Christian group concerned over human-pig embryo licence

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's decision to grant a licence for the creation of human-pig hybrids is a "foretaste of things to come", warns the Christian Legal Centre.

The HFEA granted the licence to the Clinical Sciences Research Institute at the University of Warwick to create human-pig hybrid embryos for research purposes.

Professor Justin St John of the University of Warwick said that stem cells extracted from the hybrid embryo would help scientists understand some of the problems associated with certain types of heart disease and "they could also provide models for the pharmaceutical industry to test new drugs".

"We will effectively be creating and studying these diseases in a dish," he added.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, Director of the Christian Legal Centre objected to the licence, however, arguing that the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act does not give the HFEA the power to grant such licences.

The Christian Legal Centre together with Comment on Reproductive Ethics has already filed papers for a Judicial Review over the decisions earlier this year by the HFEA to grant licences to Newcastle University and King's College London to begin research into degenerative diseases using animal-human hybrids.

Mrs Williams argues that each of the licences should not have been granted as the 1990 Act provides that no licences may be granted unless the licence appears to be necessary or desirable for one of a number of articulated purposes and the HFEA believes that the proposed use of embryos for research is necessary or desirable for the purposes of that research.

"The HFEA has not met the 1990 Act's stringent standards for granting licences, in as much as these licences are neither 'necessary' nor 'desirable'," said Mrs Williams.

"No significant advances have been made in embryonic stem cell research, while great advances in disease treatment have been seen in research on adult stem cells and umbilical cord blood cells.

"When other viable alternatives to such controversial research already exist, such as human induced pluripotent stem cells, then it cannot be claimed that such new research is either necessary or desirable."

Although that Parliament recently passed legislation that might allow for the granting of licences for human-pig hybrid embryo research, Mrs Williams stressed that the 1990 Act did not do so.

"The HFEA has, then, overstepped its authority under the 1990 Act in granting this licence," she said.

Professor St John said that the new licence would allow researchers at Warwick to attempt to make human pig clones in order to produce the embryonic stem cells.

Mrs Williams said, 'When we are talking about making human pig clones, we should lament our dulling of conscience as a society which permits such embryos to exist. This underscores the deplorable state of bioethics in which the UK now finds itself."

The Christian Legal Centre is urging people to contact their MPs to encourage them to protect human dignity.