In a letter dated 20/5/19, the charity stated: “As a hospital and a medical charity, we follow the current state of the law and so not subscribe to any attempts to change it. We therefore do not have a statement on assisted dying.
“Secondly, our research does not involve the use of human embryos, and we do not provide financial support to organisations or campaigns that do.
“We do respect the rights of individuals with capacity to have their ventilation stopped, and we do have a process for determining whether patients in Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness (PDOC) should have their Clinically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration (CANH) stopped.”

In a letter dated 30/8/2018 stated that it does fund “a small amount of research using cells from human embryos”.
“We take very seriously the ethical issues involved and believe it is important that there is continuing open and informed public debate about this area of research.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 12/12/2018 this organisation stated: “I can confirm that we do not fund research involving human embryo experimentation.
“Looking to the future we are setting out on a programme of work to find a cure for osteoporosis… At present this would not entail research using human embryos, but if research was needed to get to the fundamental cause of osteoporosis then we would need to consider very carefully all the methods of how we can advance our understanding of the mechanisms of the disease.” [#AMRC#]

“The Salvation Army believes that life is a gift from God and we are answerable to God for the taking of life, whatever the circumstance. Therefore, on only certain limited grounds may a termination of pregnancy be morally acceptable. These may include:

• Where the life of the mother would be in jeopardy as a consequence of the pregnancy.
• Where reliable diagnostic procedures have determined that there is an abnormality of the foetus that is considered to be incompatible with life for more than a very brief post-natal period.

“In addition we recognise that pregnancy occurring as the result of rape presents a special case as the act that produced the pregnancy violated the whole person of the mother and the violation may be compounded by the continuation of the pregnancy.
“Whilst acknowledging the legal provision for a termination of pregnancy, the Salvation Army believes the life of the unborn child should be emphasised.”
https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/positional-statements

In a letter dated 14/5/2019, this organisation stated: “The issue of assisted dying is very complex. Individual people’s views on assisted suicide are often strongly linked to their ethical, moral and personal beliefs and their own experiences and feelings. For Samaritans, our more important consideration is that we offer non-judgemental and confidential emotional support to anyone in distress. Should someone ask about assisted dying on our helpline, our volunteers are trained to give that person the space and opportunity to discuss their thoughts and feelings without fear of repercussions. To answer your question directly, we are not currently funding any campaigns to promote assisted dying nor do we have any links to organisations that do.
“To answer your question on whether or not we support or refer women to organisations that provide sexual health services, again I would say that our support is there for anyone, regardless of their circumstances. Our volunteers are able to signpost callers to other organisations if we feel they would be more beneficial or appropriate than our helpline, however we would not be able to refer anyone directly to an organisation that provides reproductive health services. Firstly, as our helpline is confidential, we would not know where in the country the caller is phoning from. Secondly, one of our key values is for people to make their own decisions, so our volunteers would always aim to give the caller the time and space to talk about what they want to do and how they are feeling. We believe that people have the right to find their own solution and that telling people what to do takes responsibility away from them.”

In a letter dates 29/4/2019, this charity stated: “As an Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) member charity we take their lead on policies such as animal testing and genome editing in human cells. Therefore, we have not developed our own position.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 16/4/2019 this charity stated: “We don’t have a specific policy on Human Embryo use in Research, and I can confirm that no research funded to date by Sarcoma UK has involved the use of Human Embryo (sic). In line with our membership of the Association of Medical Research Charity (sic), we use a peer review college of academics, clinicians and scientists to scrutinise and assess the best proposals…” [#AMRC#]

In an undated letter received in 2019, this charity stated: “Whilst Shelter would try and help anyone who comes to us for assistance where we can, we don’t have any services directly focused on women’s reproductive health but if we could, we would try and help link them in with appropriate services where possible.”
More research is needed to find out exactly which services Shelter would refer women to.

