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The so-called the 14-day rule for breeding human embryos. It ordered the destruction of embryos after a maximum of two weeks, which significantly limited the possibility of conducting research.
- The 14-day rule was abolished, which for several decades did not allow scientists to carry out research on embryos for more than 2 weeks
- Keeping the embryo alive for more than 14 days will allow for more in-depth and effective research into human development
- Research on embryos may allow us to answer the question about the failure of some pregnancies in the future
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) has decided to relax this limit, thus giving more freedom to scientists studying human development and disease. The limit has not been extended to a specific number of days, instead the ISSCR suggests that individual cases be considered on a case-by-case basis and determined when the experiment should be stopped.
Progress in science required changes to the guidelines
The ISSCR has recognized that progress in biomedical research is so dynamic that it is high time to make some changes to the guidelines. Hence the abolition of the 14-day rule that has been in force for researchers for several dozen years. According to the representatives of the science world in the USA, this is a major change.
“In the United States, where biomedical research involving stem cells or human embryos has been controversial for decades and federal support has been growing and waning, such guidelines are of paramount importance,” said Josephine Johnston, bioethicist at the Hastings Center in Garrison, New York. – While US agencies have certain rules about such work, institutional audit committees or private funders often refer to the ISSCR as the only regularly updated set of guidelines that represent the views of the research community. This means that when they make such a change, it is actually quite significant, adds Johnston.
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Better understand human development
Where did the 14-day rule come from? It was first proposed in 1979. It was to prohibit research on embryos after they had reached a certain stage of development. It was, among others o ethical issues related to the stages of development of the human nervous system. More than a dozen countries (including Great Britain, Canada, South Korea, USA) have adopted it as a law and standard that researchers should follow.
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Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell biologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London and chairman of the ISSCR steering committee who wrote the new guidelines, believes that greater freedom to do research does not mean “green light” for extending the life of embryos. However, it is a big step forward for science. Until recently, compliance with the 14-day rule was facilitated by the fact that scientists were not able to keep the embryos alive even for such a period. But today They argue that allowing embryos to grow beyond 14 days may contribute to a better understanding of human development and allow scientists, for example, to understand why some pregnancies fail.
“The revised ISSCR guidelines are an incentive to start talking about when it would be worth growing embryos for more than 14 days,” said Alta Charo, bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison.
Controversial subject?
Over the past decades, scientists have managed to grow increasingly sophisticated models of embryos from human stem cells. This allows them to conduct advanced research into human development while avoiding the controversial use of embryos from fertility clinics. And although such structures, like embryos, are too primitive for a human being to emerge from them, Easing the 14-day breeding limit would allow scientists to fully compare them with real embryos and test their potential to support human health.
However, not everyone agrees that the change is justified. Kirstin Matthews, a lawyer and political scientist at the Rice University Institute of Public Policy in Houston, Texas, believes that even before the guidelines changed The ISSCR should consult the public. Lovell-Badge explains that this was not done mainly due to cost and time. ISSCR could not afford such a huge project.
The abolition of the 14-day rule is not the only topic that the ISSCR has tackled due to the significant progress in biomedical research. The organization also raised the issue of mitochondrial replacement therapy and its importance in the treatment of metabolic diseases in children. There was also a discussion about editing the genes of human embryos, which is an issue frequently raised by the scientific community. The ISSCR said, however, that the research was still too risky, although the concept itself, as scientific development progresses, could prove very valuable.
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