Body parts from embryos??

Found this via Drudge at the Daily Mail of the UK.

Couples could be allowed to store embryos in order to use them to create new body parts or cure diseases. (Am I the only one feeling sick?)

Government legal and ethical experts are to discuss whether families can ‘bank’ embryos not just for procreation but also for use by doctors to create personalised treatments for parents and their children.

Now, embryos – the first stage of life after an egg has been successfully fertilised – can be stored for up to five years but only for procreation.

But a huge ethical debate is set to erupt as the Government’s fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), moves closer to endorsing new developments in medical science.

It will debate whether embryos could be stored to harvest important stem cells that have the ability to turn into any tissue type in the body.

Research on using the cells is still in its infancy, but it is thought that within ten years it could lead to cures for degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and some forms of cancer.

The embryos could also be used to grow new organs and bodily ‘spare parts’. (Great, kill a child for a new set of tits if a woman has breast cancer?)

Scientists have already successfully transplanted a windpipe grown from a patient’s own adult stem cells.

However, storing embryonic cells is controversial as they allow the creation of embryos for a purpose other than new life. It means couples could have IVF simply to create a body-repair kit.
A US company is already offering this service, which it has described as an ‘investment’ for the future. (Love to know the name of this company. Isn't it funny how they remain anonymous?)

The HFEA will discuss the issue in July – and if it rules in favour of the proposals, they will automatically become policy.

Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: ‘These proposals widen the scope for abuse of embryos. Commercial companies will inevitably seek to exploit people’s fears about degenerative diseases.

'This is about the commercialisation of human embryos, which is dehumanising.’

In October, a change to the law will allow embryos to be stored for 55 years, rather than five, meaning long-term banking could easily become a reality.

The HFEA has already ruled in favour of ‘saviour siblings’ – babies created using IVF and screened as embryos to be a tissue match for an existing child with a serious condition. (Kill one kid to save another. Sick.)

Once the baby is born, stem cells are taken from the umbilical cord blood and used as a cure, which experts say means the ethical leap for embryos to be used as a repair kit has already been made. (That is pure bullshit. Use of cord blood doesn't entail killing the embryo. Crap, what gall these assholes have!)

Several ‘saviour siblings’ have now been born, including Jamie Whitaker, of Derbyshire, whose donation of cord blood stem cells cured his brother Charlie of a rare form of anaemia.

Dr Richard Kennedy, of the British Fertility Society, said stem-cell technologies would improve over the next decade.

‘That might well open the door to this scenario which the HFEA is quite rightly discussing as an ethical issue.’ (DUH!)

Josephine Quintavalle, of campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: ‘It is sadly almost inevitable that bespoke embryonic stem cells created from frozen surplus will become the latest must-have healthcare accessory.’

An HFEA spokesperson said: ‘Horizon scanning is part of our regulatory role. We look at developing technologies which may impact on the work we do.’