ISSCR: grave omission of age limit for embryo research
By Josephine Johnston, Françoise Baylis, & Henry T. Greely,
Nature
| 06. 22. 2021
We are researchers with differing views on the ethics of stem-cell and embryo research who nonetheless share deep concerns about the latest guidelines from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR; see R. Lovell-Badge Nature 593, 479; 2021).
The 2016 ISSCR guidelines ruled out experiments on human embryos beyond 14 days, citing broad international consensus that these lacked “a compelling scientific rationale, raise substantial ethical concerns, and/or are illegal in many jurisdictions” (see go.nature.com/3cqc4bw). The latest guidelines drop this prohibition (see go.nature.com/3gfkkw8) and do not propose any alternative.
At some point, the developing human embryo reaches a stage at which it should not be used for research. There is disagreement about when that happens, but scientists need to acknowledge that it does, and reassure the public that they accept limits. The latest guidelines do not prohibit the development or research use of ex vivo embryos at any stage.
Defining and defending a new limit, and possible constraints within it, will be hard. This was the case for the 14-day cut-off, selected some 40 years...
Related Articles
By Ian Sample, The Guardian | 03.08.2024
Scientists are a step closer to making IVF eggs from patients’ skin cells after adapting the procedure that created Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, more than two decades ago.
The work raises the prospect of older women being...
By Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian | 02.28.2024
Doctors say a man in California who contracted blood cancer while living with HIV is in remission from both potentially fatal illnesses thanks to a treatment they are hailing as remarkable and encouraging.
Paul Edmonds is only the fifth-known person...
By Victoria Gray, Uduak Thomas, and Kevin Davies, The CRISPR Journal | 02.14.2024
In July 2019, medical staff in Nashville dosed the first U.S. patient in the exa-cel therapy trial, sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics. That first patient was Victoria Gray, a mother of four from Forest, Mississippi, a sickle cell...
By Adam Zewe, MIT News | 02.07.2024
A tiny device built by scientists at MIT and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology could be used to improve the safety and effectiveness of cell therapy treatments for patients suffering from spinal cord injuries.
In cell therapy, clinicians...