HFEA issues cloning licences

The decision of the House of Lords select committee meant that the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) could begin to issue research licences for embryo stem cell research.

Two groups have so far been granted licences by the HFEA, one based at Edinburgh University and the other at Guy's Hospital in London. Both groups had applied for licences to do basic research to develop techniques of handling embryonic material and stem cells. Licences are granted as long as conditions specifying measures that had to be put in place when the research was undertaken were met. Further applications for licences are expected to follow from centres in Cambridge, Newcastle and Sheffield.

A team led by Austin Smith at the Centre for Genome Research at Edinburgh University will be investigating embryo development and hopes to develop treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's Disease. The team based at Guy's Hospital will be studying treatments for infertility and the prevention of miscarriage. In addition, both teams will develop stem cell lines that will be 'deposited' in a proposed national stem cell bank funded by the Medical Research Council. According to the HFEA, both clinics will be producing stem cell lines from left-over IVF embryos. Neither of them will be immediately taking advantage of the House of Lords committee decision to allow the use of cloned embryos.

Pro-life groups are said to be planning legal action to block the progress of stem cell work at the two centres. The ProLife Alliance said that the research would only be legal if the scientists could show that it was necessary to use human, rather than animal, cells. It said it intends to seek a judicial review of the HFEA's licensing decision in the High Court.