Human–animal embryos to boost UK research

Plans last year by the UK government to block the proposals by researchers to create human–animal hybrid embryos for stem-cell research were withdrawn this spring as the government proposed new mechanisms to consider the issue. Researchers want to create such hybrids because they can provide valuable stem cells to allow researchers to study the development of many incurable diseases, which the acute shortage of human donor eggs is currently preventing. The issue has become highly emotive and divisive since the government adopted a stance in a white paper last December, paving the way for new fertility legislation, but blocking experiments using embryos made from animal eggs and human cells. The government came under fire from scientists, backed by Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser, and biomedical research funding bodies, such as the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. So the draft bill published in May signals the government's wish to permit research. But the intention is set out alongside the bill and not contained in the draft legislation itself. Scientists are concerned that the government may still not deliver the legal approval for the research. The draft human tissues and embryos bill will be discussed by parliament after a committee looking at the legislation reports on July 25. It has been asked to rule on whether the embryo research should be covered by legislation in the bill, or whether regulations must be passed to allow the planned future fertility watchdog, the Regulatory Authority for Tissues and Embryos, to issue licences. This planned change to the regulatory body has also caused controversy. The British Medical Association sees this move as a bad idea. It says the complex and sensitive issues that surround reproduction and embryo research are very different from those relating to the retention and use of organs and tissues after death, and therefore, would be too much for one body to oversee. Later this month, British researchers should have a better idea of the proposed framework for human–animal embryo stem-cell research following a change of view by the government earlier this year. Newcastle University, have applied to the current body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, for licences to create embryos by injecting human cell nuclei into the enucleated eggs from rabbits or cows. The resulting embryos would be 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal. But their work is being held up because …