In a letter dated 20/3/2019 the Chief Executive of this charity stated: “I can … confirm that the National Eye Research Centre funds early stage, fundamental scientific research where the use of embryonic stem cells does largely not apply. To date, we have not funded such research and we are not likely to fund it in the future.”
The National Eye Research Centre “Policy on funding research making use of embryonic stem cells” states: “The National Eye Research Centre funds research carried out in universities and other research institutions across the UK which abide by the guidelines issued by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 18/12/2018, this charity stated: “We do not carry out any sort of research, regardless of involvement with human embryos. This is not an area of work which forms part of our aims or strategy. There are, however, other organisations who do special in this area of research and, naturally, we do welcome any progress that is made in that field.”

In a letter dated 19/12/2018, this charity stated: “Spinal research is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities… We follow their guidance and best practice as part of our membership and adhere to their policies on medical research.
“Cell lines such as those derived from embryos, are subject to strict regulation under European and UK law. Their use under appropriate regulatory and ethical control has the potential to bring about significant medical advances, particularly in tissue repair. Given this potential, Spinal Research would consider funding projects that required the inclusion of the cells in research that had undergone robust scientific and ethical review. We recognise that this is an issue that stimulates strong views.
“At the time of writing Spinal Research doesn’t fund projects that involve human embryonic cells.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 15/4/2019, this charity stated: “… we don’t do any research that related to human embryo experimentation, or support any organisations involved in it, so we do not have a policy that relates to the topic.
“We work solely with parents who are living with spinal cord injury to help understand, prevent and better treat the secondary complications of spinal cord injury such a pressure sore, urinary tract infections and pain.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 20/12/2018, this charity stated: “Sue Ryder recognises that Assisted Dying is a complex subject and we are sensitive to both sides of the debate. However, our position on these matters is always guided by the law, which currently states that Assisted Dying is not legal in the United Kingdom.”

In a letter received in December 2018, the Director of Communications at this charity stated: “I can clarify that Target Ovarian Cancer does not fund research that uses human embryos. We fund gold-standard research at universities across the UK – the universities may participate in unrelated research that use human embryos, but the research projects we fund do not.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 20/12/2018 the Head of Research at this charity stated: “…to the very best of my knowledge, we do not currently fund any research using human embryos nor do we directly support other organisations that do.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 8/4/ 2019, this charity stated: “Our position on assisted dying is that it is a very personal thing and we would never use any donation to campaign for it, neither do we work with organisations whose objective it is to campaign for assisted dying.
“None of the projects we are sponsoring or have sponsored have used human embryos. We do not support other organisations with any research activity. Research into dementia usually uses donations from brain banks in their research.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 24/5/19, the charity stated: “The Urology foundation is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities and we subscribe to their policies on animal experimentation and tissue experimentation in research.”
The letter then lists the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations 2001 on what conditions have to be met to carry out research using human embryos.
The letter concludes: “As with all the scientific research we fund, stem cell research will be funded on merit and scientific excellence after rigorous peer review and in line with the current legal and regulatory framework. Should we fund such research, we would expect our TUF- funded researchers to conduct stem-cell research according to high ethical standards. We recognise the complexity of ongoing legal, ethical, social and scientific developments in relation to human embryonic stem cells and we will continue to monitor and develop our policies in this area.”

In a letter dated 1/5/2019, this charity stated: “…we do not have a policy on human embryo experimentation. This is not an issue that has arisen so far and I would imagine won’t in the foreseeable future. The research we are currently supporting only involves research where children or adults are involved usually asking them questions or asking them to complete a survey. Sometimes they are asked to have a brain scan – but apart from that we have no links with research involving human embryo experimentation.” [#AMRC#]

Donations to this charity are used “to support the network of over 420 food banks across the UK”. In a letter received in 2019, this charity stated: “We do not have a policy specifically on reproductive health services. Some of our food banks may have links to organisations in the local area who work with women’s health services. However, we do not hold this information centrally.”

In a letter dated 21/12/2018 this charity stated: “We are committed to delivering high-quality research and champion the impact that research can have on improving the lives of people living with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC). As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), we support the view of the AMRC that the ethical issues surrounding human embryo experimentation must be considered when looking to fund research of this kind.” [#AMRC#]

In a letter dated 27/11/2018 stated: “Our focus is on studies that are directly relevant to cancer prevention in humans. The creation of human-animal embryos is a long way from the type of research that World Cancer Research Fund UK would consider supporting.” [#AMRC#]

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#].