April 15, 2025 • 16 mins
Katy Perry and an all-female crew have made history in space, but their Blue Origin flight has sparked both celebration and controversy... and does this mean we all need to start saving for our next out-of-this-world (literally) holiday?
Plus, an IVF mix-up at a Brisbane fertility clinic has left two families grappling with an unthinkable situation, as we investigate just how common these errors are and what safeguards are in place to protect patients.
And in headlines today A second leaders debate will be hosted by the ABC with Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton hoping to win over Australia's undecided voters; The number of Australian tourists heading to the US has dropped, the falling Aus dollar and Donald Trump are being blamed; Kim Kardashian will testify in person in the trial against the men accused of stealing her jewellery from her in Paris; Harvey Weinstein's rape retrial is finding it difficult to find jurors with many saying they are unable to remain impartial.
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CREDITS
Hosts: Taylah Strano & Claire Murphy
Guests:
Charlie Begg, Mamamia's Audience Editor
Dr Devora Lieberman, Medical Director at City Fertility Clinic
Executive Producer: Taylah Strano
Audio Producer: Lu Hill
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
So you're listening to a Muma Mea podcast. Mumma Mea
acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this
podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, I'm Taylor Strano. This is Mumma MIA's twice daily
news podcast. The Quickie. Katie Perry has made history as
part of the first all female crew to head to
space on a commercial flight. But will we be packing
our bags for the Cosmos anytime soon? Plus, after an
IVF mix up in Brisbane that's left two families grappling
with an unimaginable situation, welleth wondering just how often does
(00:44):
this happen? And what do they do now? Before we
get there? He is Clare Murphy with the latest from
The Quickie newsroom for Wednesday, April.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Sixteen, Thanks Taylor.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Our second leader's debate will be held between Prime Minister
and Then ow Up and Easy and Opposition Leader Peter
Dutton tonight, has both seek to win over Australia's undecided voters.
The coalition will announce a six million dollar investment into
the Ilana and Madeline Foundation if they are elected. The
foundation providing learning and teaching materials and digital and media
(01:14):
literacy skills for children aged four to sixteen, mister Dutton
saying we need to ensure that parents and children are
equipped with the knowledge and skills that will help them
safely navigate the online world. Tonight's debate will be hosted
by the ABC, with two more to be hosted by
the nine and seven networks closer to the election on
May three. Ozsi's are choosing not to travel to the US.
(01:36):
With a dropping Australian dollar and President Donald Trump being
blamed for the slump in US ossie tourism, nearly seventy
five thousand Australians visited America in March, compared to just
over eighty one thousand for the same period last year,
a seven point eight percent year on year monthly fall
and the steepest decline since March twenty twenty one during
the COVID pandemic. The current exchange rate and the uncertainty
(01:59):
of how tourists and other foreigners are being treated in
the United States singled out as the reasons for less
of us deciding to head stateside. A survey commissioned by
the Tourism and Transport for US and found that fewer
people were also planning a trip to the United States
compared to the corresponding period twelve months ago, the country
sliding to seventh on the list of preferred destinations, the
(02:20):
first time in three or four years that it hasn't
been in the top five. Kim Kardashian will testify in
person at the upcoming trial over the robbery that saw
thieves still millions of dollars worth of her jewelry. Kardashian
was in France for Paris Fashion Week in October twenty sixteen,
and had returned to her hotel room with a friend,
where she had posted several pictures and videos online of
(02:41):
her wearing expensive gems, including the engagement ring she had
recently been given by Kanye West. Her bodyguard had stayed
out with her sister's Kendall and Courtney. At around two
thirty am, the alleged robbers, wearing ski masks and police uniforms,
allegedly threatened the conciergic gunpoint, forcing him to provide access
to Kardashian's apartment, before tying him up and leaving him
(03:02):
in a cupboard. Kim then reportedly called her bodyguard when
she heard the men's boots and spotted them outside the window,
but they allegedly they forced their way in and yanked
the phone from her hands. She was then tied up
and dragged into the bathroom where she was locked in.
