British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life

"According to the guidelines introduced by the European Commission, researchers could spend EU money to harvest new stem cells from frozen embryos - a practice that is illegal in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, France and Spain......." (Irish Independent, 10 July 03). The Irish Government 's Assisted Reproduction Commission will report at the end of 2003.

"While the proposal says the EU will not fund embryonic stem cell research where it is forbidden, many countries don't want their tax money from central EU coffers going to support such work anywhere.

"Under the guidelines that were finally agreed, despite divisions among Commission members, research can be carried out on frozen embryos that have been left over from IVF treatment and were clearly donated by couples...... The guidelines ban any form of cloning to create new cells..... Research can only take place on embryos frozen over a year ago."

Britain is disregarding any agreed guidelines (House of Lords ruling on "therapeutic" cloning, 13 Mar 03). Competition is coming from Singapore. The Medical Research Council is offering money to fertility clinics to encourage them to provide more embryos for destructive research. The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh has also been licensed by the HFEA to create short-lived human embryos by a form of parthenogenesis.

Wesley Smith writes that in spite of the "brass band" treatment that any success with embryonic stem cells always gets in the Press, "the trend-line of the research results is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The shortest and most likely route to the creation of a thriving regenerative medical industry appears to lie not with embryonic stem cells derived from human cloning, but with adult stem cells and other non-embryonic tissues."