“There are legal age limits for tattoos and sunbeds. Children should not be able to walk off the street and have an invasive cosmetic procedure.” New developments and marketing have made an increasing range of surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures – including botox, dermal fillers, implants, and skin lightening, as well as newer techniques such […]

We are pleased to announce the appointment of David Archard as the new Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. David is Professor of Philosophy at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, at Queen’s University Belfast. He was Deputy Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority until the end of 2016. “I […]

In response to the announcement today that a licence has been granted to Newcastle Fertility Centre to use the Pronuclear Transfer technique in treatment, Hugh Whittall Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics said: “This is an important step forward for families at risk of passing on severe mitochondrial disorders. We are pleased to note that the licensing […]

In 2015 the Nuffield Council on Bioethics published a report on children in clinical research: ethical issues, following a two year enquiry, chaired by Professor Bobbie Farsides. One of its key messages was that the evidence base for children’s healthcare can only be improved through research – and that children are more vulnerable, not less, […]

A new report on non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics expresses concerns about the way the test is being sold by private providers. In addition, the Council calls for better information and support; calls for a moratorium on the use of NIPT in sequencing the whole genome of fetuses; and calls for a […]

Preventing the transmission of inherited genetic diseases, and increasing food production rates in farmed animals are two potential applications of genome editing technologies that require urgent ethical scrutiny, according to the independent Nuffield Council on Bioethics. The Council has today published the first findings of its programme of work looking at the recent and potential […]

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is seeking views on the ethical issues raised by the increasing availability and use of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT). NIPT can be carried out by means of a simple blood test from 10 weeks of pregnancy. It uses cells of the placenta that circulate in the mother’s blood to look […]

Two papers in this week’s Nature and Nature Cell Biology¹² suggest that human embryos can now be cultured in the laboratory up to the current UK legal limit of 14 days after fertilisation. Chair of the Council Jonathan Montgomery said, At our annual ‘Forward Look’ planning meeting in February, the Council learned of potentially important […]

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has launched an online survey on the ethical and social questions that are raised by the growing use of cosmetic procedures. The Council would like to hear from as many people as possible with their views on cosmetic surgery (e.g. breast enlargement or reduction, face-lifts, tummy tucks, etc.) and non-surgical […]

Confusion over what people mean when they describe science, technology and medicine as ‘unnatural’ could be causing people to talk at cross purposes, hampering public debates, says the Nuffield Council on Bioethics today. Ideas about naturalness have got everyone talking this year: people expressing their wish to use, consume or practice things they would describe […]