Her friend in another room had locked herself in the bathroom,
where she called the bodyguard. The ten suspects who've been
accused of the armed robbery, kidnapping, and several other criminal
(03:25):
charges a judi faced trial in Paris from April twenty eight.
The prosecutors in Harvey Weinstein's New York rape retrial may
find it difficult to finalize a jury, with many already
being excused as they admit they are unable to remain impartial.
An actor who plays a lawyer in the new Robert
de Niro movie The Alto Knights, Mark Axelowitz, was excused
(03:46):
after he admitted he thought Weinstein was a really bad guy.
Another juror was let go after saying she'd been previously
sexually assaulted. Another told the selectors they didn't see how
anyone could remain impartial. Weinstein is being tried again after
New York's highest court last year overturned his twenty twenty
conviction and twenty three year prison sentence, finding improper rulings
(04:07):
and prejudicial testimony tainted the Ariation trial.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Thanks Clant Next, making history in space, Katie Perry once
asked if we feel like plastic bags floating through the wind,
and while bopping around in space is technically a step
up from that. She's remained true to the courts when
this week she embarked on and then returned from a
(04:32):
groundbreaking journey to space. The Blue Origin flight marked the
first time and all female crew has traveled to space
on a commercial mission. Alongside Perry were CBS Morning's host
Gail King, former NASA engineer Aisha Bow, film producer Kerry
Anne Flynn, civil rights activists and bioastronautics researcher Amanda Wynn,
and Laurence Sanchez, who's a journalist and the fiancee of
(04:55):
Blue Origins founder Jeff Bezos. The mission, dubbed n S
thirty one, launched from Blue Origins facility in West Texas
on Monday, with the crew experiencing about four minutes of
weightlessness before returning to Earth. Joining us now is Mummy's
audience editor Charlie Beg to unpack this historic moment. Charlie,
(05:15):
Katie Perry she's an international pop star, a self proclaimed
California girl, and now a space traveler.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
She is I hope she was going to sing et.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Extraterrestrial absolutely makes sense, right, And she said as she
came off, she said, it's not about me.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's not about seeing my songs. It's about a collective
energy in there. It's about us while they're up in space.
She sang, what a wonderful world.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
She took a couple of things up on board with her, though,
tell me what was she sort of flashing around cameras.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yes, so she took a little butterfly up there. It's
a cutout that had all the names of the song
she'd be seeing in her set list on her upcoming tour.
She also when she got to the ground, she had
this me air and on the ground. But it's a
little Daisy to represent her daughter Daisy with Orlando Bloom.
And once she got off out of the capsule, she
knelt down to the ground and kissed it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, a couple of them did that. I mean, I
too would be very thankful to have two feet firm
back on the ground after floating around in space. What's
the reaction been like to having these celebrities alongside space professionals,
I want to say on board.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
So the reaction's been really mixed, which isn't surprising. Yesterday morning,
our social team put together some great memes, which was
probably the highlight to come out of it, and I
hadn't looked through all the comments just to see what
our audience was saying about it. And the interesting was
some people said that surely they could have just done
a whole fleet of astronauts instead of some celebrities as well.
(06:48):
Are we supposed to praise them because they sat in
a rocket? The most notable point people were making is
what does this achieve?
