catherine Ngila, CHEMISTRY, Acting Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences, Former Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic and Student Affairs (DVC-AA) at Riara University, Kenya, and Visiting Professor of Applied Chemistry at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa

LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Professor Kyoko Nozaki, CHEMISTRY, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, Japan

LAUREATE FOR EUROPE

Professor Franoise Combes, ASTROPHYSICS, Professor and Galaxies and Cosmology Chair at the Collge de France in Paris, and Astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory - PSL, France

LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Professor Alicia Dickenstein, MATHEMATICS, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Professor Shafi Goldwasser, COMPUTER SCIENCE, Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California Berkeley, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, United States of America and Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Weizmann Institute, Israel

LAUREATES 2020

LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Professor Abla Mehio Sibai, MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES, Professor of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Doctor Firdausi Qadri, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Senior Scientist, Head Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh

LAUREATE FOR EUROPE

Professor Edith Heard, FRS, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory at the Collge de France, Paris, France, and former Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit at the Institut Curie, Paris, France

LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Professor Esperanza Martnez-Romero, ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Professor of Environmental Science at the Genomic Science Center, National University of Mexico, Mexico

LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Professor Kristi Anseth, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Distinguished Professor, Tisone Professor and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado, Boulder, United States of America

INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS 2022

AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Dr. Lina Dahabiyeh, BASIC MEDICINE, The University of Jordan, Jordan

Dr. Ndeye Maty Ndiaye, MATERIAL ENGINEERING, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal

Dr. Waad Saftly, PHYSICS, Al-Baath University, Syria

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Dr. So Young Choi, INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea

Dr. Van Thi Thanh Ho, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Hochiminh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam

Dr. Pantana Tor-ngern, EARTH & RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Dr. Daria Smirnova, PHYSICS, Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy

of Sciences, Russia

EUROPE

Dr. Natalia Bruno, PHYSICS, National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council, Italy

Dr. Karolina Mikulska-Ruminska, PHYSICS, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland

Dr. Ieva Plikusiene, CHEMISTRY, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, PHYSICS, Stockholm University, Sweden

LATIN AMERICAN AND THE CARIBBEAN

Dr. Maria Florencia Cayrol, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Institute of Biomedical Research - UCA - CONICET, Argentina

Dr. Irene del Real, EARTH & RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Austral University, Chile

NORTH AMERICA

Dr. Daphn Lemasquerier, PHYSICS, University of Texas at Austin, United States of America

Dr. Alison McAfee, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, University of British Columbia and North Carolina State University, Canada

INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS 2020

AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Dr. Laura-Joy Boulos, FUNDAMENTAL MEDICINE, Institute of Applied and Human Neurosciences (INSAN), Saint-Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon

Dr. Nowsheen Goonoo, MATERIAL SCIENCES, BIOMATERIALS, Drug Delivery and Nanotechnology Unit, Centre for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research, University of Mauritius, Rduit, Mauritius

Dr. Nouf Mahmoud, HEALTH SCIENCES, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Dr. Georgina Nyawo, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Clinical Mycobacteriology & Epidemiology (CLIME), Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Dr. Rui Bai, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Structural Laboratory, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

Dr. Huanqian Loh, PHYSICS, Center for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Dr. Mikyung Shin, MEDICAL ENGINEERING, Nature-inspired Biomaterial Engineering Laboratory, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

EUROPE

Dr. Vida Engmann, MATERIAL ENGINEERING, SDU NanoSYD, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Snderborg, Denmark

Dr. Serap Erkek, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Cancer Epigenomics Laboratory, Biomedicine and Genome Center, Izmir, Turkey

Dr. Jennifer Garden, CHEMISTRY, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Dr. Cristina Romera Castillo, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Marine Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Olena Vaneeva, MATHEMATICS, Department of Mathematical Physics, Institute of Mathematics of NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Dr. Paula Giraldo-Gallo, PHYSICS, Quantum Materials Laboratory, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogot, Colombia

Dr. Patrcia Medeiros, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Laboratory of Biocultural Ecology, Conservation and Evolution Institution: Federal University of Alagoas, Macei, Brazil

NORTH AMERICA

Dr. Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States of America

ABOUT THE FONDATION L'ORAL

The Fondation L'Oral supports and empowers women to shape their future and make a difference in society, focusing on three major areas: scientific research and inclusive beauty and climate action.

Since 1998, the L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science program has worked to empower more women scientists to overcome barriers to progression and participate in solving the great challenges of our time, for the benefit of all. For 24 years, it has supported more than 3,900 women researchers from over 110 countries, rewarding scientific excellence and inspiring younger generations of women to pursue science as a career.

