Where do the human eggs come from for Newcastle Universitys therapeutic cloning research?
Researchers at the university are trying to grow human embryonic stem cells from human eggs using cloning technology. They are doing this work alongside the IVF unit at the Newcastle Fertility Centre. In IVF eggs from the mother are fertilised by the father’s sperm in the lab. There are often a small number of eggs that do not fertilise, so they cannot grow into embryos that can be used in IVF. Patients are given the chance to donate these unfertilised eggs to the embryonic stem cell research. Because the research relies on these donated eggs, it will take some time to see if this technique to produce stem cells will work with human eggs. The IVF clinic expects there will be tens of donated eggs available each week. Similar work at Seoul National University in South Korea needed 247 unfertilised eggs, donated by 16 women, to grow one human embryo stem cell line. Who decides how genetic technologies like PGD, gene therapy, and cloning are used? In the UK there are various bodies respons
