Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Drayson on 4 November 2009 (WA 60) and by Baroness Wilcox on 31 January 2011 (WA 219–20), what were the specific outcomes of the two independent studies funded by the Medical Research Council; and what plans they currently have to fund further projects involving similar work.
Answer
In 2007, the Medical Research Council (MRC) awarded funding to Professor Mary Herbert at the University of Newcastle for the research project ““Improving the efficiency of human somatic cell nuclear transfer”” (SCNT). The project involved the MRC reimbursing part of the treatment costs of women undergoing IVF at the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life who chose to donate some of the surplus eggs produced to be used in the research. Due to the exceptional nature of this research project the MRC also funded an independent social science study to be undertaken alongside the research project to learn from women’s experiences and to inform future research involving egg donation and payment of IVF treatment costs. The social science study, ““An investigation of the experiences of potential in vitro fertilisation (IVF) donors in egg sharing for SCNT””, was undertaken by Professor Erica Haimes, also at the University of Newcastle. Both studies have now ended and a report from Professor Haimes’ social science study will be considered by the MRC’s Ethics, Regulation and Public Involvement Committee at its next meeting. The findings from both studies will be reported in published research papers and presented at scientific conferences and meetings. Research papers relating to Professor Herbert’s study are currently in preparation, and two papers relating to Professor Haimes’ study have been published: Haimes, E. and Taylor, K., 2011: Researching the Relationships between Tissue Providers, Clinicians, and Stem Cell Scientists, Cell Stem Cell, 8(6) pp. 613-615. Haimes, E. and Taylor, K., 2011: The Contributions of Empirical Evidence to Socio-ethical Debates on Fresh Embryo Donation for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Bioethics, 25 (6) pp 334-341. The MRC will continue to support research into all approaches to harness the potential of stem cells to treat human disease as it is not evident at present which area of stem cell research may deliver the most effective treatments for particular conditions. More research is needed on all types of stem cells to determine which routes should be pursued in the development of cell-based therapies.