Convinced that beauty contributes to the process of rebuilding lives, the Fondation L'Oral helps vulnerable women to improve their self-esteem through free beauty and wellness treatments. It also enables underprivileged women to gain access to employment with dedicated vocational beauty training. On average, around 21,000 people have access to these free treatments every year and more than 27,000 people have taken part in professional beauty training, since the beginning of the program.

Finally, women are affected by persistent gender-based discrimination and inequalities, exacerbated by climate change. While they are on the frontline of the crisis, they remain under-represented in climate decision-making. The Women and Climate program of the Fondation L'Oral supports, in particular, women who are developing climate action projects addressing the urgent climate crisis and raises awareness of the importance of gender-sensitive climate solutions.

ABOUT UNESCO

Since its creation in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has worked to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures, and peoples, based on respect for common values. UNESCO's mission is to use its unique expertise in education, science, culture, communication and information to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development, and intercultural dialogue. The Organization has two global priorities: Africa and gender equality.

UNESCO is the only UN specialized agency with a specific mandate in the sciences, symbolized by the "S" in its acronym. Through its science-related programs, UNESCO contributes to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, helps developing countries build their scientific and technological capacities, and supports Member States in their efforts to develop science policies and programs. UNESCO also supports Member States in their efforts to develop effective public policies that integrate local and indigenous knowledge systems.

UNESCO promotes scientific research and expertise in developing countries. The Organization leads several intergovernmental programs on sustainable management of freshwater, ocean and terrestrial resources, biodiversity conservation, and the use of science to address climate change and reduce disaster risk.

UNESCO Science Report: the Race Against Time for Smarter Development, UNESCO Publishing (2021)

European Commission 2018 She figures report

WebWireID289989

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L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards 2022 - Benzinga - Benzinga

Embryology

Updates to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act – Lexology

On 27 April, the Progress Educational Trust (PET), a charity with the aim of advancing the public understanding of science, law and ethics in the fields of human genetics, assisted reproduction, embryology and stem cell research, ran an online debate on the powers of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

The session titled 'Authority over Assisted Reproduction: What Powers Should the HFEA Have?', welcomed speakers from across the world of IVF including from the HFEA itself and a patient advocate. Current powers of the HFEA under the HFE Act were discussed, as well as whether these should be extended or pared back in light of the thirty odd years that have gone by since the advent of the HFE Act.

It is clear that the HFEA believes its powers should be expanded to address, among other things, the numerous scientific and technological advances in the area of IVF and the need for sanctions imposed by the HFEA to be proportionate to the specific breaches of the regulations (this would include the power to impose fines). However, several speakers from private clinics voiced their concerns with regard to the clinical expertise of the HFEA and whether the HFEA is capable of effectively assessing cutting-edge technology or carrying out a detailed assessment of the clinical capabilities and compliance of HFEA-regulated clinics.

This session was the first of two events organised by PET and focused on updating the HFE Act. The second event, titled 'Fertility Frontiers: What Is a "Permitted" Embryo in Law?', is scheduled for Wednesday 25 May 2022 and my colleague, Of Counsel Julian Hitchcock, will be speaking. Registration is free and we look forward to another lively debate on a fascinating area of life sciences regulation.

In the UK, fertility treatment and embryo research have a dedicated statutory regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The UK Government has signalled that the laws which define the HFEA's powers could be revised in the near future.

https://pet.secure.force.com/PETEvents/PETEve

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Updates to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act - Lexology

Embryology

Widower in High Court fight over use of embryo created after IVF treatment – Forres Gazette

The Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand in London (Andrew Matthews/PA)

A 38-year-old widower wants a High Court judge to allow him to use an embryo created using his sperm and the eggs of his late wife after IVF treatment.

Investment manager Ted Jennings, of Highbury, north London, has asked Mrs Justice Theis to rule that it would be lawful for him to use the embryo, which was created in 2018 and has been stored, in treatment with a surrogate mother.

Lawyers representing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said Mr Jennings application should be dismissed.

They argued that it would not be lawful to use the embryo because Mr Jennings wife, accountant Fern-Marie Choya, who died in 2019, aged 40 after becoming pregnant, had not provided written consent.

The judge considered Mr Jennings application at a public hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Thursday and is expected to deliver a written ruling in the near future.

Jenni Richards QC, who led Mr Jennings legal team, told the judge that Mr Jennings and Ms Choya, who both moved to Britain from Trinidad, had married in 2009.

