Spain: new stem cell R&D (research and development) blow
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The Spanish governing Partido Popular party has succeeded in rejecting a bill proposed by the main opposition party, the PSOE, to allow embryonic stem cell research for therapeutic purposes. The PSOE was calling on the government to allow the use of embryos stored for IVF for longer than the prescribed five-year limit, as proposed by the European Science Foundation. There are an estimated 40,000 embryos that fall in this category. The main stumbling block in the debate is the method by which the stem cells might be obtained, ie by using embryos left over from IVF treatment storage, or by "cloning" embryos for research purposes.