Concern over future of stem cell research

10.00.34am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 10th Jan 2007

Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP on the Science and Technology Select Committee and a member of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee, is co-ordinating a campaign to urge the fertility watchdog, the HFEA, to back the creation of pseudo-hybrid human embryos, and today sent a letter to The Times signed by 45 experts including Nobel prize winners and the President of the Royal Society.

Scientists are applying for a license to create pseudo-hybrid human embryos to provide a source of stem cells which can be used for research into cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or motor neurone disease but the Government has proposed in a recent White Paper to ban such research in 2008.

Dr Harris said:

"This is an unprecedented show of unity and support from scientists, clinicians, ethicists, and patient groups and shows how concerned people are about this vague, ill - thought through proposal from the Government. It would be bizarre for the HFEA to decide to ally itself with those who oppose all embryo research . It is now extremely unlikely that Parliament on a free vote would want to oppose this research"

The letter to The Times appears below:

Sir,

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will today decide its policy on medical and scientific embryo research which involves the mixing - for research purposes only - of human and animal cells and DNA.

This research is not unlawful under the 1990 HFE Act, and it is widely believed that the HFEA is able to regulate much of it effectively under its existing strict controls. There are clear potential benefits to human health from, for example, being able to grow stem cells with specific genetic abnormalities, improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning techniques and establishing cell lines for the testing of new treatments for diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease, Alzheimer's Disease and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. All this can be done without having to rely on the use human eggs which are in very short supply and are desperately needed for treatment of patients with infertility.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee recently concluded after a long enquiry that such research was ethically acceptable and should be defined and regulated by the HFEA.

Britain is rightly proud of its record in ethical and scientifically valid research on stem cells and therapeutic cloning. This reputation is now under threat because in its recent White Paper the Government has proposed, without giving any proper reason or citing any evidence, that much of this proposed research - that using animal eggs without their nuclei as the "activating casing" for cloned human embryos - should be banned in 2008 when a Bill updating the 1990 Act is passed.

Some people and some religious organisations object to this research, and most also object to all research involving early embryos. But many patient groups, leading scientists,doctors, and ethicists support this research being able to proceed under the regulation of the HFEA.

We urge the HFEA to adopt a policy supportive of this sort of research, subject to its own strict licensing requirements and to the usual 14 day limit which applies to human embryos.

Yours faithfully,

Professor Julian Savalescu - Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Faculty at the University of Oxford.

Aisling Burnand - Chief Executive, Bioindustries Association

Professor Marcus Pembrey (Emeritus) - Geneticist and Chairman, Progress Educational Trust

Professor David Whittingham (Emeritus) - Cell Biologist, St George's Hospital Medical School and Chair of Trustees, Progress Educational Trust

Dr Marilyn Robertson - Director, Scottish Stem Cell Network

Professor Christopher F. Higgins - Director MRC Clinical Sciences Centre

Sir John Sulston - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002

Sir Paul Nurse - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001

Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield - Director, Royal Institution

Bob Spink MP (Conservative) - Member of House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee

Raanan Gillon - Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics, Imperial College London

Professor Sheila McLean - Director, Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine

Dr Robin Lovell-Badge - Head of Developmental Genetics at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall - Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research

Anne McLaren DBE FRS - Wellcome Principal Research Associate, The Wellcome Trust/CR UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge

Baroness Perry of Southwark - Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research

Peter Braude MA PhD FRCOG FMedSci - Chair of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Scientific Advisory Committee

Professor Anthony J Pinching - Associate Dean for Cornwall & Professor of Clinical Immunology, Peninsula Medical School

Hazel McHaffie - Former Deputy Director of Research in the Institute of Medical Ethics Member and current member of the Governing body

Dr Graham Clayden MD FRCP FRCPCH - Reader in Paediatrics at Kings College London, Honorary Consultant Paediatrician and Member of the Governing Board of the Institute of Medical Ethics

Dr Mark G Brennan - Head of Division and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Education, Kent Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences

Dr Tim Hunt - Cancer Research UK,Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001

Allan Pacey - Honorary Secretary of the British Fertility Society

Professor Sir Martin Rees, - President of the Royal Society

Dr Richard Dyer - Chief Executive, Biosciences Federation

Professor Jonathan Montgomery - Professor of Health Care Law, University of Southampton

Dr Ian Gibson MP, Labour - Former chair of the House of Commons Science & Technology Select Committee

Professor W F Blakemore - Professor of Neuropathology, University of Cambridge, Member of the Committee for the Donaldson Report into Stem Cell Research

Professor Lord Robert Winston - Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies, Imperial College London

Lord Dick Taverne - Chairman, Sense About Science

Dr Tony Calland - Chair of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee

Baroness Onora O'Neill - Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research

Dr Fred Kavalier - Writer and Primary Care Geneticist, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust

Dr Len Doyal - Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics Barts. and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Queen Mary, University of London

Professor Dian Donnai - Member of the Committee for the Donaldson Report into Stem Cell Research,

Professor of Medical Genetics, Academic Unit of Medical Genetics, University of Manchester

Dr Stephen Minger - Stem cell researcher, King's College London

Professor Chris Shaw - Stem cell researcher, King's College London

Prof Ian Wilmut - Creator of Dolly the sheep, stem cell researcher, Edinburgh University

Dr Lyle Armstrong - Stem cell researcher, Newcastle University

Prof Alison Murdoch - Stem cell researcher, Newcastle University

Dr Evan Harris MP (Lib Dem) - Member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Science & Technology

Professor Martin Richards (Emeritus) - Centre for Family Research , University of Cambridge

Lord Robert May - Former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and President of the Royal Society

Lord Walton - Former President of the BMA, Royal Society of Medicine, GMC and World Federation of Neurology

Lord Jenkin - Former Secretary of State for Health, 1979/81

Professor John Harris -Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics and member of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee

Related Link:

The Times - Nobel scientists urge fertility watchdog to back hybrid embryos.