Comment on news that the first human-animal hybrid embryos may have been created

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Apr 2008

Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP who led the campaign to ensure that this research was not banned by Parliament said:

"This news is interesting and even exciting but impossible to assess until it has been published and peer reviewed in the usual way."

"Creating these sort of cytoplasmic hybrid embryos was deemed legal and legitimate under the 1990 HFEA Act and the 2001 Therapeutic Cloning Regulations by both the HFEA and by the Science Select Committee, and was approved on that basis by the HFEA after a public consultation and after approval by a further unanimous select committee report. Therefore it is wrong to say that this is pre-empting parliamentary debate or votes on the new legislation in this area - the statutory framework is being updated."

"That this breakthrough is considered possible in the UK is a further indication of our world leading role in this research and is a demonstration of why it is so important that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is passed by parliament - to maintain that position."

Related Links:

HFEA decision that licensing of the creation of cytoplasmic hybrid embryos for research is legal under strict criteria .

Commons Science & Technology Select Committee report Government proposals for the regulation of hybrid and chimera embryos, 5th April 2007.