Claim: Britain gives scientist go-ahead to genetically modify human embryos.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Kathy Niakan
text: Institute she is investigating the mechanisms of lineage specification in human embryos and stem cells. In February 2016 Niakan was given the go-ahead by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to genetically modify human embryos. The embryos were to be destroyed after seven days. She planned to use the CRISPR technique to answer questions like what genetic faults cause some women to miscarry, what causes infertility and what is crucial for a healthy embryo. In 2017 her lab published the first major study using CRISPR-Cas9 in human embryos in Nature, demonstrating that the transcription factor Oct4 is essential for

title: Assisted reproductive technology
text: Council on Bioethics issued a report which concluded that under certain circumstances, editing of the DNA of human embryos could be acceptable. The Nuffield Council is a British independent organisation that evaluates ethical questions in medicine and biology. Lee Silver has projected a dystopia in which a race of superior humans look down on those without genetic enhancements, though others have counseled against accepting this vision of the future. It has also been suggested that if designer babies were created through genetic engineering, that this could have deleterious effects on the human gene pool. Some futurists claim that it would

title: Christopher Jones (biologist)
text: Christopher Jones (biologist) Christopher Jones (born 1976) is an American innovator with a strong interest in health economics, particularly as it applies to improving outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. In early 2003, he presented a report, first to then-British Chancellor Gordon Brown and then in the House of Commons, that led to policy changes to the maximum allowable number of transferred embryos during the course of a woman's in vitro fertilisation treatment. "The Times" in London reported that Jones' report induced immediate action by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority but divided fertility doctors: half viewed this as a good

title: Miodrag Stojković
text: he was granted the first licence to use nuclear transfer embryos to derive human embryonic stem cells in Europe, and in the following month, he became the Deputy Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the University of Newcastle. In 2005, he served as a Visiting Professor to the University of Kragujevac in Serbia and Montenegro. Later in the year, he became Chair in Embryology and Stem Cell Biology at the University of Newcastle, and in 2006, Deputy Director and Head of the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory at the Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe in Valencia,

title: Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock
text: this occasion gave rise to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, which governs human fertility treatment and experimentation using human embryos. Its effect has been to require licensing for procedures such as in vitro fertilisation and to ban research using human embryos more than 14 days old. According to Dame Susan Leather, a former chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, "perhaps the greatest achievement of the Warnock committee is that it managed to get an ethical consensus that people understood as well as shared". From 1984 to 1989, Warnock chaired a Home Office Committee on animal experimentation

title: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
text: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health in the United Kingdom. It is a statutory body that regulates and inspects all clinics in the United Kingdom providing "in vitro" fertilisation (IVF), artificial insemination and the storage of human eggs, sperm or embryos. It also regulates human embryo research. After the birth of Louise Brown, the world's first IVF baby, in 1978, there was concern about the implications of this new technology. In 1982, the UK government formed a committee chaired by philosopher Mary Warnock

title: Gene drive
text: and represent the possibility of a larger change in a living species than has been possible before. In December 2015, scientists of major world academies called for a moratorium on inheritable human genome edits that would affect the germline, including those related to CRISPR-Cas9 technologies, but supported continued basic research and gene editing that would not affect future generations. In February 2016, British scientists were given permission by regulators to genetically modify human embryos by using CRISPR-Cas9 and related techniques on condition that the embryos were destroyed in seven days. In June 2016, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,

title: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990
text: detailed review to determine the best way to reduce the risk of multiple pregnancies with in vitro fertilization (IVF). For example, Nadya Suleman (or "Octomom") is publicly known for giving birth to octuplets after IVF treatment. This policy allows for the use of techniques which alter the mitochondrial DNA of the egg or an embryo used in IVF, to prevent serious mitochondrial diseases from being inherited. The policies reviewed by HFEA cover everything from human reproductive cloning to the creation of human-animal hybrids, and include subjects such as ethics with scientific and social significance. Sperm, eggs and embryos received in

title: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
text: the development of embryos", "increasing knowledge about serious disease", and "enabling any such knowledge to be applied in developing treatments for serious disease". This allows researchers to carry out embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning providing that an HFEA Licence Committee considers the use of embryos necessary or desirable for one of these purposes of research. The Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 was introduced to explicitly prohibit reproductive cloning in the UK. In 2004, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Disclosure of Donor Information) Regulations 2004/1511, enabled donor-conceived children to access the identity of their sperm, egg or embryo

title: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990
text: is the current law in the UK. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority which is in charge of human embryo research, along with monitoring and licensing fertility clinics in the United Kingdom. The Authority is composed of a chairman, a deputy chairman, and however many members are appointed by the UK Secretary of State. They are in charge of reviewing information about human embryos and subsequent development, provision of treatment services, and activities governed by

