For anyone suffering from a congenital disease such as Parkinson’s, osteoporosis, cancer, Motor Neuron Disease or Alzheimer’s, or for the millions with friends or relations debilitated by such conditions, it’s fantastic news that breakthroughs in treatments and cures are within reach thanks to stem-cell and embryo research.

Yet media coverage of the moral and ethical implications of the proposed procedures would make anyone stop and think. Stories about ‘designer babies’, wasted embryos, ‘saviour siblings’ and scientists dabbling with Frankenstein-style human-animal hybrids certainly don’t make pleasant reading.

The hot topic today, and one of the most contentious aspects of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, currently going through Parliament, is the creation and use of human-animal embryos for medical and scientific research purposes. A shortage of donated human eggs is slowing down the progress that could be made in stem-cell research, so scientists have developed a way of using hollowed-out animal eggs and introducing a human nucleus to create an alternative source of stem cells.

Crucially the resulting ball of cells would not be allowed to develop beyond a few days, as set out in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, but this idea of scientists ‘playing God‘ is causing grave concerns for many people on ethical and religious grounds.

A great deal of work is being carried out to gauge public opinion on this, as part of the Bill’s consultation process, and to measure the impact that an unpopular outcome would have on the electorate’s voting behaviour.

The Human Fertility and Embryology Association (HFEA), a statutory body which regulates the storage of eggs, sperm and embryos and monitors all UK-based research into human embryos, carried out a comprehensive consultation in late 2007. This included a study of public attitudes, and its findings demonstrated that the majority of the public were supportive. The top-line figure published in 2007 was that 79% support the use of human embryos for medical research to find treatments for serious diseases and for fertility research. Mori carried out similar research in 2003, concluding that 70 per cent of the public were in favour, indicating that the tide of support is swelling.

In April this year, and with a question focusing specifically on the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for stem cell research, a Populus poll for The Times revealed that even this contentious element of medical research has significant public approval, suggesting that the Parliamentary Bill is on the right track. Exactly 50 per cent backed new laws that would permit it and only 30 per cent opposed.

Drilling further into The Times’ poll data, it’s clear that attitudes differ slightly for men and women. While 58 per cent of men think such experiments should be permitted, only 43 per cent of women do. Of the socio-economic groupings, the ABs are the most likely to approve (60 per cent) - possibly because they have greater understanding of the issues - while only 45 per cent of DEs are in agreement with the proposals.

Liberal Democrat voters were the least likely to be in favour (46 per cent) with 53 per cent of Labour voters saying ‘yes’, and even more, 57 per cent, of Conservative voters recording their confidence in the research procedures.

It seems the general public is grasping the notion that stem-cell research can and is already working wonders in terms of medical benefits. Of course there will always be sceptics. Comments posted on online discussion boards throw up endless dissenting arguments and conspiracy theories. There are claims that scientists’ promises to deliver cures for disease are empty, and that the world of science really just wants the freedom to experiment out of scientific curiosity. There are calls for the Church of England to speak out in opposition as vocally as the Catholic Church, and for voters to lobby their MPs to vote against the Bill rather than sit back apathetically and let nature be tampered with.

But stories from individuals suffering the agonies of hereditary diseases are surely the most poignant. Thirty-six year old Liz Shipley, who has suffered from motor neurone disease (MND) for ten years and lost her mother and other family members to the muscle-wasting condition, says it all in a recent Timesonline article: “When you have an illness for which there is no cure, you have to investigate every avenue. I do not want my children to be told in 20 years’ time that they have MND and there is still no cure. I believe the answers will lie in stem cells of some kind. Hopefully this research will be able to tell us why this is happening to our family.”

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is designed to regulate just how far scientists can go when experimenting on embryos or embryo parts. It will also lay down new boundaries for fertility clinics, setting out the circumstances in which controversial techniques for screening embryos for defects, or gender, are allowed.

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/humanfertilisationandembryology.html