In a letter dated 7/1/19, the charity stated: “We do not fund any work that involves experimentation on human embryos and this is not a practise you would expect to be found in cancer research. We are however open to funding work involving human stem cells, including human embryonic stem cells. Stem cell research has an important role to play in investigating how cancers develop, spread and become resistant to treatment. However, the use of stem cells – in particular those obtained from human embryos – has become a controversial issue in recent years. The regulation of this area of research varies greatly from country to country, so we have adopted a funding policy we believe reflects the scientific value of human embryonic stem cells within cancer research as a whole.
“Where it is scientifically justified, we will fund research that involves the use of human embryonic stem cell lines, but we will not fund the derivation of new embryonic stem cell lines from human embryos, or any other direct use of human embryos.” [#AMRC#].