An Embryonic Disaster?

When Liz Shipley was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) it came as little surprise. The 36-year-old from Newcastle had lost her mother to the same condition when she was just three years old. Several other members of her family, including her sister and uncle, had died or were suffering from the muscle-wasting disease.

Ten years on and unable to walk, write or dress herself, she fears that her two teenage children will also inherit the disease. Shipley does not expect a cure in her lifetime but she backs controversial scientific research using embryos that are part-human, part-animal, which could lead to a treatment for her children if they are struck down.

“When you have an illness for which there is no cure, you have to investigate every avenue,” said Shipley. “I do not want my children to be told in 20 years’ time that they have MND and there is still no cure. I believe the answers will lie in stem cells of some kind. Hopefully this research will be able to tell us why this is happening to...