On ethics of reproductive molecular biology 

The first annual congress on “Reproductive Molecular Biology & Assisted Reproductive Technology: Ethics, Regulations & Pioneering Technology” was held in Banjara Hills on Saturday.

In his keynote address Justice B Subhashana Reddy, Chairman Lokayukta drew attention on rights of unborn child and legal aspects of surrogacy. He enlightened on the current issues of being a single parent along with its ethical and spiritual deviations. He emphasised and stressed to follow the process of natural and traditional system of having healthy babies.

This was followed by a lecture by Dr Tripta Garg, scientist, DSIR, who emphasised on “Indigenisation in healthcare sector opportunities through collaborative R&D”. Later, there was a panel discussion on the theme “Need and demand for tools, instruments and culture media in art” that focused on the importance of advancements in the sector with respect to culture media and instruments.

This session was led by Dr PP Reddy, Research Director, Mahavir Hospital and Research Centre and Prof. Ch VenkataRamana Devi HOD Dept. of Biochemistry OU was co-chairperson. In the second session, Dr Ashok Patel delivered a lecture on ‘Embryo Bank, Sperm Bank, Cryopreservation’, which enlightened the audience on the need of establishment the same for improvisation of techniques like invitro fertilisation and the importance of cryopreservation in maintaining embryo and sperm samples.

The afternoon session started with the theme “Industrial-Institutional R&D in Consumables, Disposables: Bridging the gap” with had participation of scientists, industries and clinicians. The objective of the session was to bring industrial and institutional R&D on to a single platform to work in collaboration in order to bring advancements in the field of Reproductive Molecular Bilogy. It was led by Dr RS Sharma, Dr Tripta Garg, Scientist C, DSIR.