Human embryo cloning gets go-ahead

BRITISH scientists have been given the go-ahead to clone human embryos for medical research.

The decision means the medical team at the University of Newcastle are a step closer to finding cures for a range of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes.

The announcement by the Human Embryonic and Fertilisation Authority (HFEA), the research licensing body, was welcomed by academics but strongly condemned by pro-life campaigners.

The scientists plan to duplicate early-stage embryos and extract stem cells from them which can be used for radical new treatments. The embryos are destroyed before they are 14-days-old and never allowed to develop beyond a cluster of cells the size of a pinhead.

For scientists they are like gold mines, holding rich seams of stem cells with the potential to become any type of tissue in the body including bone, muscle, nerves and organs. Researchers hope to use them to treat a host of diseases.

Newcastle University’s Stem Cell Group applied for a licence to permit human cloning as part of its research programme in May. The green-light was given after weeks of debate and much soul-searching by the HFEA.

Dr Miodrag Stojkovic, from the university’s Institute of Human Genetics, said: “We are all set up and ready to go as soon as the paperwork is sorted out. It has taken a year of work, and I am most pleased the HFEA has recognised the potential of this technology in modern medicine.”

Professor Alison Murdoch, another member of the team from the Newcastle Fertility Centre, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled. The potential this area of research offers is immensely exciting and we are keen to take the work we’ve done to the next level.”

She said it might take five to 10 more years before the work is advanced enough to attempt clinical trials.

Pro-life campaigner Justin Barrett last night called on the Government here to make an immediate declaration of its opposition to this type of research. If the Government did not take this stance “it is only as matter of time before we see similar research being conducted here”. There was, he said, considerable pressure being brought to bear on Ireland by many EU states which supported this type of research. “I am deeply concerned by this development in Britain,” he said.

David McConnell, a professor of genetics at Trinity College, said the announcement was a logical and hopeful way of developing cures for some horrible and incurable diseases.

Cloned embryos can be created by replacing the nuclei in human eggs with others from the skin tissue of adults. The eggs are then stimulated to divide, as if they have been fertilised.

The Newcastle scientists will use eggs left over from In-Vitro Fertilisation treatment and donated by couples. If the eggs were not used for research they would be destroyed.

In October the UN will consider a proposal for an international agreement banning all cloning, reproductive and therapeutic.