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I mean, look, I can understand the argument for wanting
to preference people who have spent their whole live studying
and training for this moment, but we wouldn't be talking
about it right now if Katie Perry hadn't gone to space.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Absolutely, But finally, the last point was what did this cost? Well,
they're better things they could be doing. The only interesting
point that I think of, which I don't know if
I agree with, but it's another interesting take. A journalist said,
is hope core. So it is weird, It is silly
in a way, but it is taking us away from
the very serious dark news and making us focus on
(07:28):
something a little bit lighter.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So what is hope core, because that's the first time
I've heard that term.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Hope core is an emerging kind of online aesthetic characterized
by a focus on joy, positivity, and finding beauty in
everyday life. So while we are kind of making fun
of the fact that the likes of Katy Perry and
Gayal King are going up for eleven minutes in a
capsule to out of space, we're not focusing all the
really bad stuff going on in the world. We're looking
(07:53):
to a bunch of women going up out of space,
coming down and seeing all the reactions. So it's a
nice shift from what we're usually focusing on.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, totally is. I mean, they're also not the first
celebrities who've actually been to space. William Shatner was one
of the very first people to go up there, connecting
with his star Trek Routes and Jeff Bezos and also
being part of a previous Blue Origin mission. The question
about cost is something that I've been trying to get
to the bottom of. There's a lot of different numbers
flying around the Internet, Charlie, I know about you, but
(08:21):
I've seen things like one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
USD deposit has to be put down if you want
to be a tourist on one of these rockets. And
then sometimes there's numbers like five hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
That's a lot of money to invest in what is
realistically four minutes of floating around in space.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
So Blue Origin declined to say how much the flight
cost or who paid for what, but a representative did
come out after it and say that some passagers flew
free of charge while others didn't. We do know for
certain that in twenty twenty one, Blue Origin actually auctioned
off a seat on its first crude flight for forty
four million Australian dollars. Insane, But as you mentioned earlier,
(09:00):
William Shatner was actually going up to space with them.
That was the same year, and he was a guest.
We didn't pay anything, so you've got to assume that
some people on the flight paid and some didn't. We
don't know who.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So unless you are uber wealthy or a famous celebrity,
you're not really able to get a seat on one
of these flights yet. But does this mark the future
of tourism or you're going to be packing our bags
and heading to space.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So from my understanding is this does mark the future
of tourism, but only, as you mentioned, for a very
very small few. The major players who are doing it
right now, you've got Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, of course,
Jef Basis is Blue Origin and Elon Musk space X.
From the research I've been doing, Virgin Galactic has eight
hundred people waiting to pay just shy of a million
(09:48):
dollars per seat.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
That feels weirdly somewhat more accessible Alien Bucks.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Then Blue Origin definitely. But then on the other hand,
Elon Musk space X the flights reportedly cost around eighty
three million dollars. That's a giant jump.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
What's this is like an on board meal? Is that
the difference here?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Bloodybell hope. So, but I found this so interesting I
went down a bit of a rabbit hole. There is
a cheaper alternative compared to both of those. So there's
this new Florida based company called Space Perspective, and they
offer people to go up thirty kilometers above the Earth
and basically look down. It'd be incredible to see. And
(10:27):
if you think about it, it's like a giant hot
air balloon and there's the balloon up the top and
down the very bottom where you would be in kind
of that woven basket. Instead it's kind of a bauble
and you're inside of it. Oh so there's all these
seats and you're up there for six hours looking over Earth,
and it includes food, drink, Wi Fi and there are
bathrooms on flight. You can do that for one hundred
(10:49):
and ninety thousand aud.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Look, the price is coming down, but might I suggest
right now? In New South Wales the Royal Easter Show
is on the Gravitron I reckon. You'd probably get your
rocks off on that as well. In case you missed it,
a woman has given birth to another couple's baby after
a catastrophic mix up at a Brisbane IVF clinic. Bierra
was only discovered in February this year when the genetic
(11:13):
parents try to transfer their remaining frozen embryos to another provider,
but the baby in question was born to another woman
in twenty twenty four. It's left both families in an
impossible situation and raise serious questions about safeguards in Australia's
fertility industry. Doctor Devora Lieberman is the medical director at
(11:34):
City Fertility Clinic. Doctor Lieberman, can you walk us through
what's actually happened in this particular case.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
We don't know all of the details of what happened
and we're waiting for the outcome of the independent investigation.
And I think every IVF clinic in Australian around the
world would like better understanding of what happened obviously, so
that we can prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.
We know that this is a very rare occurrence. We've
(12:00):
been doing IVF for over thirty years in Australia and
this has never happened. In general, I think we do
a very good job of making sure that the right
and goes in the right person.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
What happens now though this baby was born last year,
it's at least a few months old. Is there a
chance that this woman would have to give the baby
back to its genetic parents.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
This is a very very unsure area in Australian law,
never been tested before. In Australia. The woman who gives
birth to the baby is the mother the legal mother.
