Swiss public backs embryo stem cell research
A referendum in Switzerland has shown 'overwhelming' support for a new law allowing Swiss scientists to perform embryonic stem (ES) cell research. This means that the public has endorsed legislation passed by the Swiss government last December, which will now come into effect in March 2005. In what was the...
Comment
A national bioethics committee - lessons from France
by Professor Donna Dickenson
While some UK commentators debate setting up a national bioethics committee to supplement or rival the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), France is doing the reverse: creating a new statutory national biomedicine regulatory authority, in addition to its 20-year old national ethics committee. After January 2005, the CCNE...
Why the UK doesn't need a national bioethics committee
by Professor Richard Ashcroft
In a recent guest commentary for BioNews, Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core) presented the case for establishing a national bioethics committee for the UK. She rightly noted that many countries have established such a committee, and that many of these committees have a distinguished record in producing...
Prolifers and the status of the embryo - Why the change of heart?
by Teena Chowdhury
The ProLife Alliance has sought to challenge the legality of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)'s decision to grant a cloning licence to the Newcastle Human Embryonic Stem Cell Group. In a statement, the Alliance said that: 'It has been erroneously reported that the licence will further research...