UK stem cell debate reopened
London – “Chimera” embryos may increase pressure on the British parliament for tougher regulations on stem cell research. At the beginning of April, Dr. Lyle Armstrong and colleagues at Newcastle University created embryos from cow eggs with inserted human DNA. The embryos survived for three days. The researchers said the next step was to create embryos that would live for six days for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. The debate in the UK over the hybrid embryos heated up after Catholic leaders attacked the technique in Easter sermons, and Edinburgh’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien called creating animal-human hybrid embryos “Frankenstein science .” The British parliament is currently discussing changes to a 1990 law that governs stem cell research, including the hybrid work. In September 2007, the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority ended eight months of debate by agreeing to allow research into animal-human embryos, but on a case-by-case basis and under regulations limiting authorised projects to those deemed “necessary and desirable.” Four months later, the HFEA approved one-year research licenses for teams of scientists at Kings College London and Newcastle University to carry out research using the embryos, subject to a series of detailed conditions.
The bill is to be formally presented in May to Britain’s lower house of parliament (the House of Commons) for its first reading, when legislation is not usually debated. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which has been approved by the upper house (the House of Lords) would explicitly allow research using hybrid embryos like those created by the Newcastle team.