(Angus Reid Global Scan) - Many adults in Britain consent to the use of "spare" early embryos for scientific investigation, according to a poll by YouGov published in the Daily Telegraph. 68 per cent of respondents believe it is acceptable to use the embryos left over from fertility treatment for the purposes of medical research.

Human stem cells come from embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization, which are habitually destroyed. These cells can develop into various tissues in the human body. Some scientists believe the research could be useful in the creation of new organs and in the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

In Britain, existing legislation allows researchers to experiment on human embryos for specific purposes: to promote advances in the treatment of infertility, to increase knowledge about the causes of congenital disease and the causes of miscarriages, to develop more effective techniques of contraception and methods for detecting abnormalities in embryos before implantation, to increase knowledge about the development of embryos and about serious disease, and to enable any such knowledge to be applied in developing treatments for serious disease.

Polling Data

British scientists are legally permitted to carry out a limited range of experiments using early human embryos up to 14 days after conception (at which point they are a cluster of about 2,000 cells). Do you believe that it is, or it is not, acceptable to use "spare" early embryos left over from fertility treatment such as in-vitro fertilization for the purposes of medical research?

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