Research on alternatives to embryonic stem cells wins Nobel Prize

Campaigners are welcoming the news that the scientists Dr John B Gurdon and Dr Shinya Yamanaka who have discovered an alternative to embryonic stem cells research have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Professor David Albert Jones from the Anscombe Bioethics Centre said: “This Nobel prize recognises a great scientific breakthrough but it is equally an achievement of great ethical significance. This technique offers hope of progress in stem cell research without relying on the unethical destruction of human embryos. The past attempts to clone human embryos, and the bizarre experiments to create admixed human-nonhuman embryos, have delivered nothing. In contrast, the transformation of adult cells into stem cells is making great progress. This is science at its best: both beautiful and ethical.”

The European Bishops Conference, (COMEC), said: "This is an important milestone in recognising the key role that non-embryonic stem cells play in the development of new, medical therapies, as alternatives to human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Accordingly, in the ambit of the new Horizon 2020 Research Programme, funding should be redirected from ethically-problematic and scientifically and economically less promising hESC research to non-embryonic stem cell research

"From the scientific point of view, hESC have been so far rather disappointing, less and less fulfilling clinical promise. It is noteworthy that recently GeronCorp., the world’s leading embryo research company, announced it was closing down its stem cell programme.

"In contrast, there have been continuing scientific advances in fields of research involving alternative stem cells (adult, derived from umbilical cord or induced pluripotent) which present better prospects for clinical applications; or have indeed already demonstrated widespread clinical results (and do not raise any special ethical problems). Today’s Nobel Prize rewards such efforts to discover alternatives to hESC in mature, specialised cells that once reprogrammed become immature cells capable of developing into any tissues of the body.

"Furthermore, research on hESC can no longer be patented since the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice in the case of Greenpeace v. Brüstle. The Court clearly defines the human embryo as a human ovum, as soon as fertilized, or as the product of cloning, and confirms that biotechnological inventions using hESC cannot be patented.

"Despite all these new scientific developments and legal decisions, the European Commission decided to leave open the possibility of funding research on hESC within the Horizon 2020 Research Programme which is currently under discussion in the EU Council and the European Parliament.

"COMECE requests the EU institutions to adopt a rule laying down that any research entailing the destruction of human embryos or using human embryonic stem cells shall not be funded under Horizon 2020.

For more information see: www.bioethics.org.uk