So in surrogacy cases, for example, were the surrogate gives birth,
there has to be a parenting order to transfer parenthood
(12:45):
from the surrogate to the genetic parents. So it's really
not clear what will happen in this case. There was
a case a few years ago in the US in
California of a mix up, and my understanding is the
genetic parents took custody of the baby.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I know that we don't know all the details here.
We're still waiting, like you said, for that investigation to happen.
But as somebody who works in this field, can you
paint us a bit of a picture of what it
typically looks like? Is it that thing of there's just
giant freezers we've labeled frozen embryos and it gets taken
out and put into a person's body, Like, how does
it work? And where could this?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah? Well, every patient and every couple will have unique identifiers,
so we have not only named dead and birth address,
they will get a specific clinic code. I believe most
clinics in Australia now would be using radio frequency ID systems,
so there's name, other demographic data plus a barcode. So
(13:48):
when we have when we're doing an egg collection, the
dish that the eggs are collected in has a barcode
and there's a detector in the crip to know that
that dish belongs to that patient. Same with sperm. The
sperm gets a barcode. We would only ever have one
person or one pulls eggs and sperm together at a time,
(14:12):
so we don't have multiple patients occupying space. When we
create embryos, we have two factor identification at all times
with the two scientists plus the RFID the radio frequency ID,
so you actually have three factor identification. And then the
embryos are stored Inbercomm straws, but they also have the barcode.
(14:36):
They've got tags and barcodes, so scientists when the MBOs
come out of the tank plus the RFID.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Sounds like there are a lot of in steps and
checks that happen before it comes back out to go
into a hopeful expectant parent. So when people are reading
this one story and it is isolated, like you said,
it's the first time we've seen something like this in Australia,
they're stress and anxiety and maybe fear around accessing and
using the services through fertility treatment that should be quite low.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Right, Absolutely, time has told us that this is highly
unlikely event. In Australia, we operate under a code of
conduct and we are audited every year and if we
do not meet our targets or milestones, our license to
practice is removed. So I think the fact that we
(15:27):
have such high success rates overall in Australia, such a
low multiple pregnancy rate, very low incidence of errors like
this happening, all point to a very safe and effective
reassuring IVF system in Australia.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So with something like not only mixing up people's data
and genetic material, but getting to a stage where a
woman has now not only been implanted, but given birth
to a baby that's genetically not theirs, is that something
that would potentially have a license revoked.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Well, I'm sure that there will be an investigation and
when they finally do the root cause analysis and get
to it, that will be a determination for the crediting body.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Thanks for taking some time to feed your mind with
us today. The Quikie is produced by me Taylor Strano
and Claire Murphy, with audio production by Lou Hill
So you're listening to a Muma Mea podcast. Mumma Mea
acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this
podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, I'm Taylor Strano. This is Mumma MIA's twice daily
news podcast. The Quickie. Katie Perry has made history as
part of the first all female crew to head to
space on a commercial flight. But will we be packing
our bags for the Cosmos anytime soon? Plus, after an
IVF mix up in Brisbane that's left two families grappling
with an unimaginable situation, welleth wondering just how often does
(00:44):
this happen? And what do they do now? Before we
get there? He is Clare Murphy with the latest from
The Quickie newsroom for Wednesday, April.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Sixteen, Thanks Taylor.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Our second leader's debate will be held between Prime Minister
and Then ow Up and Easy and Opposition Leader Peter
Dutton tonight, has both seek to win over Australia's undecided voters.
The coalition will announce a six million dollar investment into
the Ilana and Madeline Foundation if they are elected. The
foundation providing learning and teaching materials and digital and media
(01:14):
literacy skills for children aged four to sixteen, mister Dutton
saying we need to ensure that parents and children are
equipped with the knowledge and skills that will help them
safely navigate the online world. Tonight's debate will be hosted
by the ABC, with two more to be hosted by
the nine and seven networks closer to the election on
May three. Ozsi's are choosing not to travel to the US.
