France to Review Stem Cell Guidelines

Scientists in France are today expected to receive clearer guidance on stem cell research.

The general director of the Agence de Biomédicin, Carine Camby, is due to flesh out details contained in France’s 2004 Bioethics Act at a meeting of stem cell scientists in Paris.

Under the act, scientists were, for the first time, given permission to conduct research on embryos for a trial period of five years as long as they adhered to strict guidelines. Research can only be carried out on surplus embryos from IVF treatment and scientists have to show that their work can lead to important advances and not be achieved by other means. Researchers also need to get permission from couples to use their embryos.

The act, while a significant loosening of the rules for a country that has always been more conservative than the UK in this field, is regarded by many scientists as unclear and too restrictive.

On Friday, members of the International Stem Cell Forum will meet in Paris for their annual conference. The meeting comes just days after Seoul National University in South Korea announced that its top stem cell scientist had faked his research.

Hwang Woo-suk had claimed to have cloned human embryonic stem cells. But in a report published on Tuesday, the university said he had no evidence to back up his research.

The university did, however, uphold his claim that he had created the world’s first cloned dog. Earlier this week, in Britain, the director of the Medical Research Council’s clinical sciences centre, Christopher Higgins, described the fraud revelation as a "minor blip in the scientific process".

He remained confident that what Dr Hwang claimed to have done would be achieved.

"People are overexcited by what’s happened in South Korea. It was a case of one maverick in science faking data," said Prof Higgins.

"It’s high profile but it has not set science back."

The UK, with its more liberal laws on stem cell research, has already had significant experimental success, with scientists at Newcastle University having successfully produced a cloned embryo using donated eggs and genetic material from stem cells.

Prof Higgins said British scientists had every chance of achieving what Dr Hwang had claimed to have done, but explained that research in this field was an international endeavor. "In one way, it doesn’t matter where and how [results are achieved] as long as [they are] reliable," he said.