World's first stem cell bank for UK

The UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) is expected to announce the establishment of the world's first human stem cell bank later this month. The creation of a national stem cell bank was one of the recommendations made in the August 2000 Donaldson Report, 'Stem Cell Research: Medical Progress with Responsibility', published by the Department of Health. The Donaldson proposal was supported by a committee of the House of Lords earlier this year.

Plans for the bank have been agreed in principle by the MRC, a Government-funded organisation which says that the bank is likely to hold both adult and embryonic stem cells. These would be used as a resource by scientists researching the potential of the cells to be used in new treatments for disease and injuries. The plans are still waiting approval from government ministers.

Some couples who have undergone fertility treatment and who have 'left over' embryos from which stem cells could be extracted might be asked to donate them to the bank. Embryos are already donated for other forms of research; into the causes of infertility, for example. A spokesperson for the MRC said that embryonic stem cells would only be stored by the bank provided the couple from whose embryo they had been taken had given full and informed consent.

Fears that people might be 'pressured' to donate their embryos were dispelled by Suzi Leather, Chair of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), who said that 'the HFEA has laid down very strict guidelines which would mean that it would be absolutely wrong for any clinics to put pressure on patients to donate embryos for any use that they weren't giving full consent for'.