Scientists issue warning on embryonic stem cells breakthrough

The new technique for cloning human embryos announced by US scientists may carry with it ethical problems associated with destruction of viable embryos. It is also important that the Government introduce legislation to control research that involves the use of embryos, according to scientists based in Ireland.

There was a mixed reaction to the news that a research team in the US had successfully cloned embryos using human tissues and had harvested stem cells from them.

Irish-based scientists said the Government must act to introduce legislation that would establish limits to embryonic research activity.

"There is currently no legislation in the area of stem cell research in Ireland," the Irish Medicines Board said yesterday. It understood however that the Department of Health was currently drafting a Human Tissues Act "and the intent is that this will include regulation of research use of tissues and cells", it said .

Rules
The board does enforce controls on the use of tissues and cells under the European Communities Quality and Safety of Human Tissues and Cells Regulations 2006. But these relate to the clinical use of these as treatments for patients, it pointed out. "The scope of this legislation does not include tissues and cells used for research purposes," it said.

The only other controls are imposed by the Medical Council, which forbids registered doctors from conducting research on embryos, and each university has its own ethics committee, set up to regulate the conduct of research.

These committees can block funding to prevent unacceptable experimentation.

However the University College Cork governing body voted in 2008 to allow embryonic research by a narrow margin.

“It is very complex but [the Government] should bite the bullet, there should be regulation,” said Prof Martin Clynes, director of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University.

Ethical concerns
He also raised ethical concerns about the cloned embryos. "I would have reservations, the same reservations I would have with therapeutic cloning," he stated. "You probably have not got over the ethical issues there."

The Irish Stem Cell Foundation also called for legislation in the area. “We would be calling on Minister [Seán] Sherlock to clarify the stage of stem cell legislation development, and why this hasn’t been introduced into the Dáil for discussion,” the foundation’s chief scientific officer Dr Stephen Sullivan said on RTÉ radio yesterday.

The research approach could open the way towards personalised medicine, said Prof Tom Cotter professor of biochemistry at University College Cork. He lamented the fact that no regulatory controls had been introduced following the publication in 2007 of the Report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, a commission on which he served.