There was a free vote today in the House of Commons to ban hybrid human animal embryos. The cross-party attempt to ban these embryos though was defeated by 336 votes to 176.
The bill would allow regulated research using hybrid or "admix" embryos, where the nuclei of human cells are inserted into animal eggs. The resulting embryos would be kept for up to 14 days to harvest stem cells. Scientists believe that it may make a difference to research into treatments for cancer and conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
This is one of the many ethical debates that will increasingly take place in medical science. It is one that makes me feel very uncomfortable. We don't have all the answers ... but perhaps we should be doing all we can, within extremely tight controls, to help those who have to suffer illnesses for which we currently have no cure.
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