She said they had struggled to conceive naturally and underwent three cycles of IVF treatment in 2013 and 2014 without success.

Ms Choya had conceived naturally in 2015 and 2016 but both pregnancies ended in miscarriage.

The couple had undergone further IVF cycles, in 2017 and 2018, and re-mortgaged their home in order to afford private treatment.

Ms Richards said a positive pregnancy had been confirmed in late 2018.

She said Ms Choya had developed complications with her pregnancy at 18 weeks, which resulted in a uterine rupture, and died in February 2019.

Ms Richards said one embryo, the subject of the application, remained in storage.

She said the issue related to a legal requirement that consent be recorded in writing and signed by the person giving it.

the evidence is that Ms Choya would have wanted Mr Jennings to be able to use their partner-created embryo in treatment with a surrogate in the event of her death, said Ms Richards in a written case outline.

In all the circumstances, it can, and should, be inferred that Ms Choya would have provided written consent to Mr Jennings being able to use their partner-created embryo in treatment with a surrogate in the event of her death had she been given the opportunity to do so.

Ms Richards added: Ms Choya had no opportunity, through no fault of her own, to provide that consent in writing.

She said preventing Mr Jennings using the embryo would be a significant interference with his human right to respect for private and family life and prevent him from fulfilling the couples wish to have a child.

Kate Gallafent QC, who led the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authoritys legal team, argued that without written consent it would not be lawful to use the embryo.

She said the authority was sympathetic and told the judge that its sole interest was to promote compliance with a statutory scheme.

Mr Jennings seeks a declaration from the court that it is lawful to use an embryo created using his gametes and those of his late wife Ms Choya in the treatment of a surrogate, she told the judge in a written case outline.

However, it is common ground between the parties that Ms Choya did not provide written consent to the embryo being used by Mr Jennings in treatment with a surrogate in the event of her death.

She said the authoritys primary submission was that: In the absence of such written consent, it is not lawful to use the embryo in treatment with a surrogate.

Ms Gallafent said the requirement of written consent was an express statutory condition set out in the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and central to the legislative regime.

Mrs Justice Theis said she aimed to deliver a written ruling in the near future.

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Widower in High Court fight over use of embryo created after IVF treatment - Forres Gazette

Embryology

Australia Moves Ahead Cautiously With ‘3-Parent IVF’ – WIRED

Australias cautious approach is similar to that of the UK, where Parliament voted to legalize mitochondrial donation in 2015. There, only one clinic, Newcastle Fertility Centre, is licensed to perform the procedure. It must appeal to the UK's fertility agency, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, to approve patients on a case-by-case basis.

Under the new Australian law, mitochondrial donation will initially be offered at just one fertility clinic as part of a clinical trial. The trial likely wont begin for another year or two, and once underway it is expected to last 10 to 12 years. Families interested in joining the trial will need to attend counseling to discuss potential risks involved in mitochondrial donation, and participants will ultimately need to be approved by a board of experts.

The law requires researchers to track participants' pregnancies and birth outcomes, including any miscarriages, premature births, birth defects, or instances of mitochondrial disease among babies born from these pregnancies. Investigators will also monitor the ongoing health and development of children born as a result of the trial.

In contrast to the law in the UK, Australian children born from this procedure will be able to access identifying information about the egg donor in the same manner as children born as a result of egg donation.

The number of participants for the trial hasnt been determined yet, but according to an April 10 funding announcement by the Australian government, the trial must provide a pathway for impacted families to access the technology. While about one in 5,000 babies are born in Australia with a severely disabling form of mitochondrial disease, not all women with mitochondrial disease will need access to this technology, says Megan Munsie, a stem cell scientist and professor of emerging technology at the University of Melbourne.

The reform rightly limits the use of mitochondrial donation to circumstances where this is the only option available to them to reduce the risk of a womans child inheriting mitochondrial DNA disease that is likely to result in serious illness, she says. Depending on how the disease affects their mitochondria, other assisted reproductive technologies, such as preimplantation genetic testing, will be sufficient. This type of testing allows prospective parents going through IVF to select only healthy embryos to implant.

Even after Australias trial period, its not a given that the technology will be made more widely available to women who carry mitochondrial DNA mutations. It is not yet certain that the technology will be implemented clinically, says Catherine Mills, director of the Monash Bioethics Centre in Australia. That will depend on the outcome of the clinical trial, which will weigh safety and efficacy.