(01:36):
With a dropping Australian dollar and President Donald Trump being
blamed for the slump in US ossie tourism, nearly seventy
five thousand Australians visited America in March, compared to just
over eighty one thousand for the same period last year,
a seven point eight percent year on year monthly fall
and the steepest decline since March twenty twenty one during
the COVID pandemic. The current exchange rate and the uncertainty
(01:59):
of how tourists and other foreigners are being treated in
the United States singled out as the reasons for less
of us deciding to head stateside. A survey commissioned by
the Tourism and Transport for US and found that fewer
people were also planning a trip to the United States
compared to the corresponding period twelve months ago, the country
sliding to seventh on the list of preferred destinations, the
(02:20):
first time in three or four years that it hasn't
been in the top five. Kim Kardashian will testify in
person at the upcoming trial over the robbery that saw
thieves still millions of dollars worth of her jewelry. Kardashian
was in France for Paris Fashion Week in October twenty sixteen,
and had returned to her hotel room with a friend,
where she had posted several pictures and videos online of
(02:41):
her wearing expensive gems, including the engagement ring she had
recently been given by Kanye West. Her bodyguard had stayed
out with her sister's Kendall and Courtney. At around two
thirty am, the alleged robbers, wearing ski masks and police uniforms,
allegedly threatened the conciergic gunpoint, forcing him to provide access
to Kardashian's apartment, before tying him up and leaving him
(03:02):
in a cupboard. Kim then reportedly called her bodyguard when
she heard the men's boots and spotted them outside the window,
but they allegedly they forced their way in and yanked
the phone from her hands. She was then tied up
and dragged into the bathroom where she was locked in.
Her friend in another room had locked herself in the bathroom,
where she called the bodyguard. The ten suspects who've been
accused of the armed robbery, kidnapping, and several other criminal
(03:25):
charges a judi faced trial in Paris from April twenty eight.
The prosecutors in Harvey Weinstein's New York rape retrial may
find it difficult to finalize a jury, with many already
being excused as they admit they are unable to remain impartial.
An actor who plays a lawyer in the new Robert
de Niro movie The Alto Knights, Mark Axelowitz, was excused
(03:46):
after he admitted he thought Weinstein was a really bad guy.
Another juror was let go after saying she'd been previously
sexually assaulted. Another told the selectors they didn't see how
anyone could remain impartial. Weinstein is being tried again after
New York's highest court last year overturned his twenty twenty
conviction and twenty three year prison sentence, finding improper rulings
(04:07):
and prejudicial testimony tainted the Ariation trial.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Thanks Clant Next, making history in space, Katie Perry once
asked if we feel like plastic bags floating through the wind,
and while bopping around in space is technically a step
up from that. She's remained true to the courts when
this week she embarked on and then returned from a
(04:32):
groundbreaking journey to space. The Blue Origin flight marked the
first time and all female crew has traveled to space
on a commercial mission. Alongside Perry were CBS Morning's host
Gail King, former NASA engineer Aisha Bow, film producer Kerry
Anne Flynn, civil rights activists and bioastronautics researcher Amanda Wynn,
and Laurence Sanchez, who's a journalist and the fiancee of
(04:55):
Blue Origins founder Jeff Bezos. The mission, dubbed n S
thirty one, launched from Blue Origins facility in West Texas
on Monday, with the crew experiencing about four minutes of
weightlessness before returning to Earth. Joining us now is Mummy's
audience editor Charlie Beg to unpack this historic moment. Charlie,
(05:15):
Katie Perry she's an international pop star, a self proclaimed
California girl, and now a space traveler.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
She is I hope she was going to sing et.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Extraterrestrial absolutely makes sense, right, And she said as she
came off, she said, it's not about me.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's not about seeing my songs. It's about a collective
energy in there. It's about us while they're up in space.
She sang, what a wonderful world.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
She took a couple of things up on board with her, though,
tell me what was she sort of flashing around cameras.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yes, so she took a little butterfly up there. It's
a cutout that had all the names of the song
she'd be seeing in her set list on her upcoming tour.
She also when she got to the ground, she had
this me air and on the ground. But it's a
little Daisy to represent her daughter Daisy with Orlando Bloom.
