BRITAIN: Women in Britain may be allowed to donate eggs for therapeutic cloning and stem-cell research to find new treatments for illnesses ranging from diabetes to heart disease.
The government's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said yesterday it was recommending a change in guidelines that would enable women to provide eggs altruistically for research purposes.
At the moment, only spare embryos left over from fertility treatments are used in therapeutic cloning research.
"We recognise that researchers in the UK who are involved in therapeutic cloning have made public statements over the past year in reference to the need for better quality eggs," said James Healy of the HFEA.
"The obvious follow-on from that would be to look into the issue of altruistic egg donation."
Therapeutic cloning involves creating early embryos to obtain stem cells - master cells in the body that can develop into any other cell type - to treat diseases.
The nucleus of a human egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus from a human cell, such as a skin cell. A chemical trigger starts the egg growing and dividing. After a few divisions, the ball of cells - or early embryo - that results is made up mostly of embryonic stem cells.
The technique is condemned by some because it then involves removing the stem cells and destroying the embryo.
Britain legalised therapeutic cloning in 2001. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne have been given licences for therapeutic cloning.
The new recommendation, considered by the HFEA's ethics and law committee yesterday and its executive board today, would allow women to donate eggs specifically for stem-cell research.
If approved, the HFEA suggests women be compensated for expenses and loss of earnings up to £250 (€364).