British scientist abandons country, criticizes ‘obsession’ with embryonic stem cells

Madrid, Spain, Nov 5, 2008 / 13:05 pm

Colin McGuckin, a professor of regenerative medicine at Newcastle University and an expert on the use of adult stem cells, announced this week he is leaving England for France because he can no longer work in the U.K. due to the country’s “obsession” with embryonic stem cells and the refusal to acknowledge his advances in research with adult stem cells, which pose no ethical problems.
 
According to ForumLibertas.com, even though embryonic stem cells have not yielded treatment results, the British government continues to withhold financing for research with adult stem cells.
 
“The bottom line is my vocation is to work with patients and help patients and unfortunately I can't do that in the U.K.," McGuckin told the Times. The professor and his team of ten assistants, who specialize in research with cord blood and adult stem cells, will work at the University of Lyon, where he says there is a “much better environment" to cure patients and further his work.

"(France) is very supportive of adult stem cells because they know that these are the things that are in the clinic right now and will be more likely in the clinic," he added. "A vast amount of money in the U.K. from the government has gone into embryonic stem-cell research with not one patient having being treated, to the detriment of (research into) adult stem cells, which has been severely underfunded."

"Cord blood has already cured around 10,000 people, but despite this much of the U.K. stem cell funding goes towards other types of stem cells including embryonic stem cells, which are not expected to cure people in the next 50 years. Value for public money demands that this is addressed and patients get what they need," McGuckin said.