Tuesday 3 July 2007

More On The HFEA Consultation

After my attendance at the HFEA public consultation meeting, I received the following by email:

Thank you very much for attending the HFEA Hybrids and Chimeras Open Public Meeting. We trust you found the debate interesting and stimulating.

The information gathered by Opinion Leader at the event will now be analysed alongside the findings from the public discussion groups, the reconvened public event and the omnibus survey. This information will be fed back to the HFEA who will use it and the responses from their online consultation to inform their decision about whether or not to licence human / animal hybrids for research.

I am still highly cynical about the whole thing, especially since the HFEA already recommended going ahead with such research to the government. However, the online consultation is, in theory, still going on until 20 July, so please, if you haven't done so already, go and give your views on human-animal hybrids HERE.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The HFEA is a UK government lap dog. It has about as much moral backbone as a jellyfish and should not be entrusted by people with the powers to legislate on these matters.

Lest anyone not believe the above just look at the sorry state of where the UK stands on these issues. Our medical 'profession' leads the world in human/foetal experimentation on all fronts!

Mac, stay cynical! It's the only way to stay sane in this loopy upside down 21st century world!

David said...

I dont agree, it looks to me that the HFEA consulted widely with the public on this issue.

Embryos that are created will be 99% human and 1% animal. The embryos will only be able to get to day 14 before they are destroyed.

The findings from this sort of medical research could help to provide many cures to terminal illness and Im sure if you had family suffering you would be greatful. Lets embrace tightly regulated research of this type and stop being so negative and listening to what the press say.

Mulier Fortis said...

David - first of all, I'm not "listening to what the press say" - I've researched this stuff for years AS A SCIENTIST before I came back to the church. I was involved in foetal tissue transplantation research. I am not ignorant of what goes on. The next step will be for some bright spark in the lab to see what happens to a hybrid embryo after 21 days. Then it will be 28...

"Tightly regulated" is a joke - how do you know how old an embryo is? The work on human foetal tissue transplantation was supposed to be banned - but scientists have suddenly found that they have lots of research completed already. How very convenient.

As for family suffering, don't bother trying that one. My grandmother died a few years ago after years with Parkinson's, and my grandfather has Alzheimer's. Adult stem cell research and cord stem cell research are far more promising, but more expensive. The embryonic stuff is more "sexy" in the scientific community (despite many problems, such as uncontrolled growth of cells) and therefore it attracts more funding.

Oh, and I was at the consultation meeting of the HFEA - they had made up their minds already. They also wanted to drive home the fact that they thought the "public" should not be consulted on matters of such great scientific importance... hence THEIR question: should we bother to ask the public.

Mulier Fortis said...

Oh, and David... which branch of the "government" do you work for?

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