WIKIMEDIA, NISSIM BENVENISTYSince a July 2009 order from President Barack Obama, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has approved nearly 200 new human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines for federal funding—a move that was touted as a boon for stem cell research. But according to a review of the newly approved hESC lines, they may not all be up to the NIH’s ethical standards, with some possibly being derived from sperm or egg donors who did not give proper consent for the use of their biological material in research, ScienceInsider reported.
The NIH guidelines that resulted from President Obama’s executive order state that to be approved for federal funding, hESC lines must be derived from embryos left over from fertility treatments and other medical procedures, and donated—with full consent—by couples who created them. But some such embryos were not created by the couples themselves, but by egg and sperm donors, who may not have agreed for their materials to be used in research—an issue the NIH guidelines fail to address. Last year, a survey conducted by Rockefeller University research administrators highlighted this gap, noting that many in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics don’t inform egg donors of the possibility that their eggs could be used in research.
Tracking down the gamete source for nearly 200 NIH-approved hESC ...
