CGS-authored
At what point should a scientist stop doing experiments on a human embryo in a Petri dish?
For decades, the answer has been clear: 14 days after fertilization. The cutoff is protected by law in 12 countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, and by scientific guideline in five others, including the United States.
But the discussion has been a moot point because no lab had ever succeeded at growing human embryos past nine days.
On Wednesday, though, two different research teams reported a scientific first: watching embryos develop in the lab all the way to the two-week mark.
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“Maybe the 14-day rule should be changed. But who gets to make the rules and who gets to decide when it’s time to remake them?” said Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit in Berkeley, Calif.
She said that the decision needs to be more inclusive of disability rights groups and racial justice organizations, and that it can’t just be “a few advisory bodies that are representative of no one and that...