International opposition grows to UK’s three-parent embryos
Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which was in plenary session last week in Strasbourg, have adopted a “written declaration” severely criticising the British government’s plans to allow the genetic engineering of human embryos with three genetic parents.
If such a measure were approved by Parliament, it would be the first time that a government had given a green light to the deliberate modification of the human genome and the creation of children with three parents.
This is a very welcome intervention on the subject as it comes following enthusiastic assent to germline procedures from the UK’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. It is in the light of the enthusiasm of these bodies that the UK Government is currently considering allowing the creation of three-parent embryos to go ahead.
Yet the support the written declaration has received should give the Government pause for thought.
Thirty-four parliamentarians from 13 of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, an international body charged with upholding human rights and ethical standards and responsible for the running of the European Court of Human Rights, have signed in opposition to “The Creation of Embryos with Genetic Material from More than Two Progenitor Persons”.
The declaration cites various international texts — including the UNESCO Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. All of these prohibit practices that would introduce inheritable changes into the human gene line. The Declaration concludes that:
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