Scientists given research cloning go-ahead (UK)
By BBC News,
BBC News
| 08. 11. 2004
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority granted the licence to experts at the University of Newcastle.
They are investigating new treatments for conditions including diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
The controversial decision could open a new era of research by scientists looking for remedies for diseases.
| |
This is an important area of research and a responsible use of technology
Suzi Leather, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority Listen to her interview
|
The research will take place at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle, involving experts from the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University, and the Newcastle Fertility Centre.
Scientists there believe this is the first time such a licence has been granted in any European country.
They warn it will be at least five years - if not many more - before patients could receive stem cell treatments based on their work.
But the ProLife Party has said it is considering mounting a legal challenge against the HFEA's decision to allow the research to go ahead.
Support
...
Related Articles
By Evelina Johansson Wilén, Jacobin | 01.18.2026
In her book The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson describes pregnancy as an experience marked by a peculiar duality. On the one hand, it is deeply transformative, bodily alien, sometimes almost incomprehensible to the person undergoing it. On the other hand...
By Paula Siverino Bavio, BioNews | 01.12.2026
For more than ten years, gestational surrogacy in Uruguay existed in a state of legal latency: provided for by law, carefully regulated as an exception, yet without a single birth to make it real.
That situation changed with the arrival...
By Sam Schechner, Daria Matviichuk, and Thomas Grove, The Wall Street Journal | 12.22.2025
Pavel Durov photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images
for TechCrunch licensed under CC by 2.0
Attractive women started showing up in summer 2024 at a fertility clinic in southern Moscow in response to an unusual marketing campaign: free sperm.
The sperm...
By staff, Japan Times | 12.04.2025
Japan plans to introduce a ban with penalties on implanting a genome-edited fertilized human egg into the womb of a human or another animal amid concerns over "designer babies."
A government expert panel broadly approved a proposal, including the ban...