And once she got off out of the capsule, she
knelt down to the ground and kissed it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, a couple of them did that. I mean, I
too would be very thankful to have two feet firm
back on the ground after floating around in space. What's
the reaction been like to having these celebrities alongside space professionals,
I want to say on board.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
So the reaction's been really mixed, which isn't surprising. Yesterday morning,
our social team put together some great memes, which was
probably the highlight to come out of it, and I
hadn't looked through all the comments just to see what
our audience was saying about it. And the interesting was
some people said that surely they could have just done
a whole fleet of astronauts instead of some celebrities as well.
(06:48):
Are we supposed to praise them because they sat in
a rocket? The most notable point people were making is
what does this achieve?
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I mean, look, I can understand the argument for wanting
to preference people who have spent their whole live studying
and training for this moment, but we wouldn't be talking
about it right now if Katie Perry hadn't gone to space.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Absolutely, But finally, the last point was what did this cost? Well,
they're better things they could be doing. The only interesting
point that I think of, which I don't know if
I agree with, but it's another interesting take. A journalist said,
is hope core. So it is weird, It is silly
in a way, but it is taking us away from
the very serious dark news and making us focus on
(07:28):
something a little bit lighter.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So what is hope core, because that's the first time
I've heard that term.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Hope core is an emerging kind of online aesthetic characterized
by a focus on joy, positivity, and finding beauty in
everyday life. So while we are kind of making fun
of the fact that the likes of Katy Perry and
Gayal King are going up for eleven minutes in a
capsule to out of space, we're not focusing all the
really bad stuff going on in the world. We're looking
(07:53):
to a bunch of women going up out of space,
coming down and seeing all the reactions. So it's a
nice shift from what we're usually focusing on.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, totally is. I mean, they're also not the first
celebrities who've actually been to space. William Shatner was one
of the very first people to go up there, connecting
with his star Trek Routes and Jeff Bezos and also
being part of a previous Blue Origin mission. The question
about cost is something that I've been trying to get
to the bottom of. There's a lot of different numbers
flying around the Internet, Charlie, I know about you, but
(08:21):
I've seen things like one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
USD deposit has to be put down if you want
to be a tourist on one of these rockets. And
then sometimes there's numbers like five hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
That's a lot of money to invest in what is
realistically four minutes of floating around in space.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
So Blue Origin declined to say how much the flight
cost or who paid for what, but a representative did
come out after it and say that some passagers flew
free of charge while others didn't. We do know for
certain that in twenty twenty one, Blue Origin actually auctioned
off a seat on its first crude flight for forty
four million Australian dollars. Insane, But as you mentioned earlier,
(09:00):
William Shatner was actually going up to space with them.
That was the same year, and he was a guest.
We didn't pay anything, so you've got to assume that
some people on the flight paid and some didn't. We
don't know who.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So unless you are uber wealthy or a famous celebrity,
you're not really able to get a seat on one
of these flights yet. But does this mark the future
of tourism or you're going to be packing our bags
and heading to space.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So from my understanding is this does mark the future
of tourism, but only, as you mentioned, for a very
very small few. The major players who are doing it
right now, you've got Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, of course,
Jef Basis is Blue Origin and Elon Musk space X.
From the research I've been doing, Virgin Galactic has eight
hundred people waiting to pay just shy of a million
(09:48):
dollars per seat.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
That feels weirdly somewhat more accessible Alien Bucks.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Then Blue Origin definitely. But then on the other hand,
Elon Musk space X the flights reportedly cost around eighty
three million dollars. That's a giant jump.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
What's this is like an on board meal? Is that
the difference here?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Bloodybell hope. So, but I found this so interesting I
went down a bit of a rabbit hole. There is
a cheaper alternative compared to both of those. So there's
this new Florida based company called Space Perspective, and they
offer people to go up thirty kilometers above the Earth
and basically look down. It'd be incredible to see. And
(10:27):
if you think about it, it's like a giant hot
air balloon and there's the balloon up the top and
down the very bottom where you would be in kind
of that woven basket. Instead it's kind of a bauble
and you're inside of it. Oh so there's all these
seats and you're up there for six hours looking over Earth,
and it includes food, drink, Wi Fi and there are
bathrooms on flight. You can do that for one hundred
(10:49):
and ninety thousand aud.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Look, the price is coming down, but might I suggest
right now? In New South Wales the Royal Easter Show
is on the Gravitron I reckon. You'd probably get your
rocks off on that as well. In case you missed it,
a woman has given birth to another couple's baby after
a catastrophic mix up at a Brisbane IVF clinic. Bierra
was only discovered in February this year when the genetic
(11:13):
parents try to transfer their remaining frozen embryos to another provider,
but the baby in question was born to another woman
in twenty twenty four. It's left both families in an
impossible situation and raise serious questions about safeguards in Australia's
fertility industry. Doctor Devora Lieberman is the medical director at
(11:34):
City Fertility Clinic. Doctor Lieberman, can you walk us through
what's actually happened in this particular case.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
We don't know all of the details of what happened
and we're waiting for the outcome of the independent investigation.