There are two major safety concerns with the procedure, says David Thorburn, a mitochondrial disease researcher at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne. One is that a small amount of carryover mitochondrial DNA from the mother could end up in the baby. There may be potential for this to increase to a higher amount during development, such that it could result in mitochondrial disease, he says.

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Australia Moves Ahead Cautiously With '3-Parent IVF' - WIRED

Embryology

I donated sperm to father 47 kids but women don’t want to date me – New York Post

His love life has been sperminated.

A prolific father who cant find a partner might seem like a paradox. However, a California sperm donor with almost 50 biological children fears that his controversial vocation may have torpedoed his chances of landing a paramour.

Most women arent interested in dating me, Kyle Gordy, 30, told Jam Press of his devotion to donation.

The freelance baby purveyor, who claimed that an estimated 1,000 women have requested his semen, first started donating his swimmers when he was 22 as he felt traditional sperm banks were cold and clinical and wanted to know where his sperm was actually going.

So, like a mom and pop producer in a sea of corporate sperm merchants, the entrepreneur began promoting his free service on Instagram (@kylegordy123), and soon scores of aspiring mothers came a-knocking, Jam Press reported.

As soon as two years [after donating] I got more attention, as thats when I was actively donating more, Gordy explained. I had a few successful pregnancies, so I started receiving messages on my Instagram from women, which I was really surprised about.

Fast forward until now, and the independent sperm banker has fathered 47 children in multiple countries with 10 more on the way.

But despite the fact that scores of women desire his super sperm, the serial surrogate said that hes had trouble finding that special someone.

Although Ive had a few women interested in a possible relationship, it never goes anywhere, lamented Gordy, who reportedly had an average dating life even before his career. I have accepted my decision to donate sperm, but Ive realized that dating may never be the same as it once was for me.

Nonetheless, the heartsick sperminator said that if a special lady comes along, hed be happy to indulge something more.

It is possible I could settle down and start a family of my own, but it would take a very special someone to accept me for who I am, Gordy explained. I think discussing my sperm donating early on in our relationship is best, as she will more likely understand the situation.

Ive had a few women interested in a possible relationship, it never goes anywhere.

While he might be striking out romantically, the motherhood facilitator said he feels great having helped so many women start families.

The joy I receive from doing this is the best feeling in the world, said Gordy, who openly meets his children, regardless of whether theyre actually his to care for.

I regularly receive pictures of the children, so knowing they are doing well is great, he added.

And, apparently, the feeling is mutual.

I didnt think so many women would be interested, as most of them had money and could easily go to any sperm bank, said Gordy. However, after hearing their reasons, most stated that they wanted the option for the child to see their biological father.

Not just a US-based donor, Gordy is currently on a sperm donation world tour with recent stops in Scotland and Germany, per his Instagram and has at least three kids in the UK. And, in a first for across the pond, the charitable soul recently donated sperm to one woman naturally, he said.

At first she said she was nervous but after talking for a bit, she told me how happy she was, explained the donor of cutting out the middleman. We realized we had a lot in common, which I find is always great, and we even discussed staying in contact.

Gordy added that he believed women in the United Kingdom are most interested in me, but I think this is only due to sperm banks being off-putting.

Whats the secret to cultivating world-class swimmers? Gordy chalked it up to going organic by using 18 different herbs and supplements a day, as well as abstaining from caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.

With an army of offspring at 30, Gordy is perhaps on track to eclipse the UKs Clive Jones, 66, who claims to be the worlds most prolific sperm donor with more than 129 biological children.

However, UK experts currently warn baby-craving women against going to unlicensed sperm donors.

If arrangements are made outside of the clinic environment, there can be medical and legal risks; for example, without the proper consents in place, the donor is likely to be seen as the legal parent, with all the rights and responsibilities that involves, said a spokesperson for the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. Clinics will also rigorously test all donors for medical and hereditary illnesses.

Thats why we always encourage sperm donors and patients to go to a licensed clinic, where these medical and legal issues are taken care of for them, and where the welfare of the child is always of primary concern, they concluded.

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I donated sperm to father 47 kids but women don't want to date me - New York Post

Embryology

The Virtual Human Embryo – EHD

Welcome to The Virtual Human Embryo (VHE), a 14,250-page, illustrated atlas of human embryology, which presents all 23 Carnegie Stages of development during the 8-week embryonic period.

This $3.2 million, 11-year initiative engaged a team led by Dr. Raymond F. Gasserone of the leading embryologists of the last half century. His team created thousands of restored, digitized, and labeled serial sections from the world's largest collection of preserved human embryos. They used these serial sections to create animations, fly-throughs, and 3-D reconstructions.