title: Human cloning
text: zygote is the cell resulting from the fusion of two gametes; thus the fertilised ovum. Section 39A thus prohibits human cloning. On January 14, 2001 the British government passed The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations 2001 to amend the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 by extending allowable reasons for embryo research to permit research around stem cells and cell nuclear replacement, thus allowing therapeutic cloning. However, on November 15, 2001, a pro-life group won a High Court legal challenge, which struck down the regulation and effectively left all forms of cloning unregulated in the UK. Their hope

title: Political positions of David Cameron
text: or three-person IVF was proposed in December 2014 and passed through Parliament in February 2015. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison) obtained the support of 382 of her colleagues in this free vote, including David Cameron. The Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Dame Sally Davies, encouraged the vote, calling it "an historic day for the future of modern medicine" and remarked that the UK would "become the first country in the world to allow mitochondrial donation techniques to be used in IVF treatment." Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, was very troubled by the technique,

title: Robert Winston
text: until 1994. As Professor of Fertility Studies at Hammersmith, Winston led the IVF team that pioneered preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which identifies defects in human embryos and published early work on gene expression in human embryos. He was the president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 2004 to 2005. Together with Carol Readhead of the California Institute of Technology, Winston has been researching male germ cell stem cells and methods for their genetic modification at the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Imperial College London. He has published over 300 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. He was

title: Medical genetics
text: "snapshot" of an individual's health status. The unique status of genetic information and inherited disease has a number of ramifications with regard to ethical, legal, and societal concerns. On 19 March 2015, scientists urged a worldwide ban on clinical use of methods, particularly the use of CRISPR and zinc finger, to edit the human genome in a way that can be inherited. In April 2015 and April 2016, Chinese researchers reported results of basic research to edit the DNA of non-viable human embryos using CRISPR. In February 2016, British scientists were given permission by regulators to genetically modify human embryos

title: The Lottery (TV series)
text: and her assistant, Dr. James Lynch, make a breakthrough in their lab work for the Department of Humanity (DOH), and are able to successfully fertilize eggs to create 100 viable human embryos. Darius Hayes, Director of the DOH, strongly believes that the embryos should immediately become property of the U.S. government. But the President of the United States, Thomas Westwood, is fighting sagging poll numbers and sides with his Chief of Staff, Vanessa Keller, who suggests they hold a public lottery to select 100 women who will carry the embryos to term. The DOH is also looking to control all

title: Stem cell laws
text: future use, donated for another infertile couple, or used in research. In 2003, Spain's laws state that embryos left over from IVF and donated by the couple that created them can be used in research, including ES cell research, if they have been frozen for more than five years. In 2001, the British Parliament amended the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (since amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008) to permit the destruction of embryos for hESC harvests but only if the research satisfies one of the following requirements: The United Kingdom is one of the leaders

title: Stem cell controversy
text: first successful human "in vitro" fertilization resulted in the birth of Louise Brown in England. These developments prompted the federal government to create regulations barring the use of federal funds for research that experimented on human embryos. In 1995, the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel advised the administration of President Bill Clinton to permit federal funding for research on embryos left over from "in vitro" fertility treatments and also recommended federal funding of research on embryos specifically created for experimentation. In response to the panel's recommendations, the Clinton administration, citing moral and ethical concerns, declined to fund research on embryos

title: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990
text: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority which is in charge of human embryo research, along with monitoring and licensing fertility clinics in the United Kingdom. The Authority is composed of a chairman, a deputy chairman, and however many members are appointed by the UK Secretary of State. They are in charge of reviewing information about human embryos and subsequent development, provision of treatment services, and activities governed by the Act of 1990. The Authority also

title: Designer baby
text: comes out about the incident. One of these facilities already knew that the tank that malfunctioned had issues long before, and the eggs were supposed to be transferred from the defective tank but they never were. In 2018, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics issued a report which concluded that under certain circumstances, editing of the DNA of human embryos could be acceptable. The Nuffield Council is a British independent organisation that evaluates ethical questions in medicine and biology. Designer baby A designer baby is a human embryo which has been genetically modified, usually following guidelines set by the parent or

title: Rosa Beddington
text: the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, (now Cancer Research UK) laboratory in Oxford, Beddington and Elizabeth Robertson recognised the potential of embryonic stem cells for the study of genetic manipulation after demonstrating the ability of these cells to colonise developing embryos. Beddington taught at the newly established Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories summer course on manipulating the mouse embryo from 1986, including two years as co-organiser with Robertson. Beddington was the meetings secretary for the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) from 1990–95. In 1993, she established and led a Division of Mammalian Development at the National Institute for Medical Research. A