MEMBERS of the European Parliament (MEPs) get to vote this week on continent-wide rules that will ensure the safety and quality of human tissue and cells used in transplants – a laudable aim. Yet buried within these plans is an amendment that could stymie work in an entire area of biology. It seeks to stop anything produced by therapeutic cloning from being transplanted, most notably stem cells.
This has outraged researchers and even government officials in the UK, who have gone on the offensive. They see the hand of the religious right in the amendment, and warn that frustrated anti-abortion campaigners…
