Writing open letters to the government warning of imminent catastrophe has become part of the job description for leading scientists in Britain nowadays. Most recently they tolled the warning bell in a letter to the London Times demanding that the government waive informed consent requirements for stem cell research. It was signed by 20 biomedical researchers and administrators, including three Nobel laureates. Although the UK government has a history of granting everything stem cell scientists ask for, this demand presents a troublesome problem. Nowadays it is expected that patients will be asked for their informed consent before their tissue is used for research. And patients who donated their material to tissue banks are unlikely to have foreseen that it would be used to create clones, especially human-animal hybrid clones. The scientists, however, contend that tracking down the patients will be expensive and time-consuming. Another onerous provision, complain the scientists, is that even if parents give their consent, tissue samples from children cannot be used. This could hurt “the UK’s reputation as the place of choice for this exciting and world-leading medical research”.

Two scientists have already experienced moments of frustration. Dr Lyle Armstrong from Newcastle University was given a green light by the UK’s fertility regulator to create hybrid embryos in the past week, but then was stymied by the consent requirement. And Dr Stephen Minger, of King’s College, London, was blocked by the requirement for consent from children. Whether or not the Brown government will amend its legislation is not clear. ~ London Times, Jan 21