Following pressure from AMRC and others including the Genetic Interest Group, the Wellcome Trust, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Research Council and the Royal Society, the Government has announced it plans to amend the consent provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

The Bill requires express consent for all tissue used to create cloned embryos for research. Scientists were concerned that this would preclude the use of existing cell lines from tissue donated to tissue banks, and that a ban on the use of these cell lines would have a negative impact on research into conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and motor neurone disease.

The original donors may have given general consent to their material being used in research, but as the tissue was collected before it became possible to clone embryos, the donors would not have given specific consent for their DNA to be used in embryonic stem-cell models of their diseases. It would be impossible to obtain retrospective consent as most cell lines have been anonymised.

In a letter to The Times leading biomedical researchers and administrators warned that the ban would delay understanding of how diseases develop and the search for therapies. They urged the Government to allow an exemption in the case of existing anonymised cells and cell lines from untraceable donors.

Following a debate in the House of Lords the Department of Health conceded that a compelling case for allowing exceptions was made, and published a letter clarifying their revised position.

7 February 2008