Category Archives: Author: Lori Andrews

CDC Data Highlights a Need for Regulation of Infertility Docs

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Jake MeyerLori Andrews
by Jake Meyer and Lori Andrews

The Suleman octuplets have captured Americans’ hearts, but the actions of the mother and doctor have raised people’s ire.  Blogging here last week, Dr. Bruce Patsner pointed out that self-regulation of the infertility industry is insufficient to protect women and children from harm.

Infertility specialist Richard Paulson told Time that we shouldn’t use “this incredibly rare event” to legislate.  But the practice of transferring too many embryos is far from rare and suggests that the billion dollar infertility industry needs stricter oversight.

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Octuplets: Medical Miracle or Medical Mistake?

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Lori Andrews by Lori Andrews

When octuplets were born at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in California, the doctor overseeing the 46 health care professionals in the delivery room called the event "marvelous" and described the mother as "courageous."  But was the event really marvelous?  Or was it a public health nightmare of fertility treatments gone awry?

Between 1980 and 2003, the number of higher-order multiples (triplets or more) increased four-fold.  The prime culprits responsible for this rise in multiples are fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization (IVF).  While other countries regulate the number of embryos that can be transferred to a woman during an in vitro fertilization treatment, the U.S. does not.  As a consequence, one in three in vitro fertilization births involves multiples. 

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Divorce, Bioethics Style: Can a Kidney Donor Get His Organ Back From His Ex?

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Lori Andrews by Lori Andrews

New options in medical therapies, including reproductive technologies and organ donation, provoke heated debates among philosophers and physicians.  But these therapies also create disputes in the unlikeliest of places:  divorce courts.

When a man has an infertility problem, his wife can be inseminated with donor sperm to create a child for the couple.  But what if the couple later split?  Initially, some ex-wives tried to deny their ex-husbands visitation rights, saying the men had no biological bond to the children.  And some ex-husbands tried to shirk child support, saying “I’m not that baby’s daddy.”  Courts initially fumbled (with a 1956 Illinois court decision holding that donor insemination constituted adultery, even if the husband consented).  But ultimately, courts and most state legislatures came to a solution that benefited the child: a man who consented to the insemination of his wife has the rights and responsibilities of a legal father.

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Testing Children for “Sports Genes”

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Lori Andrews by Lori Andrews

While some of us might be heading to the gym as we start the new year, certain parents are making another sort of resolution.  They are dialing up Atlas Sports Genetics and plunking down their credit cards to have their infants and toddlers tested for genes supposedly related to sports ability.  One woman who was considering such a test told The New York Times, “What if my son could be a pro football player and I don’t know it?”

As the denizen of a city famous for sports highs (Michael Jordan’s Bulls) and lows (the Chicago Cubs’ near misses), I am cautious about making predictions about a current team, let alone betting my hopes that a three year old will grow up to be the next Tom Brady or Peyton Manning.  And caution in this field should be the word of the day.  The proposed test raises both scientific and social issues.

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Holiday Gift Giving: Should You Give Your Loved One A Genome Scan?

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Lori Andrews by Lori Andrews

With TIME Magazine dubbing the 23andme personalized genome scan the “2008 Invention of the Year,” you might be tempted to give your loved one his or her genetic profile for the holidays.  After all, what says I love you more than letting that special someone peek inside their own genome?  Or what about setting aside your usual New Years Eve revelry and sponsoring a spit party—where your guests can get an on-the-spot genetic tests?

The initial idea for a genetic profile as a gift did not originate with an entrepreneur or scientist, but with an artist. When the wife of a patron of arts asked Iñigo Manglano Ovalle to create a surprise portrait of her husband for his birthday, Ovalle conspired with the patron’s barber to pluck some hair from the man’s head and test it genetically.  Ovalle’s painted bands, based on the test results, looked like the forensic profiles used at the time in law enforcement and revealed no health information.  But the testing techniques used to produce the $399 genome scan offered by 23andme, as well as the tests offered by its competitors deCODE Genetics and Navigenics, do reveal potential future conditions including blindness, cancer, and risks of mental illness.

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Should Native American Identity Be Based on Genetics?

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Lori Andrews by Lori Andrews

In the 1700s and 1800s, runaway slaves joined Native American tribes like the Cherokee and Seminoles.  For generations, these black men and women were full-fledged members of the tribe, taking up arms on the side of the Indians.  In modern times, the African-American members of the Native American nations, known from the beginning as Cherokee Freedmen and Seminole Freedmen, have continued to live on reservations and serve as tribal councils.

As Native Americans gain funds from casinos and from lawsuits against the government for past misdeeds, some tribes are looking for ways to limit membership.  When the Seminoles received a settlement of $96 million from the federal government for land unjustly taken from them, the tribe did not allow the African-American Indians, the Freedmen, to participate.  And last year, the Cherokee tribe voted to revoke the tribal citizenship of the Freedmen.  By stripping over 2,700 Freedmen of their tribal membership, the Cherokees denied them health care access, money for schooling and other Native American benefits.

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