Crazy Brave New Britain just keeps pushing the envelope.

There is this news which permits the use of hybrid animal-human embryos for stem cell research, overhauling their existing science laws and policies. And clarifying that YES, embryos can be screened to produce babies to provide a “suitable” bone marrow OR “other material” for transplant into a sick sibling. Savior Siblings – Britain said, “YES”.

And then Colin McGuckin, who will be speaking May 2, 2009 at our Banking on Life conference in San Francisco, just announced his defection from Newcastle University to the University of Lyon in France. Prof. McGuckin made headline news when he was able to take umbilical cord blood stem cells and produce liver cells and his research is world class in the field of regenerative medicine with cord blood stem cells. Why is Prof. McGuckin leaving?

“Speaking exclusively to Times Higher Education, he said he was leaving because he had to put his patients and staff first. “The bottom line is my vocation is to work with patients and help patients and unfortunately I can’t do that in the UK.” He said France offered a “much better environment” both to “cure and treat more people” and to “do good work”.

He said that France had kept a “much more reasoned balance” between supporting adult and embryonic stem-cell research, unlike the UK, which had focused on embryonic research to the detriment of adult stem-cell research.”

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.