Happy New Year from the press office! Hopefully you had a fun and restful break over the holiday season and are back with renewed enthusiasm for communicating your work to the media!

2005 is looking like a busy year for fertility in the news. There are, of course, the changes to the gamete donor anonymity practice in April. This is a subject that, even in the build up, is already consistently in the media. Then there is the continuation of the Department of Health’s review of the HFE act, including a full public consultation this year. Feeding into this will be the findings from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into human reproductive technologies and the law, also due for publication in 2005.

We hope to make sure that the BFS is at the forefront of responses and comment for all of these, and we will do our best to keep you informed of any other issues that arise unforeseen.

NB. Take a look at the ‘Watch out for…’ section for an important announcement on a parliamentary debate.

The visiting journalists from BBC R4 Women’s Hour and The Economist found the day particularly useful and we got great feedback from both of them. Those invited journalists that couldn’t make it expressed interest in being considered for future sessions, so it's likely that we will propose to do something similar at other BFS events.

Although we didn’t have 100% attendance this time, it was felt that the focus group is a good idea and we would hope to organise future meetings of the group to continue to feedback on the media projects. If you are interested in taking part please get in touch with Tom or Jane on 01454 642244 or email jo.thurston@bioscientifica.com.

Feelings within the group were that the profile of the Society had risen due to increased media activity, but that the BFS and its representatives should aim to be even more active in media relations.

Postpone motherhood - reduce your chances (The Guardian 1 October 2004)
The Office for National Statistics has published data that shows that women who postpone starting a family until their 30s only have a 50% chance of giving birth to child. The ONS showed that a combination of biological, social and economic factors contributed to this outcome.

Cash proposal for gamete donors (The Guardian 11 November 2004)
The HFEA put forward ideas for new proposals on the systems for sperm and egg donation, including financial recompensing of donors. Currently donors receive £15 plus ‘reasonable expenses’ but the HFEA proposes to pay up to £1000 expenses for eggs due to the nature of the invasive and time-consuming work-up and procedures for harvesting donor eggs. Sperm donors could receive £50 expenses.

Dodgy miscarriage test exposed (BBC news online 26 November 2004)
A report in the BMJ has said that there is no scientific basis for clinics to carry out tests to measure natural killer (NK) cells in women that suffer recurrent miscarriages. It is not known what role NK cells have in pregnancy but many women that record high levels are given powerful treatments, which could be harmful. The researchers say that these women are vulnerable to financial exploitation and are potentially being offered tests with no scientific rationale.

International cloning ban shelved (BBC news online 26 November 2004)
The UN have dropped plans for an international treaty on cloning due to a deadlock between two groups of countries. The US backed a proposal by Costa Rica for a global ban on all forms of human cloning, whilst a second motion led by Belgium aimed to enable individual countries to decide whether they permitted therapeutic cloning of human embryos. All 191 member countries condone human reproductive cloning. Instead of a treaty, a declaration will be discussed in February.

Lord Winston slates regulator (BBC news online 10 December 2004)
On BBC Radio’s Today programme Lord Professor Robert Winston branded the HFEA ‘incompetent’ and vented opinions that they had mismanaged recent issues. He called for the body to be abolished or to be replaced with a more flexible body. Suzi Leather replied to say that the authority still has an important role to play and that the public are given confidence in the sector by the presence of a regulator.

Donor recruitment campaign (BBC news online 30 December 2004)
In response to the crisis situation of the lack of sperm and egg donors, and to prepare for the change in anonymity ruling that is expected to reduce this number even further, The National Gamete Donation Trust are working with the Department of Health on a campaign to recruit gamete donors. The campaign will include leaflets and posters and aims to encourage people to donate altruistically.

Edinburgh hospital in legal battle (Sunday Herald 31 December 2004)
Legal action has been brought against the Western General Hospital in relation to an incident in July 2001 when a freezer containing sperm samples from nearly 300 cancer patients overheated. NHS Lothian has consistently denied liability but fresh claims have emerged that staff silenced the warning alarm on the freezer because it was going off repeatedly.

Parliamentary debate on infertility
NIAC have secured the timetabling of a private debate on infertility in Westminster and in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 26 January. ‘Implementation of the NICE Guideline on Infertility’ will be led by Kevin Baron (chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility) in Westminster, while Mary Scanlon will sponsor a wider debate on ‘Infertility Services in Scotland’ in the Scottish Parliament.

HFEA’s ‘Tomorrow’s children’ consultation
The HFEA has launched a wide public consultation into how clinics should protect the interests of children born through fertility treatment.

BFS 8th Ethics Study Day – Autonomy and Consent: Reproductive Choices in 2005
25 February 2005 London, UK

For more info call Tamara Lloyd on 01454 642217 or email bfs@bioscientifica.com
Programme and registration form can be found at: http://www.fertility.org.uk/meetings/2005/Ethics/ProgrammeRegistrationEthics05.pdf