Harvard University to Become Supplier of Embryonic Stem Cells


Boston, MA — A fertility clinic will give human embryos to Harvard in a deal that could make the university one of the world's top suppliers of embryonic stem cells.

Boston IVF, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based organization of fertility clinics, said it has thousands of frozen embryos that could provide stem cells. The firm said it plans to begin contacting donor couples for permission to use their embryos so Harvard scientists can extract stem cells.

“Of the handful of couples we've contacted, they seem to be quite interested,” Dr. Doug Powers, director of Boston IVF's laboratory, said, adding that a “decision to donate won't come up until they finish infertility treatment.”

“It is our intention to make these cells available to anyone who would like them to do research,” Douglas Melton, chairman of Harvard's cell and molecular biology department, told The Boston Globe for Friday's editions. “They are not being prepared with the intention of having any rights, commercial or otherwise.”

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute will finance the arrangement between the school and the clinic. Melton is on the staff of the Maryland-based private foundation.

The institute will give Boston IVF $80,000 over two years to cover the cost of providing the embryos. The institute already provides general support for Melton's lab at Harvard, he said Friday, and the lab would receive no extra money specifically for extracting and preserving the stem cells.

The arrangement between the fertility clinic and the university is part of a three-way collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a nonprofit medical research and philanthropic organization in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Boston IVF serves about a thousand couples a year, and has helped conceive about 7,500 babies in five years. It stores all unused embryos in giant liquid nitrogen freezers.

Massachusetts law requires oversight by a scientific ethics board for donation of embryos. Harvard's institutional review board will monitor the deal with Boston IVF. Any embryonic stem cell research conducted at Harvard would not be eligible for federal funding per President Bush's announcement.


(This article courtesy of the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email [email protected].)

British Pro-Life Group Speaks Out Against IVF

London, England — It is reported today that the Bridge Clinic in London

have agreed to carry out IVF treatment for a post-menopausal woman, using her brother's sperm and a donated egg, with the full approval of the Human

Fertilisation and Embryology Authority(HFEA).

“In granting a licence for fraternal fertilization, a procedure considered incestuous throughout human history, once again the Human Fertilization & Embryology Authority (HFEA) shows itself to be an organisation without willpower or clout,” says a spokeswoman for Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE). “It makes complete nonsense of UK regulations which are supposed to place the welfare of the child in a paramount position. Defending its decision the HFEA is quoted as saying, 'There is no statutory requirement for the child to be told that its father is its uncle.' (Sunday Times, Aug 26). This must be one of the most insensitive and unethical comments this body has ever made.”

“This case parallels that of the Salomens in France earlier this year, the only difference being that that fertilisation was not performed with Government approval. In fact the French authorities, along with most of the world, expressed outrage at what had taken place in the private fertility sector in the USA, and were considering removing the offspring from the custody of their birth mother/aunt. Even the American clinic expressed regrets, shamefacedly admitted that they had not known that the sperm donor was the patient”s brother.”

“The HFEA, on the other hand, was fully aware of the facts, and yet gave authorisation. The combined wisdom of history and the outrage of the world is not enough to halt this irresponsible quango, which is rapidly turning into a rubber-stamp organization incapable of saying “No.”

“It is clearly time for the Government to stop singing the praises of the HFEA and take a closer look at their actual track record. The public should demand a complete overhaul of the structure and remit of this group, before they are let loose on stem cell research and human cloning.”

“This is the same week in which it was revealed that a senior member of the HFEA Committee, Dr Anne McLaren, will be chairing a cloning conference in Monte Carlo in October, guest of reproductive cloning enthusiast, Dr. Severino Antinori, who is presiding over the event.”

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