Date published: 2008/02/02
The BBC says:
The government may allow scientists to clone embryos from tissues donated for research without the need for donors' "express" consent, the BBC has learned.
Health officials say they have accepted that the requirement, currently in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, would hamper vital research.
...
Scientists believe they can learn more about the development of many currently incurable illnesses by creating cloned embryos from diseased tissues.They say the specific consent requirement would stop them using tissues already donated for general medical research by people who are dead or cannot be contacted.
If the government does drop the requirement from the bill, it is expected to insist stringent safeguards are put in place instead.
If these tissues really were "donated for general medical research", then it is fair enough to use them for creating cloned embryos, since this is "medical research" (a vast encompassing term). But you have to wonder how many of the people whose tissues have been taken over the years really realised what was going to happen far into the future to cells taken from their tissues, and without their families being given any compensation should the cells lead to a major discovery and large financial rewards for the researcher, university and/or company. (So this is akin to drug companies going into a country and just walking away with plant material which leads to a new drug.)
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