Oxford, England, Jun 3, 2021 / 07:05 am
Bioethicists criticized Thursday the relaxation of a 14-day limit on human embryo experimentation.
In a June 3 statement, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, England, lamented the decision by the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) to lift the limit on lab-grown embryo experimentation.
“Once the 14-day rule falls away, the only real limit, it seems, to experimentation would be the scientific limit as to how long embryonic or fetal human beings can be sustained outside the womb -- or, indeed, in an artificial womb (ectogenesis),” said the center’s director David Albert Jones.
The ISSCR, an independent nonprofit organization based in Skokie, Illinois, announced on May 26 that it was relaxing the decades-old rule due to rapid advances in the field.