Fertility experts have accused the Department of Health of leaving them on the sidelines in discussions about long-awaited rules on assisted human reproduction.

Is social egg freezing a way for women today to stop the biological clock from ticking, or just an expensive procedure that gives them false hope, asks Katy Harrington.   

THE central theme of Rupert Thomson’s haunting novel is how we shape our identity, and ultimately our destiny.

Senator Jim Walsh has left the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party over his opposition to same-sex couples using assisted reproduction and his “deeply held and conscientious opinions”.

I am so furious at my sunglasses I could splinter them into a million tiny pieces, writes Suzanne Harrington.

A woman has described waking up from an operation to find both her fallopian tubes had been “clipped” without her consent.

Australia’s largest providers of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) Virtus Health, has bought a 70% stake in an Irish IVF clinic, SIMS, for more than €15m.

Couples affected by infertility will have access to a clinic in Cork following the decision by Dublin-based Sims IVF to expand beyond the capital.

Claims that a breakthrough in infertility treatment can treble the chances of a successful birth have been dismissed as “ridiculous” by the vice-president of the Irish Fertility Society.

Poland’s first transgender MP has lost out in a bid to become a deputy speaker in parliament after other parliamentarians voted to keep the incumbent in place.

An expert in assisted human reproduction has told the High Court the failure by Government to introduce legislation is “very disappointing” and “tragic”.

A constitutional amendment is not needed to allow for the abortion of a foetus that has no chance of survival outside the womb, legal experts have argued.

Accepting the use of donated eggs brings on a classic conflict between head and heart, reports Helen O’Callaghan

Italian gynaecologist Severino Antinori grabbed headlines in the ’90s when he used IVF and egg donation to help menopausal women get pregnant — in 1993, a 59-year-old from Britain gave birth to twins.

Half of Irish couples undergoing fertility treatment wish to have twins, according to a study by a leading international clinic.

TWO embryos are better than one for maximising the chances of having an IVF baby at any age, a study has found.

THE founder of a British charity that offers support to childless couples and people struggling to start a family has defended a new lottery game which offers a prize of €28,000 in fertility treatments.

Brian Barton

THE Vatican kept up its attack on the Nobel committee yesterday for giving the medicine prize to in-vitro fertilisation pioneer Robert Edwards, saying he had led to a culture where embryos are seen as commodities.

THE woman who was the world’s first test-tube baby said yesterday it was “fantastic” that a British scientist who helped bring her into the world had been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.

THE dilemma of what to do with unused embryos following fertility treatment will not be resolved as long as the Government fails to introduce laws governing assisted human reproduction (AHR) and embryonic stem cell research, doctors and scientists have warned.

A BRITISH fertility clinic said yesterday it was raffling off a human egg this week to promote its “baby profiling” service, which it insists is legal under British law.

WHEN it comes to interference in the intimate details of people’s lives, religious zealots are in the premier league.

CONTROVERSIAL octuplet mother Nadya Suleman has signed a deal with production company Eyeworks, which makes The Biggest Loser, for each of her 14 children to earn £152 (€175) a day to star in a reality television show.

DAILY sex keeps a man’s sperm spry and is recommended for couples wanting a baby, research has shown.

THE failure to develop a proper regulatory system for stem cell research undermines the moral value of the human embryo.

MANY Irish women having babies by IVF are not being told they can have a test to identify if the embryo has a fatal deformity, according to a European-wide report.

A LEADING expert on medical ethics said legislation and regulation was essential to govern the activities of fertility clinics and clarify the rights of the embryos they produce, store and implant.

Life begins at fertilisation, a former chairman of the Medical Council’s ethics committee today told a landmark legal case on the status of frozen embryos.

EITHER partner in a couple undergoing fertility treatment should have the right to back out of the arrangement if they change their mind, a group representing fertility practitioners said.

ASSISTED reproduction is a booming industry in this country, with nine clinics opening in the past 15 years.

Fine Gael TD Liam Twomey has called for clarification on when exactly a human embryo enjoys the right-to-life protections contained in the Irish Constitution.

Italy’s emotional battle over whether to relax restrictions on assisted fertility treatment went to the ballot box today.

SOME of the major recommendations made in the report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction may be vulnerable to a Supreme Court constitutional challenge, if they are implemented in legislation.

Desmond Connell never sought an easy life, reports Caroline O'Doherty.

THE Catholic Church as an organisation has waged an extensive campaign in the last few weeks seeking to influence how the Tánaiste votes at a European Union Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels today.

ASSISTED human reproduction (AHR) laws must be flexible enough to make allowances for scientific advances and changes in what societies deem acceptable, an Irish fertility expert warned yesterday.

MANY parents whose children were given an ineffective vaccination against TB are seriously concerned their children may have been put at risk.

A British clinic is considering helping an infertile woman to have her brother's child through artificial insemination.

An American fertility clinic is using a "sex-sorting" machine on the father's sperm to give couples babies with the gender they've ordered.

Doctors who gave a 56-year-old woman the chance to become Britain's oldest mother of twins have been criticised.