Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: Embryo research and human admixed embryos
Committee stage, House of Commons, May 2008
The BMA strongly supports the use of human embryos in research, subject to statutory controls. The regulation of embryo research through the HFEA licensing and inspection regime has worked well since 1991 and has helped to maintain public confidence in such research.
Embryonic stem cell researchResearch using human embryos has been taking place since the 1970s, when Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards were first exploring the possibility of treating infertility through in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Although a voluntary licensing system was in place in the UK from the mid 1980s, embryo research first became subject to statutory regulation in 1991. Since then, any scientists wishing to use or create human embryos in a laboratory for research purposes cannot do so without first obtaining a licence from the HFEA and being subject to inspections. The BMA supports this safeguard.
A number of conditions apply to any research using or creating human embryos, most significant of which are that the embryos used or created in research must not be kept beyond 14 days after fertilisation, nor should they be transferred to a woman. Failure to comply with these conditions is a criminal offence. It is also a criminal offence to carry out embryo research without an HFEA licence. For a licence to be granted, researchers must demonstrate that the use of embryos is necessary: if animal studies, for instance, could achieve the same result, the use of human embryos is not permitted.
A licence will only be granted if the proposed research fits within the permitted research purposes in the Act. The original research purposes were added to in 2001, enabling UK researchers to benefit from breakthroughs in embryonic stem cell research which took place in the USA in 1998. This opened up the possibility, not envisaged in 1990, that embryo research could be used to better understand – and potentially to develop therapies for – a wide range of common diseases. Such embryonic stem cell research involves culturing embryos in the laboratory until about five days after fertilisation.
The BMA strongly supports the use of human embryos in research, subject to the statutory controls described above. IVF itself would not have been developed without the embryo research conducted in the 1970s and 80s. Further embryo research led to improvements in IVF success rates and the development of new techniques for the treatment of infertility. Embryo research has also enhanced our understanding of genetic disease and led to the development, by UK researchers in the early 1990s, of a way of testing very early embryos for particular diseases. Finally, embryonic stem cell research, which has only been permissible since 2001, is already advancing our understanding of early human development and the processes involved in particular diseases such as Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease. In future, it could lead to the development of new, cell-based therapies for these conditions.
Research using human admixed embryosClause 4 lists the types of embryos containing both human and animal material, known as human admixed embryos, which can be created for research purposes. As with all kinds of human embryo research, research using human admixed embryos is subject to strict statutory controls:
- The research project must be licensed and the laboratory inspected by the HFEA
- All embryos created must not be kept beyond 14 days of development
- No embryo used in research can be transferred to a woman
Cytoplasmic hybrid embryo researchOne area of human admixed embryo research, for which UK scientists were recently granted a licence, is a form of embryonic stem cell research which uses animal, instead of human, eggs. Animal eggs are used solely to avoid the use of human eggs, which are in very short supply and are prioritised for treatment. The resulting embryos, which have a tiny proportion of animal DNA in them, can be used to derive stem cells which can act as a model for diseases like motor neurone disease in the laboratory. The BMA supports the use of cytoplasmic hybrid embryos in research.
True hybrid embryo researchAnother area of research in the future could involve the creation of ‘true’ hybrid embryos, created through the mixing of human and animal eggs and sperm. Although the scientific community is not currently seeking to pursue research on this kind of hybrid embryo, the Bill leaves open the possibility that the HFEA could issue a licence to create true hybrids for research in the future. However, the HFEA would only issue a licence if it considered the research was necessary and the results could not be obtained by other methods. Permitting true hybrid embryo research in the Bill does not necessarily mean that such research will go ahead.
The BMA supports the provisions in the Bill which make a range of types of human admixed embryos, including true hybrid embryos, permissible. In common with the former House of Commons Science and Technology Committee and Joint Committee on the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, the BMA believes that the creation all types of human admixed embryo for research should be permitted, subject to the same strict controls to which all human embryo research is subject. Embryonic stem cell and cloning research was not foreseen when the 1990 Act was debated, necessitating an amendment to the legislation in 2000. It is sensible, therefore, to learn from this experience and to future-proof the new legislation in order to avoid the need to return to Parliament in the short term.
For further information, please contact:
Email: parliamentaryunit@bma.org.uk