Women undergoing IVF to donate eggs for stem cell research in return for reduced treatment costs
Thursday 13 September 2007
The MRC is to fund a research proposal from a team at the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) for a project to find ways of improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning – a technique which would allow scientists to create patient-specific stem cells and develop regenerative therapies for many debilitating conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease.
This project will involve the MRC reimbursing part of the treatment costs of women undergoing IVF at the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life and who choose to donate some of the surplus eggs produced to be used in the research.
The proposal, submitted by Professor Alison Murdoch and Dr Mary Herbert, was deemed ethically acceptable by the MRC Council following advice from the MRC’s Ethics Policy Advisory Committee. While there are ethical issues in providing payment for treatment of people who are participating in research, and this is not normally MRC policy, in this case the women would be taking no additional risks to their health by providing surplus eggs for research. In addition, it was accepted that this would be the only approach that could provide the number of human eggs necessary for this ground-breaking research. A number of conditions are tied to the research going ahead. As well as ensuring that all the right safeguards are in place to protect participants, the MRC decided that there should be an independent social science study undertaken alongside it in order to learn from women’s experiences and to inform future research involving egg donation and payment of IVF treatment costs.
The research plans had already been licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK body with the formal responsibility for licensing such work, and had received local ethics committee approval.
“Earlier this year, the Medical Research Council’s Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board approved Professor Murdoch’s research grant application, pending consideration of the ethical issues involved, particularly the proposal that women who wished to share their eggs for research should be reimbursed part of the costs of their treatment. On the face of it, this decision was counter to the Council’s policy on payment for participation in research. However, the MRC Council has recognised this as an exceptional case,” said Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the MRC.
“We acknowledge there are a lot of uncertainties about women’s attitudes to egg-sharing but, rather than delay important research to improve the efficiency of therapeutic cloning until such information is available, the MRC will fund the accompanying social science study,” added Professor Blakemore.
It is important to stress that the present proposal by Professor Murdoch is extremely unusual for several reasons, and the MRC regards this as a special case that should not establish a precedent for other cases, even if they appear similar.
“All embryonic stem cell research is fraught with ethical considerations. A recent survey conducted by the HFEA has shown that when the potential of this research is spelt out to the public, people are largely supportive. It is our hope that our cautious and reflective approach will continue to assist public understanding of the science and the ethical issues involved,” said Professor Genevra Richardson, who sits on the MRC Council and chairs the MRC Ethics and Policy Advisory Committee.
Notes:
1. Women who are looking for more information on egg sharing should visit www.nesci.ac.uk.
2. Therapeutic cloning: Cell nuclear replacement is a technique where the nucleus of a cell containing the genetic information one is attempting to reproduce is inserted into an egg. This egg is then stimulated to divide until a group of cells form. When this is done for research purposes it is often referred to as human therapeutic cloning.
Although the initial steps in both reproductive and therapeutic cloning are the same, subsequent steps and the underlying purpose could not be more different. With therapeutic cloning the nucleus of an adult cell, for example a skin cell, from a patient with a condition such as Parkinson’s disease, would be inserted into a human egg which has had its nucleus removed. When the cloned embryo reached the blastocyst stage, ES cells would be derived from the inner cell mass. (The blatocyst stage at which human Embryonic Stem Cells may be derived constitutes an embryo no bigger than a pin head, and is much earlier than the 14-day cut off point after which embryos must be destroyed (the HFE Act).) These cells would be grown in the laboratory and induced to differentiate into the precise cells needed, for example, into dopamine-producing neurones, which are lacking in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Although much research still needs to be undertaken, this form of stem cell therapy could provide new cells, likely to be genetically identical to the patient, with a greatly reduced risk of rejection, a common problem in any form of transplant operation.
The Newcastle team has attempted this procedure before with permission from the HFEA and women undergoing routine gynaecological procedures and from existing stem cell lines.
It is forbidden under UK law to re-implant such embryos - therefore the procedure can only be used to generate new stem cell lines.
3. The grant will meet the £1500 of the IVF costs of the egg donor (usually around £3,000) and be paid directly to the NHS Trust. The final bill for treatment sent to the donor will be reduced accordingly. £150,000 has been awarded to meet these costs. The research award to Newcastle University is £470,000. A further £290,000 was awarded for the social science study also at Newcastle University.
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