And I think every IVF clinic in Australian around the
world would like better understanding of what happened obviously, so
that we can prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.
We know that this is a very rare occurrence. We've
(12:00):
been doing IVF for over thirty years in Australia and
this has never happened. In general, I think we do
a very good job of making sure that the right
and goes in the right person.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
What happens now though this baby was born last year,
it's at least a few months old. Is there a
chance that this woman would have to give the baby
back to its genetic parents.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
This is a very very unsure area in Australian law,
never been tested before. In Australia. The woman who gives
birth to the baby is the mother the legal mother.
So in surrogacy cases, for example, were the surrogate gives birth,
there has to be a parenting order to transfer parenthood
(12:45):
from the surrogate to the genetic parents. So it's really
not clear what will happen in this case. There was
a case a few years ago in the US in
California of a mix up, and my understanding is the
genetic parents took custody of the baby.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I know that we don't know all the details here.
We're still waiting, like you said, for that investigation to happen.
But as somebody who works in this field, can you
paint us a bit of a picture of what it
typically looks like? Is it that thing of there's just
giant freezers we've labeled frozen embryos and it gets taken
out and put into a person's body, Like, how does
it work? And where could this?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah? Well, every patient and every couple will have unique identifiers,
so we have not only named dead and birth address,
they will get a specific clinic code. I believe most
clinics in Australia now would be using radio frequency ID systems,
so there's name, other demographic data plus a barcode. So
(13:48):
when we have when we're doing an egg collection, the
dish that the eggs are collected in has a barcode
and there's a detector in the crip to know that
that dish belongs to that patient. Same with sperm. The
sperm gets a barcode. We would only ever have one
person or one pulls eggs and sperm together at a time,
(14:12):
so we don't have multiple patients occupying space. When we
create embryos, we have two factor identification at all times
with the two scientists plus the RFID the radio frequency ID,
so you actually have three factor identification. And then the
embryos are stored Inbercomm straws, but they also have the barcode.
(14:36):
They've got tags and barcodes, so scientists when the MBOs
come out of the tank plus the RFID.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Sounds like there are a lot of in steps and
checks that happen before it comes back out to go
into a hopeful expectant parent. So when people are reading
this one story and it is isolated, like you said,
it's the first time we've seen something like this in Australia,
they're stress and anxiety and maybe fear around accessing and
using the services through fertility treatment that should be quite low.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Right, Absolutely, time has told us that this is highly
unlikely event. In Australia, we operate under a code of
conduct and we are audited every year and if we
do not meet our targets or milestones, our license to
practice is removed. So I think the fact that we
(15:27):
have such high success rates overall in Australia, such a
low multiple pregnancy rate, very low incidence of errors like
this happening, all point to a very safe and effective
reassuring IVF system in Australia.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So with something like not only mixing up people's data
and genetic material, but getting to a stage where a
woman has now not only been implanted, but given birth
to a baby that's genetically not theirs, is that something
that would potentially have a license revoked.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Well, I'm sure that there will be an investigation and
when they finally do the root cause analysis and get
to it, that will be a determination for the crediting body.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Thanks for taking some time to feed your mind with
us today. The Quikie is produced by me Taylor Strano
and Claire Murphy, with audio production by Lou Hill
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