News,

The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has licensed two institutions to perform destructive research on human embryos under regulations which came into force in January of last year. The authority says that the work at the Centre for Genome Research, Edinburgh, and Guy's Hospital, London, will be concerned with embryo-development and the production of treatments for diseases. The research will be on embryos created through in vitro fertilisation rather than those produced by cloning, though the authority can now license research on the latter. [This is London, 1 March ] Researchers in Cincinnati have found that cloned mice tend to become obese in adulthood. Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, who helped create the first cloned mammal, has questioned whether any clones can be normal. [CNN, 1 March ] A significant proportion of 1,300 babies' hearts stored for decades at the Green Lane hospital, Auckland, New Zealand, were taken from aborted children without their parents' being asked or notified. [New Zealand Herald on LifeSite, 28 February ] While UK guidelines suggest that mothers are asked to consent to their aborted babies' hearts' being used for research or treatment of others, the law does not require such permission.