The VHE is now available to researchers, educators, and students everywhere. Read More...

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The Virtual Human Embryo - EHD

Embryology

Embryology Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

1 : a branch of biology dealing with embryos and their development 2 : the features and phenomena exhibited in the formation and development of an embryo '; header.innerHTML += ''; container.parentNode.insertBefore(header, container); // Add the div for the openweb comments. var openwebDiv = document.createElement("div"); openwebDiv.className = "pitc-div"; openwebDiv.setAttribute("data-spotim-module", "pitc"); container.parentNode.insertBefore(openwebDiv, container); // Create the openweb tag. var openwebScript = document.createElement("script"); openwebScript.type = "text/javascript"; openwebScript.src = "https://launcher.spot.im/spot/sp_704FKM73"; openwebScript.setAttribute("data-spotim-module", "spotim-launcher"); openwebScript.setAttribute("data-post-id", "owl:embryology"); openwebScript.setAttribute("data-post-url", "http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embryology"); openwebScript.setAttribute("data-messages-count", "3"); container.appendChild(openwebScript); }, // 5000);

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Embryology Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Embryology

Buyer Beware: IVF Damages and the Value of Life – American Council on Science and Health

Regulation as a solution?

Some legal scholars call for regulation. [1] Certainly, it would help. But the UKs reproductive industry is strictly regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), and problems still proliferate.

In 2014 the HEFA reported adverse incidents at a frequency of one per every one hundred cycles of treatment, similar to error rates in US facilities.

Wrongs Without Legal Remedies

In addition to duplicitous doctors using their sperm to inseminate patients, discussed here, errors include losing or destroying genetic material, implanting the wrong embryo, switching embryos, and poor screening of donors. Currently, IVF-born children are generally barred from suing the facility for negligently caused damages related to their birth. Such lawsuits would, if allowed, result in not only compensatory damages, alleviating a life of problems, but could have a deterrence effect on preventing shoddy practices.

Cases of wrong embryo implantation are said to be rare, likely because the parents only discover something is wrong via a color mismatch. With the advent of genetic testing, that is sure to change. Using 23andMe and similar products, children are learning for themselves that the person they thought was their biological father - was someone other than the person they call Dad.

In some cases, embryos were implanted in the wrong mother, i.e., switched before pregnancy. One heart-rendering case, memorialized in Rogers v. Fasano, revolved around the return of the biological child to their biological parents when the problem was discovered after birth. But this week, a switched embryo was discovered during pregnancy in a case involving the same embryologist as in the Fasano situation. The pregnant mother decided to abort the fetus rather than risk becoming too attached to it and undergoing, as in the Fasano case, a potential custody battle.

A Dilemma Requiring the Wisdom of Solomon

These cases are without legal remedy. The biological mother has no right to sound in, at least not before birth. The woman carrying the child in essence, a non-voluntary surrogate bears the risks of pregnancy and the likelihood the child will be taken from her if she carries it to term. Solomon would have convened a court and asked the birth mother if she would prefer killing the child or allowing another woman to have it- we know the answer. In our world, no one wins.

More Orphan Injuries

In other instances, the IVF facility knowingly mis-markets a sperm donors credentials as, lets say, being healthy and intelligent when instead he has a history of serious, hereditable illness. Wrongful birth, the mothers claim, is generally allowed, providing limited recovery. Previously, these claims were often brought when the mother suffered rubella during pregnancy, and the physician failed to advise her of the birth risks or need for genetic testing. Successful claims were asserted where an unwanted child was born or born with horrific medical problems.

But in the IVF cases, the resultant child is denied recovery; the childs claim now called wrongful Life is typically rejected. Better to be born with a bleak future, say the courts, than not to be born at all. That may well be the case, but the courts could make that future more bearable and deter future misconduct by awarding compensatory and punitive high damages.

Professor Dov Fox [2] calls for expanding the legal framework for civil claims, invoking a newly conceived tort of reproductive negligence. I have suggested using existing torts in new ways to address the issues. [3] Regulation and expanding liability would undoubtedly result in deterrence and better self-regulation by these facilities.

What happens if a defendant goofs but the damages are questionable?

Until recently, cases revolved around egregious actions by IVF labs or physicians and sorely distressing outcomes that went without legal deterrence for wrongdoing. And so, it continued with sad but not necessarily egregious outcomes, still involving wrongful conduct.

Consider Jessica Cramblett.

