§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 22 January 2002 (HL Deb, col. 120) and the adult stem cell research carried out by Professor Verfaillie and her team and published today in Nature Online, whether they conclude that embryonic stem cell research should now stop. [HL4884]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe Verfaillie paper is one of two papers published inNature Online which report developments in stem cell research. In contrast, the other reports encouraging findings using embryonic stem cells in a mouse model of Parkinson's Disease.
17WAGovernment policy remains that stem cell research should be a priority area. The Government believe strongly that no single source of stem cells should be worked upon exclusively but wish to see research continue to move forward on adult, cord blood, fetal and embryonic stem cells.
The licensing of individual projects involving embryo research is a matter for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which will assess whether the use or creation of human embryos is necessary.