An Embryonic Disaster?
By Isabel Oakeshott and Sarah-Kate Templeton,
The Sunday Times
| 03. 16. 2008
The government’s new fertility bill is under fire on religious, moral and even scientific grounds
When Liz Shipley was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) it came as
little surprise. The 36-year-old from Newcastle had lost her mother to the
same condition when she was just three years old. Several other members of
her family, including her sister and uncle, had died or were suffering from
the muscle-wasting disease.
Ten years on and unable to walk, write or dress herself, she fears that her
two teenage children will also inherit the disease. Shipley does not expect
a cure in her lifetime but she backs controversial scientific research using
embryos that are part-human, part-animal, which could lead to a treatment
for her children if they are struck down.
“When you have an illness for which there is no cure, you have to investigate
every avenue,” said Shipley. “I do not want my children to be told in 20
years’ time that they have MND and there is still no cure. I believe the
answers will lie in stem cells of some kind. Hopefully this research will be
able to tell us why this is happening to...
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