Human-Animal Hybrid Embryo Research Legalised
(Novembert 6th 2008) Faced with heavy lobbying by the British biomedical science community, the UK's House of Commons has approved a far-reaching law extending the permittable limits for research on human embryos, reports Jeremy Garwood.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill has introduced a whole range of amendments to the original HFE Act which, in 1990, established the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), an independent body that regulates all research on fertility and embryo research in the UK.
For months, an often bitter debate has seen the Government and medical science lobby set against religious leaders, anti-abortion campaigners and those who are concerned about the necessity for the proposed medical research.
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, whose second son has cystic fibrosis, is a strong supporter of stem cell research. He says that Britain owes it to future generations to do this work. On 22nd October, the House of Commons voted 355 to 129 in favour of the Bill, which now allows for research on human "admixed" embryos.
Some researchers are convinced that they will be able to use such hybrid human-animal embryos to derive embryonic stem cells. Previously, the HFEA had granted three licenses for studies of chimeric embryos but opponents challenged these licenses in court, arguing that the HFEA had no legal authority to grant them under the existing 1990 Act.
The 2008 Bill provides for several different types of human admixed embryos: Cytoplasmic hybrids (also known as "cybrids") may be created by removing the nucleus of an animal egg cell (which stops it becoming an animal) and replacing it with one from a human (which helps it to become human). Meanwhile, true hybrids could be generated by combining human gametes (i.e. egg or sperm) with animal gametes. Lastly, human transgenic embryos would be created by introducing animal DNA into one or more cells of a human embryo. This encompasses both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.
So far, most of the attention has been focussed on the cybrids. It has been argued that limited availability of human eggs is limiting availability of embryonic stem (ES) cells, hampering advances in cell nuclear replacement techniques, used for therapeutic cloning. Scientists are hoping to substitute rabbit or cow eggs, which are abundantly available.
However, some politicians have argued that induced pluripotent stem cells, which are ES cells reprogrammed using a cocktail of specific genes instead of an oocyte, render interspecies nuclear transfer unnecessary. Steven Minger of King's College, London, retorts that it is important to compare ES cells resulting from both processes and that studying nuclear transfer, without having to rely on scarce human oocytes, also offers the best chance of understanding what happens to turn back the clock of an adult cell, allowing it to direct the process of development once more.
Nevertheless, the hybrid embryos will not be allowed to develop for more than 14 days nor can they be used for implantation into female animals or women.
In addition, the Bill will now permit the screening of normal human embryos to produce babies with suitable bone marrow or other tissue that can be used for transplantation into their older, diseased siblings.
Furthermore, the need for a father when performing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment has now been removed from IVF requirements, allowing lesbian couples to receive IVF treatment for the first time.
Dawn Primarolo, UK Health Minister, argued that the HFE Bill's amendments will "have a potentially profound impact. One in seven couples needs help with fertility treatment; 350,000 people in this country live with Alzheimer's; every week, five children are born with, and three young people die from, cystic fibrosis."
Originally, the parliamentary debate had also intended to consider amendments to the country's abortion laws, unchanged since 1990, but the Government finally chose to postpone this theme, avoiding a stormy showdown between anti-abortion lawmakers and those seeking to liberalise current regulations.
Although the House of Lords will have a last debate on the HFE Bill in November, it will become law by the end of 2008. Nevertheless, Lord Alton of Liverpool has asked for a last amendment, changing the line: "a licence cannot authorise keeping or using a human admixed embryo in any circumstances in which regulations prohibit its keeping or use" to "any circumstances where the purposes of the proposed research can be achieved by any method not entailing the use of human admixed embryos".
He argued that "it would only be licit to use embryonic stem cells if it could be demonstrated that no other alternatives were available."
"We should not underestimate the phenomenal public unease about some of the provisions of the Bill. More than 30 major public meetings have been held throughout the United Kingdom, attended by thousands of people; almost 2 million protest cards and letters have been sent to Members of Parliament; and many significant public figures have spoken out against the mass manufacture, manipulation and destruction of human embryos."
In particular he cited the case of Colin McGuckin, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at Newcastle University, and an expert on adult stem cells, who on 23rd October told the Times newspaper (Higher Education Supplement) that he was going to pursue his research in France in protest at the bias by UK funding agencies that favoured embryonic stem cell research above work with adult stem cells.
McGuckin said: "You would barely know adult stem cells exist. A vast amount of money in the UK from the Government has gone into embryonic stem cell research with not one patient having been treated, to the detriment of (research into) adult stem cells, which has been severely underfunded."