Jessica Cramblett, a white lesbian mother, delivered a bi-racial child after using donated sperm. She sought damages for breach of warranty and wrongful birth claiming difficulties in raising her child. In Crambletts case, the defendant failed to provide sperm of white Donor 380, Ms. Cramblatts choice; instead, through a technical error, supplying sperm of Black Donor 330. That kind of mistake is the stuff of typical negligence (or malpractice, in the case of professionals). But negligence suits require not just carelessness but that the claimant suffered provable damages, which the courts found was absent. Her claims were dismissed at the state, and federal levels.

The Cramblett incident transpired in 2011. With no regulations, supervised record-keeping, or lawsuits permitting significant damages, perhaps it isnt surprising that similar conduct continued.

Heather Wilhelm-Routenberg, had been sexually traumatized in her younger days and consequently fears men. She and her partner went to the CNY fertility clinic seeking a female embryo. Instead of the female child they sought and contracted for, they got a boy. A healthy boy, to be sure, but a boy, nonetheless. Heather claims significant emotional problems, depression, suicidal ideation, and emotional distancing from the child. She and her partner sued.

It seems clear the facility goofed. Because of Heathers history, she undoubtedly suffered. But millions of infertile women would be thrilled to have any healthy child. Are Heathers damages the only ones the law cares about? To me, the most injured person in this saga is the child, deprived of maternal love and bonding for months following his birth and denied legal redress.

Commodification of Children

Taken to an extreme, the used car approach regarding enforcing warranties when it comes to ordering or specifying children is chilling.

Consider the Japanese case, where a woman recently sued a donor for $2.86 million for the emotional distress on learning that he was not who he said he was. She wanted a Japanese graduate from Kyoto University. It turns out he was Chinese and didnt go to the school. When she found this out, she gave the child up for adoption and sued.

The Japanese fertility system forces women to enlist donors privately. A robust and well-regulated fertility system would right the problem. But in its absence, should society condone giving the child up for adoption?

The childs rejection because the child did not represent what was ordered highlights that the child was treated as a commodity.

Perhaps the ultimate example of consumerism in the child-selection business is the Belgian case involving parents who specified a child with a particular genetic makeup to use the child as a savior-sibling (using the babys bone marrow to cure an illness of their already-existing child Ive written previously about those ethical concerns). Instead, they got a healthy child. Worse still, at least to the parents, the embryo twinned. So, they got two healthy children. They then went on to have another child - which proved to be an eligible savior-sibling. The court awarded the couple more than $40,000 for their shock and impoverishment (emotional distress), ruling that the couple wanted two or three children within their family project, but under no circumstances, four.

All in the Family

Sometimes IVF facilities are retained to facilitate sperm-egg fertilization of the biological parents. Gamete donors would not be involved. But, when fertility facilities err, parents, expecting joint biological progeny, discover that a sperm donor has been used, and the child is only biologically related to the mother.

This type of mix-up was discovered in a recent Ohio case. The parents of an adult daughter who used an at-home DNA test sued the clinic where the procedure occurred, claiming medical malpractice, battery, lack of informed consent, multiple instances of negligence, the failed safeguarding of genetic material, and more.

Learning that your entire reality isn't what you believed it to be is hard to explain; it's sort of waking up in somebody else's life

Mike Harvey [the adoptive father]

I

Its not clear how the error happened, other than determining that the biological father was another client of the facility at the same time. Damages in the case could relate to the innate need to create a lineage, something recognized by the Singapore courts creating a new cause of action, the loss of genetic affinity.

But is this where we want the law to go? Wouldnt it be good for these parents, who really wanted children, to be grateful for receiving a healthy child? Wouldnt it be even better if the fertility industry was regulated (or self-policed), so these easily avoidable problems, which probably existed in significant numbers for a long time and went unnoticed, didnt happen in the first place? And wouldnt it be best to allow the child to sue if they can prove real hardship which might carry the additional benefit of deterrence?

[1] Naomi Cahn, Professor University of Virginia, School of Law Sonia Suter, Georgetown University.

[2] Professor of Law and Director for Center for Health Law Policy & Bioethics University of California, San Diego

[3] Barbara Pfeffer Billauer The Sperminator as a Public Nuisance: Redressing Wrongful Life Claims in New Ways (Aka New Tricks for Old Torts),

Wrongful Life in the Age of CRISPR-CAS: Using the Legal Fiction of The Conceptual Being to Redress Wrongful Gamete Manipulation

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Buyer Beware: IVF Damages and the Value of Life - American Council on Science and Health