Stalemate over embryo talks with church

Published on Monday 5 January 2009 19:21

USING human embryos in scientific research is always likely to prove controversial. Add to this the prospect of mixing both human and animal material and the debate becomes even more heated.

Last year saw the worlds of science and religion clash over the best way forward on hybrid embryo research. Scientists say such research is necessary to overcome a shortage of human eggs. They also point out that all of the genetic material is removed from animal eggs, such as those from cows or rabbits, and replaced with human DNA, making them 99.9 per cent human.

But the Catholic church does not accept this idea so readily, however well intentioned the researchers who hope to find new treatments for devastating diseases.

Fertility regulators have now invited the Catholic church into their discussions about the ethical issues following controversial outbursts over the use of human-animal embryos. Professor Lisa Jardine, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said it was a matter of regret that the parties were not already in "responsible dialogue" about the issue.

Her statement came after Cardinal Keith O'Brien, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said allowing hybrid research was the endorsement of experiments of "Frankenstein proportions".

Prof Jardine, who took up her HFEA post in April, said despite the comments, her organisation's door was always open for religious representatives to enter into discussions. She also said she would like to have a Catholic advisor to the HFEA's ethics and law committee.

Prof Jardine told The Scotsman: "I want to be bold with all this. I don't have a problem with talking to anybody. I think it is silly if there's a suggestion that it would be somehow tainting to talk to us."

But the Scottish Catholic Church expressed scepticism about whether its views would be truly listened to, given that the HFEA has already moved so far away from the Church's own stance.

Earlier this year, a free vote in the House of Commons, saw the government pass the new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, designed to update the previous legislation. But Prof Jardine said even though the Bill had now been passed, the HFEA still expected debate and objections to continue as more applications to carry out hybrid research were submitted.

"The bottom line in the use of embryonic material in research is that we are only empowered to approve it if the case can be made by that research group that this is the only way this research can be done – that it can't be done, let's say, on skin cells," she said.

"There will always be a debate and I have no doubt that in the next 12 months, contentious applications will come up because the scientists are pressing ever harder at the boundaries.

"In that context it would be very important for me as chair of the HFEA to have measured debate with the groups who are very, very anxious about all research on hybrid embryos. I do not mean that I want a cardinal shouting at me that this is Frankenstein monsters."

Prof Jardine said many Catholics undergoing fertility treatment, and this left them wrestling with their conscience.

"I believe it is my responsibility to keep in dialogue with them," she said. "I believe the Church should be doing the same but I don't think we can unless we do it together."

"Since one in seven of those in the UK will face a fertility problem – that's a lot of people – I will talk to anybody who has a position on behalf of those people as well as the people themselves."

Speaking while in Edinburgh for a meeting of the HFEA, Prof Jardine said there was public support for hybrid research, so long as it was properly regulated. And she described the Frankenstein comments as "politics".

"We have moved beyond that. The act is on the statute book. I know there was emotive language being used on both sides, but this is a tiny bit of what we regulate, and in many ways is one of the simplest."

Prof Jardine said the HFEA hoped the Catholic Church would now join in their discussions: "We would love to have a Catholic voice on our ethics and law advisory committee," she said.

A spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Church welcomed the move. "There are many Catholics in the spheres of medicine and ethics and philosophy who would be more than able to participate in the deliberations," he said.

But the spokesman added: "In reality the HFEA do not need a Catholic on one of their advisory committees to know the position of the Catholic church. I could e-mail it to them now. We are opposed to any destructive experimentation on embryos."

The spokesman warned that the work of the HFEA came with "baggage". "A lot of Catholics would be both sceptical and quite jaundiced about having anything to do with them because they would say the chances of them listening to a single objection from us ... well, they haven't done so, so far. So it is possible that someone might take part in principle, but in practice it would be a hard sell.

"The HFEA has gone so far down a road that the Catholic church is so opposed to, it is hard to see how that could be drawn back."