News,

30 November 2012

Dear supporter,

An important consultation, by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), will close next Friday (7 December) on the genetic manipulation of embryos with mitochondrial defects. Researchers want to create human embryos in the laboratory that have genes from one man and two women. Alternatively they want to make a new embryos by combining two IVF embryos. This would extend the scope for destructive exploitation of human embryos, and in particular for more genetic experimentation on embryos, including human cloning.

These processes reinforce the attitude that human embryos are things to be used, not early human beings. Embryos will increasingly be treated as mere commodities, ripe for commercial exploitation, and denied their proper status and respect as members of the human family.

Please respond urgently to the consultation. We have produced a briefing with simple points that can be made in response to this important issue:

http://www.spuc.org.uk/campaigns/alerts/2012/mitochondria20121130

Please make a submission by going online and submitting your responses at: http://mitochondria.hfea.gov.uk/mitochondria

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